[Thankful]
God I am so grateful to you. What you put into motion this weekend was a beautiful thing. The act of describing all that unfolded is a great one, but I will do my best because I want to give the glory back to You in this way.
I just got back from a Young Life Leader Retreat (Jan 24-26th, 2014) at Camp Nakamun. 185 leaders from all over the Western Region came together to share in the joy of what God is doing through Young Life. It was a time of refreshment, beautiful beautiful worship music, drawing close to God, sharing our hearts and our struggles, learning, equipping, and experiencing joyful community. A team of nine volunteer leaders, including myself, journeyed from Slave Lake to see what God had in store for us this weekend. When I was praying before the trip, God gave me this image that this weekend was like a big wrapped gift and that He had so much to give to us - so much that we could take from this retreat.
[To go or not go?]
In my life, and probably in yours, whenever God is about to do something awesome - I get sideswiped with an obstacle. Sometimes it is a feeling of apathy that clouds my intrigue in what God has to say to me. Other times, something else requires my attention and I wrestle with the notion of passing up God's thing for that. I believe this to be a spiritual attack and the way that I seem to experience spiritual attacks before Young Life trips or events, is through a sickness. It comes out of nowhere, and the doubts start pouring in about whether or not I should participate. Luckily, in the past I have usually been main leader, and so I HAD to persevere and go regardless of whatever pain I was in. This trip was different - this was something I COULD have backed out of. It was a team of adults and they didn't "need" me to carry through on this retreat. But the beauty of this sickness was that God had actually prepared me mentally the week before to handle it.
[The context]
You see, for the past week or so, God had been stripping away my sense of dependency. My dependency on people for when I was feeling low, my dependency on TV shows and internet to distract me from feeling lonely, my dependency on my role in YL to make me feel valued and important. In a spell of a couple days - I experienced such a strong fear of loneliness - a fear that I had been blocking out and watering down by relying on distractions to fill my time. But when those distractions dried up - I was forced to face just how independent I had become in my relationship to God. It was a really hard realization but oh so good. And when I was hit with this bout of sickness - I was suddenly challenged to put into practice that realization and depend fully on God.
I KNEW that this retreat was a gift that God intended for me. I KNEW this sickness was not from God but an attack to make me doubt in God. But INSTEAD, I chose to cling to scripture. I couldn't take medication - my stomach was too sensitive. All I could do was pray. I felt like Job (on a much smaller scale) - and I decided to praise God in spite of how I felt. I still battled the idea of going to the retreat - not because of being sick - but because I didn't want to get anyone sick. God GAVE me the strength and determination to praise and trust Him in spite of how I felt. After wrestling back and forth with the decision, I decided whatever God had in store was just too good to pass up, and so I decided to go.
[Friday, Jan. 24th]
We arrived Friday evening at Camp Nakamun, walked into the lobby and there were a sea of smiling people. Something I love about Young Life is once you've connected with someone at a Young Life gathering - doesn't matter if it was a year or summer ago, the community is so strong, you feel instantly welcomed back in. It is an inclusive ministry - whether you are brand new to Young Life or have been around the block, as a teen, leader, staff, parent of a YL kid, or committee member.
After a few hilarious mixers (watching people try to stomp on each others' feet, imitate eggs, chickens, dinosaurs, and royalty) we were welcomed into the chapel to start the night's program.
[Worship]
The worship band was a mixture of leaders from different areas - with the lead singer - Chris - from Calgary. When they started to play the very first song, the feeling for me was incredible. You know when it's been a long hard day, and you are feeling parched and your throat is dry. You take a sip of clear crystal water and it feels like the best thing you've ever tasted. You suddenly realize just how thirsty you are and you just want to drink it in? That is how the worship at the YL retreat was for me.
Worship is something (that when done well) brings me right into the embrace of God. I can feel Jesus' presence so clearly through worship.
I have been thirsting for this kind of worship since I moved to Slave Lake. It was powerful, beautiful, amazing and I was drinking it all in. I could feel God's presence so strongly through the lyrics, and the music, and the Holy Spirit moving in that chapel. I began to cry as I sang - I was so thankful for God. I had walked into that chapel feeling fatigued, sick, drained, at a loss for joy and God just met me right where I was. I didn't have to muster up a false energy, I was able to just worship God with all of my heart and I felt that I was in His embrace so strongly. I could not keep my hands down - I just wanted to praise God with all of my being. A thought honestly went through my mind that if this was my last day to live - that I felt complete. Whole. Made new. Full. That is not a feeling you can just conjure up on your own. It was a God-given one and it was the beginning of the gift that He had in store this weekend.
[Speaker: Christine Woods]
Christine Woods got up to speak and let me just say how much I admire this woman. She is humble, funny, smart, kind, and incredibly passionate about her love for Jesus, her family, and Young Life.
This is what I took from what she shared...
-Her friend challenged her that she was living a lie. She did not understand and she felt angry with her friend because she felt she was so busy doing lots for God and her family and friends. She asked God if this was true?
God gave her 2 truths. He showed her that at one point in her life, she was running around in circles and too busy for 2 things:
1) being still before God
2) transformation through God renewing her mind
-Story of Martha and Mary- Luke 10:38-42
Jesus comes to visit and Martha is running around getting things ready and doing everything for Jesus whilst Mary is just sitting at his feet listening.
Christine pointed out - nowadays we don't sit at people's feet (it's kind of awkward). But if you were to sit at someone's feet, you would be really close to that person - you would be committed to hearing what they are saying. You would be engaged.
Martha walked up to Jesus and said "Lord, don't you care that I am doing everything by myself. Tell Mary to help me!" (vs. 40)
Jesus' response was "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed - or indeed, only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her." (vs. 41-42)
1) Jesus says only one thing is essential (vs. 42)
2) Jesus has Mary's full attention
Christine read a quote about what it means to pay attention. It means to be fully present in the moment - so much so that you experience things to a much deeper level.
[Small groups]
After the talk, each area got together to discuss questions. These were the first questions and the answers that our SL team came up with:
1) Why do we glorify being busy so much?
-sense of success
-don't want to appear lazy
-want to seem like we have important things to do
-a way to not have to engage with people/care about what is going on with them (i.e "How are you?" "Busy" = end of a conversation).
2) What distracts you? What's the biggest distraction in your life?
-people
-fb
-phone
-sleep
-always thinking
-feeling tired
-making up lists of things we need to get done
3) How would your life look different if God had your full attention?
- be more at peace - less stressed
- would be able to give more - probably wouldn't be as distracted
-probably would be healthier lifestyle wise - wouldn't be rushing from one thing to the next
-might be used by God in more ways - because of being open to His direction more
All in all - Day 1 was a really great start to the retreat. Thank you God for the first part of this gift.
God I am so grateful to you. What you put into motion this weekend was a beautiful thing. The act of describing all that unfolded is a great one, but I will do my best because I want to give the glory back to You in this way.
I just got back from a Young Life Leader Retreat (Jan 24-26th, 2014) at Camp Nakamun. 185 leaders from all over the Western Region came together to share in the joy of what God is doing through Young Life. It was a time of refreshment, beautiful beautiful worship music, drawing close to God, sharing our hearts and our struggles, learning, equipping, and experiencing joyful community. A team of nine volunteer leaders, including myself, journeyed from Slave Lake to see what God had in store for us this weekend. When I was praying before the trip, God gave me this image that this weekend was like a big wrapped gift and that He had so much to give to us - so much that we could take from this retreat.
[To go or not go?]
In my life, and probably in yours, whenever God is about to do something awesome - I get sideswiped with an obstacle. Sometimes it is a feeling of apathy that clouds my intrigue in what God has to say to me. Other times, something else requires my attention and I wrestle with the notion of passing up God's thing for that. I believe this to be a spiritual attack and the way that I seem to experience spiritual attacks before Young Life trips or events, is through a sickness. It comes out of nowhere, and the doubts start pouring in about whether or not I should participate. Luckily, in the past I have usually been main leader, and so I HAD to persevere and go regardless of whatever pain I was in. This trip was different - this was something I COULD have backed out of. It was a team of adults and they didn't "need" me to carry through on this retreat. But the beauty of this sickness was that God had actually prepared me mentally the week before to handle it.
[The context]
You see, for the past week or so, God had been stripping away my sense of dependency. My dependency on people for when I was feeling low, my dependency on TV shows and internet to distract me from feeling lonely, my dependency on my role in YL to make me feel valued and important. In a spell of a couple days - I experienced such a strong fear of loneliness - a fear that I had been blocking out and watering down by relying on distractions to fill my time. But when those distractions dried up - I was forced to face just how independent I had become in my relationship to God. It was a really hard realization but oh so good. And when I was hit with this bout of sickness - I was suddenly challenged to put into practice that realization and depend fully on God.
I KNEW that this retreat was a gift that God intended for me. I KNEW this sickness was not from God but an attack to make me doubt in God. But INSTEAD, I chose to cling to scripture. I couldn't take medication - my stomach was too sensitive. All I could do was pray. I felt like Job (on a much smaller scale) - and I decided to praise God in spite of how I felt. I still battled the idea of going to the retreat - not because of being sick - but because I didn't want to get anyone sick. God GAVE me the strength and determination to praise and trust Him in spite of how I felt. After wrestling back and forth with the decision, I decided whatever God had in store was just too good to pass up, and so I decided to go.
[Friday, Jan. 24th]
We arrived Friday evening at Camp Nakamun, walked into the lobby and there were a sea of smiling people. Something I love about Young Life is once you've connected with someone at a Young Life gathering - doesn't matter if it was a year or summer ago, the community is so strong, you feel instantly welcomed back in. It is an inclusive ministry - whether you are brand new to Young Life or have been around the block, as a teen, leader, staff, parent of a YL kid, or committee member.
After a few hilarious mixers (watching people try to stomp on each others' feet, imitate eggs, chickens, dinosaurs, and royalty) we were welcomed into the chapel to start the night's program.
[Worship]
The worship band was a mixture of leaders from different areas - with the lead singer - Chris - from Calgary. When they started to play the very first song, the feeling for me was incredible. You know when it's been a long hard day, and you are feeling parched and your throat is dry. You take a sip of clear crystal water and it feels like the best thing you've ever tasted. You suddenly realize just how thirsty you are and you just want to drink it in? That is how the worship at the YL retreat was for me.
Worship is something (that when done well) brings me right into the embrace of God. I can feel Jesus' presence so clearly through worship.
I have been thirsting for this kind of worship since I moved to Slave Lake. It was powerful, beautiful, amazing and I was drinking it all in. I could feel God's presence so strongly through the lyrics, and the music, and the Holy Spirit moving in that chapel. I began to cry as I sang - I was so thankful for God. I had walked into that chapel feeling fatigued, sick, drained, at a loss for joy and God just met me right where I was. I didn't have to muster up a false energy, I was able to just worship God with all of my heart and I felt that I was in His embrace so strongly. I could not keep my hands down - I just wanted to praise God with all of my being. A thought honestly went through my mind that if this was my last day to live - that I felt complete. Whole. Made new. Full. That is not a feeling you can just conjure up on your own. It was a God-given one and it was the beginning of the gift that He had in store this weekend.
[Speaker: Christine Woods]
Christine Woods got up to speak and let me just say how much I admire this woman. She is humble, funny, smart, kind, and incredibly passionate about her love for Jesus, her family, and Young Life.
This is what I took from what she shared...
-Her friend challenged her that she was living a lie. She did not understand and she felt angry with her friend because she felt she was so busy doing lots for God and her family and friends. She asked God if this was true?
God gave her 2 truths. He showed her that at one point in her life, she was running around in circles and too busy for 2 things:
1) being still before God
2) transformation through God renewing her mind
-Story of Martha and Mary- Luke 10:38-42
Jesus comes to visit and Martha is running around getting things ready and doing everything for Jesus whilst Mary is just sitting at his feet listening.
Christine pointed out - nowadays we don't sit at people's feet (it's kind of awkward). But if you were to sit at someone's feet, you would be really close to that person - you would be committed to hearing what they are saying. You would be engaged.
Martha walked up to Jesus and said "Lord, don't you care that I am doing everything by myself. Tell Mary to help me!" (vs. 40)
Jesus' response was "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed - or indeed, only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her." (vs. 41-42)
1) Jesus says only one thing is essential (vs. 42)
2) Jesus has Mary's full attention
Christine read a quote about what it means to pay attention. It means to be fully present in the moment - so much so that you experience things to a much deeper level.
[Small groups]
After the talk, each area got together to discuss questions. These were the first questions and the answers that our SL team came up with:
1) Why do we glorify being busy so much?
-sense of success
-don't want to appear lazy
-want to seem like we have important things to do
-a way to not have to engage with people/care about what is going on with them (i.e "How are you?" "Busy" = end of a conversation).
2) What distracts you? What's the biggest distraction in your life?
-people
-fb
-phone
-sleep
-always thinking
-feeling tired
-making up lists of things we need to get done
3) How would your life look different if God had your full attention?
- be more at peace - less stressed
- would be able to give more - probably wouldn't be as distracted
-probably would be healthier lifestyle wise - wouldn't be rushing from one thing to the next
-might be used by God in more ways - because of being open to His direction more
All in all - Day 1 was a really great start to the retreat. Thank you God for the first part of this gift.
