I think I've finally caught up on sleep from this weekend's retreat! That means it's time to blog about it!
We had an awesome time-if you weren't able to come you missed out on some cool stuff. (This is where you feel sad for not coming). Although we had a blast with our free time, I'll save those stories for later. I want to use this post to rewind and take a second look (or first look for those of you who didn't make it) at our three Pause sessions.
Session One: What are your Worries?
Josh led a great first session. He challenged the group to think hard about what they worry about and why they worry about it. Do you worry about school, sports, dating, work, family? Can you really put your finger on why you worry about those things. On top of all of that, how much time do you think you spend worrying? In the long run, doesn't worrying about everything just make you feel busy and stressed out all the time?
Matthew 6:25-34 puts worrying into a great deal of perspective for us. Check it out. I think it really challenges us to re-think what worrying is. For example, if you don't have the trendiest clothes-do you worry about it? What about having a great meal every night? I think we need to re-think our needs and this will help us re-think our worries!
Session Two: Look for Truth
I got a chance to lead this session and loved doing it. It is one of my favorite topics. During this session I challenged the students to think of worry in a new way. I challenged them to realize that we simply cannot worry about things that have already happened! You only worry about things that might happen (or not happen).
Instead of thinking about the possible or potential, I challenged the students to think about the truth. Now I'm not talking about things that are true or real. I'm talking about truth. Check out John 14:6 to find out what truth is. It is Christ. Christ is truth.
I really believe that God calls us to seek truth, not seek worry. James 1:17 tells us that every good and perfect thing comes from God. Have you ever thought of how many things this contains? Think of all the good and perfect things in this world. Think of love, creation of new life, the billion shades of green during the spring! God has given us so many good, perfect things. God is showing us truth through this. Do you ever pause to recognize that.
Have times changed? At one point God came to Moses in a burning bush (that wasn't burning down-odd huh?). A lot of times we assume that God doesn't show us His presence and His truth like this anymore. I think He does. I just think that we don't pause to recognize it.
More often than not I think we pause to recognize things that either haven't happened yet (worry) or things that are real rather than true. For instance, families splitting up is real-but is it truth? Cancer destroying a loved one's life is real-but is it truth? I wonder if we pause to often to worry about stress about things, but we forget to pause to recognize God's truth throughout this world.
After Session Two we gave the students three chances to pause to recognize God's truth. We challenged them at each Pause to really look for God. We stressed that God was already there. You do not have to bring God somewhere. Click here to read more about that.
Our Pause locations were at Lake Springfield, White Oaks Mall, and a small park where we played kickball. At all of those places students really began to see that if you simple take the time to pause, to stop worrying and stressing, and to truly look for God you will find Him in loads of ways.
Here are some of the ways students said they saw God:
- The beautiful reflection of the sun on the lake
- The billions of leaves on the forest floor
- God's beautiful creation of animals in the forest
- An elderly couple holding hands as they walked through the mall
- A child's smile as he road on the carousel
- A newly engaged couple shopping for wedding bands
- A Kenyan man selling hand-made goods for a non-for-profit ministry
- A group of friends having fun at the park
- A friendly game of kickball
- Cheering on your friends even when they stink at the game
- Ayla kicking the game winning home-run
- New friendships forming at the park
Session Three: Love
This last session was the challenge session. How do we get ourselves to Pause? What do we do to Pause? Because here's the deal-we don't have a youth retreat every weekend that forces us to pause! We have real lives. We have school. We have work. The challenge during this session was this: Love God and love your neighbors.
You see, when we pause and recognize that God is truth and recognize that His truth exists all over the place we are loving Him-we are glorifying Him. It is the way that He has called us to live! Christ says in Matthew 22 that we are to love God and love our neighbors. This is how we are supposed to live. How do we do it? We pause. We recognize God is out there. We recognize that God is with us. We recognize that God has given us so many awesome truths. This is how we can love Him. This is how we can love our neighbors-show others the truth of God.
If you missed this weekend-you missed a great opportunity to Pause and see that God is truth. You haven't missed your chance though. God wants us to do this everyday. Take some time right now and pause. Take some time to recognize the truth that is right in front of you. Don't think you have the time? Trust me, you're wrong. At the retreat this weekend we paused for over three hours in one day. You have the time-just stop worrying about it.
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