This update is going to be talking about what went down during project day #3 of LT 2013.
To recap, this is what project days are all about here in Virginia Beach during LT. Project days, in a nutshell, are essentially the backbone of why we have all come here together. Project days are complete days where every person in the program (all 45 students) have off from work to come together, be instructed, develop our faith even more through personal experiences, teachings, discussions, and even practical application of what we are learning about while we are here. Though we do a lot with our main session meetings and working our full time jobs, the project days are definitely the most important and also usually the most memorable experiences of the summer because it's done with all of us together. Jesus really moves in these times.
The first two weeks the project days were focused on the idea of evangelism, sharing the story of Jesus with others and also sharing our personal stories with them. Both are crucial! And it's a good thing to look into first, because while we're in the workplace this is what we are doing every day with our words, our deeds, our examples, and our lives in general. The third week marked the beginning of the second main part of the summer: developing our personal walks with the Lord.
Honestly, this is probably my favorite part of the summer, and I will tell you why.
Since becoming a Christian in February 2009, one of the main things that I have always struggled with is making my personal faith and devotion the most important thing in my life. Though I am very involved with my church, have gone to main services and been a part of my house church for three years, and have done Memphis mission trips and men's retreats every year, something that they all have in common is they are very much community. I'm not saying that community is a bad thing at all. It's one of my favorite things about my spiritual walk, because my brothers and sisters know how to keep me on the path that I am following. But sometimes, one of my greatest downfalls is that I rely upon them too much and not enough on God himself. So, I always enjoy experiences that allow me to truly embrace Him for who He is and ultimately what He did: giving his one and only Son, that whoever believes him shall not perish but gain eternal life (John 3:16). And with that in mind, I love having chances to develop my relationship with Him as not only a Father. He is a brother, a friend, and a King. He's amazing, and personal devotion is a very personal one-on-one opportunity to really see his work and his power within.
Anyways, that's the gist of where we are going with this part of the summer.
To begin this project day, we met on the beach (I know...shocking.) We were lead by Josh Zolman and Ryan Hartsook in yet another story. Remember the first posts I made? During the opening ceremonies, we were informed about the first part of the Driftwood Diaries. This morning was a continuation of that with part 2 of the series. It was a story of a man and his wife, and the struggles that they faced as they went through a tough life riddled with miscommunication and lack of desire. It was a spoof of the movie "Fireproof", and it showed us ultimately all of the things that make relationships with people really hard to have. In this story, the man struggles with everything that pulls him away from the love of his life. He deals with drugs, he falls into gambling, and struggles with an addiction to pornography. Ultimately, his story hits rock bottom when his wife doesn't even want to speak to him. They separate, think through what they really desire in life, and it ends with a revelation that separation from his wife is something that he doesn't want to live with. So he makes a change in his life to run from the things that so quickly entangled him in a life marked with difficulty.
Ultimately, this message showed us a picture of what our relationship with God looks like. God wants us to be devoted to him, to spend time with him, to love him for who he is and what he has to offer our lives. But when we run from him, rebel against him, and struggle with finding worth in other things (drugs, alcohol, pornography, etc.), our hearts slowly start to break and his heart breaks FOR us. God desires relationship and communion with him, and we can't have that with him if we run from him to live in the things that bring us a very temporary pleasure in this life on earth. God values relationship, and because of that we should desire that same thing.
So we had some time with the Lord to really hash out what some of the hard things in our life are. The rest of the day would be devoted to discussing different things in our life that can be very practical steps toward engaging with those things instead of running. During our time of solitude (this week two hours) we were asked to think about and try and answer these following questions for ourselves:
1) What's missing in my walk with the Lord?
2) Where in life do I have a real need for God?
3) What would it take to make my relationship with God more personal?
4) Is there anything in my life that's putting a wedge between me and the Lord?
5) What would I like to hear God say to me?
That was a lot of questions to try and answer honestly in such a short time. Something I've learned from all of the times I have had with the Lord is that they fly by. It seems to take no time at all to sit back and enjoy the presence of the Lord, to seek him, to read His Word, and to try and just reflect and pray about life. And since they fly by, I guess that means I'm having fun. Which I am!
Time flies by when you're having fun, and time flies while spending time with the Lord. So that means that for me, spending time with the Lord is fun. It can be really hard sometimes, but it is one of the most exhilarating parts of my life. That's where I've learned the most about myself and Him through me.
I will be honest in saying that I was not able to really in depth think about all of the questions, but I did eventually (more to come in future posts). I did think a lot about numbers two, number three, and number 5. Amidst thinking about these questions, I was also reading the Word for encouragement and also looking into a book I have been reading called the Attributes of God by A.W. Tozer. For anyone who wants to see a more in-depth look of who God really is from personal experience, I highly recommend this book.
While reading, I came across a couple of verses in some Psalms I was reading that really touched my heart during this time.
"Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him. In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, SEARCH YOUR HEARTS AND BE SILENT. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone O Lord, make me dwell in safety." -Psalm 4:3-4, 7-8
I love this section, because it tells us so much about what to do when things get hard. This shows God's heart in some very powerful ways. The Lord is near to all who draw near to Him, and in times of great difficulty we are asked to draw near to him. He will hear us. We have to experience the Lord by letting him in to the hard places and root ourselves in his love instead of rooting ourselves in other things.
When I thought about the questions at hand, I realized that (in light of what I just discussed before) that one of the main things that I miss in my life with the Lord is simply time spent with him. So many things in my life take the front seat and God falls behind, and if it's anything I've learned that's the first major problem in itself. I love devotionals and times with the Lord, but when things get hectic they don't happen as much, which makes things really difficult and even enhances the difficulty of the things I face in my life, and the struggles I have. More time with the Lord would also make my relationship even more personal, because God would be less of a distant figure in many instances and be more like a friend in most circumstances (which he already is!).
The last question I thought about was the last one. If I could have God tell me anything right at this moment, it would just be that he understands. I think a lot of times, when I lack devotion or time with God I start to not really listen anymore for what he is really trying to communicate to me in my life. Sometimes I just really wish that I could hear God more clearly. Ultimately, I just want to have a greater understanding of the Father's heart towards me, and to know that he is there even in the hard times. He has proven that he is, but sometimes I fail to realize that.
Later that afternoon, we were able to break into our small groups. As mentioned before, life groups are small four or five person squads that get together to go deeper with each other during this entire summer. This time was designated to be a little longer, so that we could discuss the very stuff that we attempted to wrestle with during our morning with the Lord. This time, we just got to go into it together. I would share what we talked about, but that would be breaking confidentiality amongst each other, and that's just not something that I want to do, but needless to say it was a good solid bonding time. :) I say that because we went to a really awesome coffee shop called Badass Coffee Co. (which is literally a picture of a really cool looking donkey). I got a nice Monkey Madness latte consisting of banana and caramel flavoring.
The afternoon section of project day #3 consisted of focus on the different spiritual disciplines that Christians involved in their faith should know more about. We decided to have a variety of staff-led discussions over four major areas: fasting with Carl Frost, the Sabbath with intern student staff Sabrina Nordan, reflection with Ryan Hartsook, and Prayer and Solitude with Josh Zolman. Of the four, all of the LTers had to choose three hour-long talks. So, needless to say there was a lot going on! Personally, I chose all of them except the talk on fasting. The reason I did that was because of all of the spiritual disciplines I had heard the most about fasting before. Carl actually did a message during the school year about it and I also have practiced a couple of times before this, so I decided to pick the other three poisons so to speak.
The first discussion was over reflection. Basically, what was revealed to us is that we live in a culture where more time is focused on what's next instead of what's happening right now. We are ALWAYS thinking about the next phase instead of (a) absorbing what's now and especially (b) remembering what has happened in the past.
Ryan defined reflection in this case as taking the time to identify what God is doing now in life and cooperating with God in those workings. From there, he talked about the major foundation of reflection: God's love for us. Philippians 1:6 says this: "I am confident of this: that he who began a good work in you wil carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Essentially, the Lord's kindness will lead us to repentance, because his love in hard situations will motivate us to look to Him in the middle of it. Reflection is helped by talking with God about our lives and also talking with gifted spiritual leaders about what's going down in our lives as well.
What is reflection enhanced by?
1) Trials that we face
2) Responsibilities we have in our lives
3) Our relationships
God uses all of these experiences to build us up. It's as simple as that. We are made stronger by the things that we experience, whether they be good or bad.
So, reflection is enhanced by TRIALS.
"Therefore, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because we know that God has poured out all of his love through the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." -Romans 5:3-5
We may not like them, but something about facing difficult things makes us stronger in the end, and God doesn't let that type of effort go unnoticed. It's hard to deal with, and even scary to come to grips with them, but the freedom from the chains of our weaknesses can far outweigh the difficulty in that moment.
Also, reflection is enhanced by our RESPONSIBILITIES. This is because with responsibility comes the requirement also of time management. Ultimately, the way we manage things is important, because we need to be more attentive to the things we have been entrusted with, because ultimately God has entrusted us with them.
Finally, our reflection is enhanced by our RELATIONSHIPS.
Through them, God uses them to grow us into better lovers, just like the Ultimate Lover, Jesus. It's important to take into consideration how we interact with others in our lives, because it allows to build with each other and ourselves. So we should always be thinking about what our relationships are like, how God is working through others to impact us, why we have the relationships we have, and how we can always develop them.
The second part of the discussion set was over the Sabbath.
The Sabbath in a nutshell is God's day of rest. It was the seventh day during the creation of the world, where God stepped back and enjoyed all that he had made. It was sanctified, meaning that it was SET APART WITH A SPECIFIC PURPOSE. In this case...it was made for rest. Now, in our world and society, there is no requirement for us to have this time of holy rest. But that doesn't mean it isn't important! It's hard to live the Sabbath out in life. There is always going to be something fighting for our time and we are the only person that can control what we do with ourselves...including resting! From EVERYTHING!
Sabbath allows us to do many things:
1) Remember God's creation.
2) Remember our freedom from our personal slavery to everything we have to do in life.
3) To remember who our Creator is.
This is something that I have always struggled with. Since I can really remember, I have always been a person who always has to be doing something productive. In that, I never really take a step back and let everything be and just simply do nothing for a bit. And when I do have the chance to relax, I feel guilty for actually doing it! That's not the intention we should be having when the Sabbath is going on.
So what should we actually be doing during the day? Well...it's not the perfect answer, but things related to this:
1) Things that are DIFFERENT from our normal routine activities (after all, God's day of rest was drastically different from the other six days...he did NOTHING!)
2) Do things that embrace God's gift for us.
3) Do things that give us life and joy, things that show us God's true heart.
4) Trim our life by cutting things out of our lives that we think we need. ---> aka the extra fluff.
As I mentioned before, the Sabbath is pretty much close to impossible because we focus too much on doing things FOR God instead of actually spending time WITH God. God is smarter than us when he thought of rest. We aren't God, so we need rest. We have seen it. When people don't rest from life, things get hectic, things get restless, and things get out of control. Having this day is good for the soul. Literally. It's important to ask God to help us carry the burdens of life by letting him have the time to be with us in the world that he has created for us. It's not a day, it's a lifestyle.
"Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." -Matthew 11:28-29
The third discussion that I decided to attend was over prayer and solitude.
Prayer is our direct communication to God. It's really the bare bones. So simple, yet so difficult right? I know! I'm definitely in the same boat. Josh Zolman, one of the Ball State staff members here at LT 2013, put it into real perspective with this quote: "Prayer is being able to move to a place where heaven meets earth."
Essentially, prayer connects our two worlds together because God is pulled into our situations directly. It is something that is meant to be full of great passion, desire, and fervor. Josh asked two very good questions about prayer:
1) Who am I praying to?
2) What am I praying for?
The first one, at least one would think, should be a no brainer. Any good Christian would say that we are praying to God, our Father who art in heaven. And that is definitely true. But how do we truly view our God? When we pray, do we see him as the all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present Lord of the universe? If you're like me, probably not. I think for me I tend to see God as a higher being that hears my every prayer, but I lack true and deep passion for what I'm trying to communicate. He's a God that needs more heart from his children.
Prayer is what we go to when life gets out of control. That's a very normal thing for us. However, we should NOT let it be what dictates everything about our prayer life. When we only go to God for the things we want or need, then God becomes below us and made in our own image. Oops. Not good. The truth of the matter is if God is truly pleased with something, then he will bring the good things that he has promised. We have to be faithful to him, rejoice in him, and live for him: not for the worldly things we long for so desperately to define us. We have to see God for who he is. And he is everything good.
Our desire needs to be fixed on the Lord and guided by Him. He is greater than all other things if we allow him to take that place in our lives. He is with us in everything, is IN everything, and wants to be with us in all situations: the good AND especially the bad.
Part two of the discussion was talking about the second discipline: solitude.
Solitude is simply this: aloneness. In the spiritual case, it's INTENTIONAL aloneness with the Lord. Something that God mentioned, which I didn't see until he mentioned it, was that solitude is not a punishment, it's a gift. Why's that you may ask. Well I'm going to share with you what I think. I think that it's a gift, because it shows that there's a willingness to truly engage with the Lord in all the things that life has on us. It's a gift because we have the opportunity to come to God without other distraction and allow Him to speak into our lives in a very profound way that can't otherwise happen without him.
A wise man once said. "When we are most alone, we are most loved by God." Thanks Henri Nouwen. Preach the truth.
Alright guys, I know this post has been super long, but it's almost done! If you need to, get up, take a stretch, go the restroom, etc. It's been a long day so far, but things are going to lighten up I promise!
After we ended all of the group sessions, we split up into schools to get focused on how things have been going the first couple of weeks into LT. And sometimes, it's just hard to have 50 people gather together and really discuss what's been going on in life in the course of a dinner. So...Ball State had to settle with having 25 people get together. Half is better than a whole! But we ate together, discussed how things have been progressing during the summer with jobs, personal aha moments, praises, struggles, etc. It was cool to hear how things have been going with those who we share a campus together back in Muncie, Indiana. We enjoyed pasta, salad, desserts, and a lot of laughs and tears! (Ok, I lied. No tears. But it was still epic.)
After that, the night ended with another group hurrah down on the beach. The time was open to pretty much anything. We hung out with co-workers, ran around with a soccer ball, played some ultimate ninja, took a lot of goofy pictures, and a friend of mine even corralled a crab and managed to pick him up! Lots of great things got to happen, and I was beyond blessed to even be a part of such an encouraging day with such an encouraging group of people. Still loving everything that the Lord is doing here and super stoked for what else is to come! And here's a couple photos to sum up the night we had together.
Alright, time to breathe. The post is now complete! (Well...until later anyways.) The next post is soon to come! Until then, later everyone. Please keep updated on all that God is doing here. I hope it's encouraging, challenging, and eye-opening like it has been for me.
"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit away from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." -Psalm 51:10
To recap, this is what project days are all about here in Virginia Beach during LT. Project days, in a nutshell, are essentially the backbone of why we have all come here together. Project days are complete days where every person in the program (all 45 students) have off from work to come together, be instructed, develop our faith even more through personal experiences, teachings, discussions, and even practical application of what we are learning about while we are here. Though we do a lot with our main session meetings and working our full time jobs, the project days are definitely the most important and also usually the most memorable experiences of the summer because it's done with all of us together. Jesus really moves in these times.
The first two weeks the project days were focused on the idea of evangelism, sharing the story of Jesus with others and also sharing our personal stories with them. Both are crucial! And it's a good thing to look into first, because while we're in the workplace this is what we are doing every day with our words, our deeds, our examples, and our lives in general. The third week marked the beginning of the second main part of the summer: developing our personal walks with the Lord.
Honestly, this is probably my favorite part of the summer, and I will tell you why.
Since becoming a Christian in February 2009, one of the main things that I have always struggled with is making my personal faith and devotion the most important thing in my life. Though I am very involved with my church, have gone to main services and been a part of my house church for three years, and have done Memphis mission trips and men's retreats every year, something that they all have in common is they are very much community. I'm not saying that community is a bad thing at all. It's one of my favorite things about my spiritual walk, because my brothers and sisters know how to keep me on the path that I am following. But sometimes, one of my greatest downfalls is that I rely upon them too much and not enough on God himself. So, I always enjoy experiences that allow me to truly embrace Him for who He is and ultimately what He did: giving his one and only Son, that whoever believes him shall not perish but gain eternal life (John 3:16). And with that in mind, I love having chances to develop my relationship with Him as not only a Father. He is a brother, a friend, and a King. He's amazing, and personal devotion is a very personal one-on-one opportunity to really see his work and his power within.
Anyways, that's the gist of where we are going with this part of the summer.
To begin this project day, we met on the beach (I know...shocking.) We were lead by Josh Zolman and Ryan Hartsook in yet another story. Remember the first posts I made? During the opening ceremonies, we were informed about the first part of the Driftwood Diaries. This morning was a continuation of that with part 2 of the series. It was a story of a man and his wife, and the struggles that they faced as they went through a tough life riddled with miscommunication and lack of desire. It was a spoof of the movie "Fireproof", and it showed us ultimately all of the things that make relationships with people really hard to have. In this story, the man struggles with everything that pulls him away from the love of his life. He deals with drugs, he falls into gambling, and struggles with an addiction to pornography. Ultimately, his story hits rock bottom when his wife doesn't even want to speak to him. They separate, think through what they really desire in life, and it ends with a revelation that separation from his wife is something that he doesn't want to live with. So he makes a change in his life to run from the things that so quickly entangled him in a life marked with difficulty.
Ultimately, this message showed us a picture of what our relationship with God looks like. God wants us to be devoted to him, to spend time with him, to love him for who he is and what he has to offer our lives. But when we run from him, rebel against him, and struggle with finding worth in other things (drugs, alcohol, pornography, etc.), our hearts slowly start to break and his heart breaks FOR us. God desires relationship and communion with him, and we can't have that with him if we run from him to live in the things that bring us a very temporary pleasure in this life on earth. God values relationship, and because of that we should desire that same thing.
So we had some time with the Lord to really hash out what some of the hard things in our life are. The rest of the day would be devoted to discussing different things in our life that can be very practical steps toward engaging with those things instead of running. During our time of solitude (this week two hours) we were asked to think about and try and answer these following questions for ourselves:
1) What's missing in my walk with the Lord?
2) Where in life do I have a real need for God?
3) What would it take to make my relationship with God more personal?
4) Is there anything in my life that's putting a wedge between me and the Lord?
5) What would I like to hear God say to me?
That was a lot of questions to try and answer honestly in such a short time. Something I've learned from all of the times I have had with the Lord is that they fly by. It seems to take no time at all to sit back and enjoy the presence of the Lord, to seek him, to read His Word, and to try and just reflect and pray about life. And since they fly by, I guess that means I'm having fun. Which I am!
Time flies by when you're having fun, and time flies while spending time with the Lord. So that means that for me, spending time with the Lord is fun. It can be really hard sometimes, but it is one of the most exhilarating parts of my life. That's where I've learned the most about myself and Him through me.
I will be honest in saying that I was not able to really in depth think about all of the questions, but I did eventually (more to come in future posts). I did think a lot about numbers two, number three, and number 5. Amidst thinking about these questions, I was also reading the Word for encouragement and also looking into a book I have been reading called the Attributes of God by A.W. Tozer. For anyone who wants to see a more in-depth look of who God really is from personal experience, I highly recommend this book.
While reading, I came across a couple of verses in some Psalms I was reading that really touched my heart during this time.
"Know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself; the Lord will hear when I call to him. In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, SEARCH YOUR HEARTS AND BE SILENT. You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone O Lord, make me dwell in safety." -Psalm 4:3-4, 7-8
I love this section, because it tells us so much about what to do when things get hard. This shows God's heart in some very powerful ways. The Lord is near to all who draw near to Him, and in times of great difficulty we are asked to draw near to him. He will hear us. We have to experience the Lord by letting him in to the hard places and root ourselves in his love instead of rooting ourselves in other things.
When I thought about the questions at hand, I realized that (in light of what I just discussed before) that one of the main things that I miss in my life with the Lord is simply time spent with him. So many things in my life take the front seat and God falls behind, and if it's anything I've learned that's the first major problem in itself. I love devotionals and times with the Lord, but when things get hectic they don't happen as much, which makes things really difficult and even enhances the difficulty of the things I face in my life, and the struggles I have. More time with the Lord would also make my relationship even more personal, because God would be less of a distant figure in many instances and be more like a friend in most circumstances (which he already is!).
The last question I thought about was the last one. If I could have God tell me anything right at this moment, it would just be that he understands. I think a lot of times, when I lack devotion or time with God I start to not really listen anymore for what he is really trying to communicate to me in my life. Sometimes I just really wish that I could hear God more clearly. Ultimately, I just want to have a greater understanding of the Father's heart towards me, and to know that he is there even in the hard times. He has proven that he is, but sometimes I fail to realize that.
Later that afternoon, we were able to break into our small groups. As mentioned before, life groups are small four or five person squads that get together to go deeper with each other during this entire summer. This time was designated to be a little longer, so that we could discuss the very stuff that we attempted to wrestle with during our morning with the Lord. This time, we just got to go into it together. I would share what we talked about, but that would be breaking confidentiality amongst each other, and that's just not something that I want to do, but needless to say it was a good solid bonding time. :) I say that because we went to a really awesome coffee shop called Badass Coffee Co. (which is literally a picture of a really cool looking donkey). I got a nice Monkey Madness latte consisting of banana and caramel flavoring.
The afternoon section of project day #3 consisted of focus on the different spiritual disciplines that Christians involved in their faith should know more about. We decided to have a variety of staff-led discussions over four major areas: fasting with Carl Frost, the Sabbath with intern student staff Sabrina Nordan, reflection with Ryan Hartsook, and Prayer and Solitude with Josh Zolman. Of the four, all of the LTers had to choose three hour-long talks. So, needless to say there was a lot going on! Personally, I chose all of them except the talk on fasting. The reason I did that was because of all of the spiritual disciplines I had heard the most about fasting before. Carl actually did a message during the school year about it and I also have practiced a couple of times before this, so I decided to pick the other three poisons so to speak.
The first discussion was over reflection. Basically, what was revealed to us is that we live in a culture where more time is focused on what's next instead of what's happening right now. We are ALWAYS thinking about the next phase instead of (a) absorbing what's now and especially (b) remembering what has happened in the past.
Ryan defined reflection in this case as taking the time to identify what God is doing now in life and cooperating with God in those workings. From there, he talked about the major foundation of reflection: God's love for us. Philippians 1:6 says this: "I am confident of this: that he who began a good work in you wil carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Essentially, the Lord's kindness will lead us to repentance, because his love in hard situations will motivate us to look to Him in the middle of it. Reflection is helped by talking with God about our lives and also talking with gifted spiritual leaders about what's going down in our lives as well.
What is reflection enhanced by?
1) Trials that we face
2) Responsibilities we have in our lives
3) Our relationships
God uses all of these experiences to build us up. It's as simple as that. We are made stronger by the things that we experience, whether they be good or bad.
So, reflection is enhanced by TRIALS.
"Therefore, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because we know that God has poured out all of his love through the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us." -Romans 5:3-5
We may not like them, but something about facing difficult things makes us stronger in the end, and God doesn't let that type of effort go unnoticed. It's hard to deal with, and even scary to come to grips with them, but the freedom from the chains of our weaknesses can far outweigh the difficulty in that moment.
Also, reflection is enhanced by our RESPONSIBILITIES. This is because with responsibility comes the requirement also of time management. Ultimately, the way we manage things is important, because we need to be more attentive to the things we have been entrusted with, because ultimately God has entrusted us with them.
Finally, our reflection is enhanced by our RELATIONSHIPS.
Through them, God uses them to grow us into better lovers, just like the Ultimate Lover, Jesus. It's important to take into consideration how we interact with others in our lives, because it allows to build with each other and ourselves. So we should always be thinking about what our relationships are like, how God is working through others to impact us, why we have the relationships we have, and how we can always develop them.
The second part of the discussion set was over the Sabbath.
The Sabbath in a nutshell is God's day of rest. It was the seventh day during the creation of the world, where God stepped back and enjoyed all that he had made. It was sanctified, meaning that it was SET APART WITH A SPECIFIC PURPOSE. In this case...it was made for rest. Now, in our world and society, there is no requirement for us to have this time of holy rest. But that doesn't mean it isn't important! It's hard to live the Sabbath out in life. There is always going to be something fighting for our time and we are the only person that can control what we do with ourselves...including resting! From EVERYTHING!
Sabbath allows us to do many things:
1) Remember God's creation.
2) Remember our freedom from our personal slavery to everything we have to do in life.
3) To remember who our Creator is.
This is something that I have always struggled with. Since I can really remember, I have always been a person who always has to be doing something productive. In that, I never really take a step back and let everything be and just simply do nothing for a bit. And when I do have the chance to relax, I feel guilty for actually doing it! That's not the intention we should be having when the Sabbath is going on.
So what should we actually be doing during the day? Well...it's not the perfect answer, but things related to this:
1) Things that are DIFFERENT from our normal routine activities (after all, God's day of rest was drastically different from the other six days...he did NOTHING!)
2) Do things that embrace God's gift for us.
3) Do things that give us life and joy, things that show us God's true heart.
4) Trim our life by cutting things out of our lives that we think we need. ---> aka the extra fluff.
As I mentioned before, the Sabbath is pretty much close to impossible because we focus too much on doing things FOR God instead of actually spending time WITH God. God is smarter than us when he thought of rest. We aren't God, so we need rest. We have seen it. When people don't rest from life, things get hectic, things get restless, and things get out of control. Having this day is good for the soul. Literally. It's important to ask God to help us carry the burdens of life by letting him have the time to be with us in the world that he has created for us. It's not a day, it's a lifestyle.
"Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." -Matthew 11:28-29
The third discussion that I decided to attend was over prayer and solitude.
Prayer is our direct communication to God. It's really the bare bones. So simple, yet so difficult right? I know! I'm definitely in the same boat. Josh Zolman, one of the Ball State staff members here at LT 2013, put it into real perspective with this quote: "Prayer is being able to move to a place where heaven meets earth."
Essentially, prayer connects our two worlds together because God is pulled into our situations directly. It is something that is meant to be full of great passion, desire, and fervor. Josh asked two very good questions about prayer:
1) Who am I praying to?
2) What am I praying for?
The first one, at least one would think, should be a no brainer. Any good Christian would say that we are praying to God, our Father who art in heaven. And that is definitely true. But how do we truly view our God? When we pray, do we see him as the all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present Lord of the universe? If you're like me, probably not. I think for me I tend to see God as a higher being that hears my every prayer, but I lack true and deep passion for what I'm trying to communicate. He's a God that needs more heart from his children.
Prayer is what we go to when life gets out of control. That's a very normal thing for us. However, we should NOT let it be what dictates everything about our prayer life. When we only go to God for the things we want or need, then God becomes below us and made in our own image. Oops. Not good. The truth of the matter is if God is truly pleased with something, then he will bring the good things that he has promised. We have to be faithful to him, rejoice in him, and live for him: not for the worldly things we long for so desperately to define us. We have to see God for who he is. And he is everything good.
Our desire needs to be fixed on the Lord and guided by Him. He is greater than all other things if we allow him to take that place in our lives. He is with us in everything, is IN everything, and wants to be with us in all situations: the good AND especially the bad.
Part two of the discussion was talking about the second discipline: solitude.
Solitude is simply this: aloneness. In the spiritual case, it's INTENTIONAL aloneness with the Lord. Something that God mentioned, which I didn't see until he mentioned it, was that solitude is not a punishment, it's a gift. Why's that you may ask. Well I'm going to share with you what I think. I think that it's a gift, because it shows that there's a willingness to truly engage with the Lord in all the things that life has on us. It's a gift because we have the opportunity to come to God without other distraction and allow Him to speak into our lives in a very profound way that can't otherwise happen without him.
A wise man once said. "When we are most alone, we are most loved by God." Thanks Henri Nouwen. Preach the truth.
Alright guys, I know this post has been super long, but it's almost done! If you need to, get up, take a stretch, go the restroom, etc. It's been a long day so far, but things are going to lighten up I promise!
After we ended all of the group sessions, we split up into schools to get focused on how things have been going the first couple of weeks into LT. And sometimes, it's just hard to have 50 people gather together and really discuss what's been going on in life in the course of a dinner. So...Ball State had to settle with having 25 people get together. Half is better than a whole! But we ate together, discussed how things have been progressing during the summer with jobs, personal aha moments, praises, struggles, etc. It was cool to hear how things have been going with those who we share a campus together back in Muncie, Indiana. We enjoyed pasta, salad, desserts, and a lot of laughs and tears! (Ok, I lied. No tears. But it was still epic.)
After that, the night ended with another group hurrah down on the beach. The time was open to pretty much anything. We hung out with co-workers, ran around with a soccer ball, played some ultimate ninja, took a lot of goofy pictures, and a friend of mine even corralled a crab and managed to pick him up! Lots of great things got to happen, and I was beyond blessed to even be a part of such an encouraging day with such an encouraging group of people. Still loving everything that the Lord is doing here and super stoked for what else is to come! And here's a couple photos to sum up the night we had together.
Alright, time to breathe. The post is now complete! (Well...until later anyways.) The next post is soon to come! Until then, later everyone. Please keep updated on all that God is doing here. I hope it's encouraging, challenging, and eye-opening like it has been for me.
"Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit away from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." -Psalm 51:10
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