This past weekend, I got to take some students on a winter retreat. The theme of the weekend was "Ignite" with the idea of not being lukewarm. There was a lot of focus on real practical implementation of our faith. It was awesome to hear (and see my students hear) so many echoes of what I've been feeling and teaching lately.
A college friend who is now preaching at Calvary Christian Church after being the youth minister there for a number of years was the speaker for the weekend. My kids really got a lot out of the stories he shared of real, concrete ways that other students had put feet on their faith when they stopped living for themselves.
Saturday was skiing for the morning and afternoon. Up until Thursday or Friday, there was very little snow, so I'm not sure many of us were very optimistic about the skiing. But Friday night it snowed enough to provide a little cover for the ice-packed hills. About the time the slopes were freezing up again (after about an hour of a few hundred people skiing on them) it started to snow again and didn't stop most of the day. There was plenty of snow.
One of the greatest parts of the weekend for me was the music. Not so much the music itself, but Tommy, the worship leader. This event is located at the church where I went when I was in high school, and Tommy was one of the Jr. High kids there at that time. Back then, no one that I knew of would have imagined that he'd one day be a worship leader - but God did, and now he's the worship and youth minister at that church. It was awesome to worship with Tommy and his brothers leading and think about the transformation that only God can bring about.
It was humbling to be reminded of a small thing I did while Tommy was in high school that was a part of his "ignition". A spark that stayed around in his life long enough to find fuel and combine with a lot of other flickers until a life is now engulfed in passionate love for God. How many times do I miss those little things I could be saying now that will spark something later on? How often do I let my frustration blind me to a future fully in His hands?
May God let us see what could be...
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