Yesterday I left work early, hopped into a car with Alan and Shauny, and drove off into the distance to the youth180 retreat. Now why would a trio of ex-youth180-now-regeneration-members make the effort to forgo a good night's sleep in their own bed and risk feeling absolutely knackered the next day? Well, because of the one afternoon and night of awesome fellowship we experienced!
We came on the best night of any camp - campfire night. After two awesome messages from Jim Berg, we headed off into the cold night air to sit in front of the warm fire, sing praises to God, listen to testimonies of how God moved in the hearts of the campers, and later on to roast (or in my case, burn) marshmallows. I can't write about the night in a way that captures just how awesome it felt to be amongst brothers and sisters in Christ that had become so moved by God in the space of just two days. Many of them had really started to Change Into His Image.
At one part of the campfire program, we were all given a letter of the alphabet and were asked to come up with one-word starting with that letter to describe the retreat. Our new bro-in-Christ, Gavin, had the letter 'p' and his word was 'potential' because of the potential we have to do great things for God. I really couldn't agree more. As Christian youths we often forget or are unaware of just how much latent potential is in each of us. As Peter Blake shared in the National Camp in 2006, youth have strength, energy and the willingness to take risks that slowly decreases as we grow older.
The sad thing is that we use these qualities to seek after other things and essentially, waste our optimal period to do awesome things for God. It's not to say that older people can't do awesome things for God, of course they can! But as younger people, the time where we can be radical for God is limited so we need to act now!
Last night was truly a blessing. Shame about today though... It was pretty average.
It might have been the transition to work after a day of spiritual feasting, but today was pretty average. The main thing for me was that I felt so busy, yet I didn't get much work done (the problem with working in two offices is that it's like having two part-time jobs. When you are away from one office, the emails build up and there's a lot of wasted time trying to sort through all the accumulated work and trying to prioritise everything). I don't recommend it. Another thing that happened to me today was that I got busted by one of the girls at work. =(
Basically, I hadn't done something that I was supposed to have done (it wasn't a big thing, one of those small things that I didn't have the time to do) but she just wasn't really all that nice to me when she told me. In fact, she wasn't nice at all. I felt pretty sad after that and I just sorta sat there with mixed feelings - she did NOT have to speak to me in that tone... I had a legitimate excuse... why can't she be more understanding?... how can she be so rude when this is the FIRST time I have slipped up?... I'm not going to do it JUST because she was SO rude to me about the whole thing! That'll teach her!... and so it went for a few minutes.
But then I thought to myself, Rowena, now is the time to forgive. Before I could tell myself, she doesn't deserve forgiveness, I was reminded that God forgave me - even though I didn't deserve it AT ALL, and continues to do so. I was reminded that God is in control of everything, and if she was truly out of line and unfair with how she talked to me, God would take care of the situation and I just needed to do what was right for the sake of doing my job well at work.
It's easy to harbour resentment, but I think it's also easy to leave things in God's hands, knowing that He tells us things in His Word like 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay' and 'ye are of God little children, for greater is He that is in you, than he (or she) that is in the world'. So just remember, next time someone crosses you, step back and leave the battle for God. It's not being passive, it's knowing that our Father in Heaven is greater than our petty problems and conflicts on earth.
We came on the best night of any camp - campfire night. After two awesome messages from Jim Berg, we headed off into the cold night air to sit in front of the warm fire, sing praises to God, listen to testimonies of how God moved in the hearts of the campers, and later on to roast (or in my case, burn) marshmallows. I can't write about the night in a way that captures just how awesome it felt to be amongst brothers and sisters in Christ that had become so moved by God in the space of just two days. Many of them had really started to Change Into His Image.
At one part of the campfire program, we were all given a letter of the alphabet and were asked to come up with one-word starting with that letter to describe the retreat. Our new bro-in-Christ, Gavin, had the letter 'p' and his word was 'potential' because of the potential we have to do great things for God. I really couldn't agree more. As Christian youths we often forget or are unaware of just how much latent potential is in each of us. As Peter Blake shared in the National Camp in 2006, youth have strength, energy and the willingness to take risks that slowly decreases as we grow older.
The sad thing is that we use these qualities to seek after other things and essentially, waste our optimal period to do awesome things for God. It's not to say that older people can't do awesome things for God, of course they can! But as younger people, the time where we can be radical for God is limited so we need to act now!
Last night was truly a blessing. Shame about today though... It was pretty average.
It might have been the transition to work after a day of spiritual feasting, but today was pretty average. The main thing for me was that I felt so busy, yet I didn't get much work done (the problem with working in two offices is that it's like having two part-time jobs. When you are away from one office, the emails build up and there's a lot of wasted time trying to sort through all the accumulated work and trying to prioritise everything). I don't recommend it. Another thing that happened to me today was that I got busted by one of the girls at work. =(
Basically, I hadn't done something that I was supposed to have done (it wasn't a big thing, one of those small things that I didn't have the time to do) but she just wasn't really all that nice to me when she told me. In fact, she wasn't nice at all. I felt pretty sad after that and I just sorta sat there with mixed feelings - she did NOT have to speak to me in that tone... I had a legitimate excuse... why can't she be more understanding?... how can she be so rude when this is the FIRST time I have slipped up?... I'm not going to do it JUST because she was SO rude to me about the whole thing! That'll teach her!... and so it went for a few minutes.
But then I thought to myself, Rowena, now is the time to forgive. Before I could tell myself, she doesn't deserve forgiveness, I was reminded that God forgave me - even though I didn't deserve it AT ALL, and continues to do so. I was reminded that God is in control of everything, and if she was truly out of line and unfair with how she talked to me, God would take care of the situation and I just needed to do what was right for the sake of doing my job well at work.
It's easy to harbour resentment, but I think it's also easy to leave things in God's hands, knowing that He tells us things in His Word like 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay' and 'ye are of God little children, for greater is He that is in you, than he (or she) that is in the world'. So just remember, next time someone crosses you, step back and leave the battle for God. It's not being passive, it's knowing that our Father in Heaven is greater than our petty problems and conflicts on earth.
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