Besides the Bible itself, I think this may be the most profound piece of literature I’ve ever read. Maybe it just came at the right time, or maybe it is because I read the entire book of Ecclesiastes yesterday, and all of this is speaking so strongly to me. Check it out…
The circus, and I am talking about life now, really sucks. It feels like we all have these little acts, these stupid things we do that we all hang our hats on. The Fall has made monkeys of us, for crying out loud. Some of us are athletes and others of us are physicists, and some of us are good-looking and some of us are rich, and we all are running around, in a way, trying to get a bunch of people to clap for us, trying to get a bunch of people to say we are normal, we are healthy, we are good. And there is nothing wrong with being beautiful or being athletic or being smart, but those are some of the pleasures of life, not life’s redemption… In this sense, as harsh as some of Jesus’ words are, they are also beautiful and comforting. No more worrying about what an audience thinks, no more trying to elbow our way to the top. We have Him instead, a God who redeems our identity for us, giving us His righteousness.
-Donald Miller, Searching for God Knows What
“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” -1 Timothy 4:12
Today was kind of a big day for CIY. The word “influence” relates to us on so many levels. Who are we being influenced by? Who are we influencing? How are we influencing? What can we do to positively influence? CIY is supporting Active Water, an organization that provides clean water to those who don’t have it. This year, their focus is on Zambia. One out of every eight people on earth do not have safe drinking water. Deaths related to this injustice exceed more than deaths due to violence, including war. From their website: “1.4 million children die each year from diarrhea. That’s over 3,800 deaths each day from just one form of water-related sickness.” TCCC students are developing a passion to help the victims of this! Expect to see a difference in them when we come back. They will want to change the world! And not just with supporting a mission-minded organization, but impacting the people they come into contact with all the time.
We watched one powerful video… it was about a teenage girl who was wanting to make an influence. Her mom is on the phone talking about her daughter and how she’s unsure about her radical faith. As she’s talking, the daughter goes to a clinic. Outside the clinic are protesters with signs that say things like, “God hates fags,” and, “AIDS cures homosexuality.” The girl is walking with a friend up to the mob, both holding folded signs. It ends up that they push through the crowd to go into the clinic. They go into a patient’s room who you assume is gay with AIDS. The girls unfold their signs, and the signs say, “We love you,” and, “We’re praying for you.”
Other highlights from the day:
1. We went to Chattanooga for the afternoon. We walked beside the river and walked up and down stairs that had water pouring on them. It was a really neat place and a lot of fun! We ate at TGI Fridays and got dessert at Cold Stone Creamery. Yum!
2. We started a texting game where we text other people and tell them to do or say something very random to someone. Today, they all texted each other to suddenly start singing Happy Birthday to me, even though my birthday is in January?! Yes, and this was right in the middle of Cold Stone Creamery.
Prayer Requests:
Mostly the same as yesterday. Please pray for continued safety, continued faith experiences, and decisions to be made.
“Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.” - 1 Timothy 4:7
Each day, our students are opening up more and more, and they are growing more and more! Parents, if you sent your son or daughter on this trip, you will see a new Ben, a new Katie, a new Emily, a new Dalton, a new Alston, a new Kari, a new Jacob, a new Melody, a new Brenna. And yes, us adults will come back changed as well.
Today’s theme focused on training ourselves to be godly. During our D-group time this morning, the students were given mirrors. As they looked in the mirrors, they spoke negative things about themselves, then they spoke good things. It was easy for them to point out the bad things in themselves, but more difficult for the positive things. (Kind of a sad truth.) Looking in the mirror, being made in the image of God, they wrote in a dry erase marker on the mirror what prevents them from being more godly. After some discussion, we had them erase that and then write in permanent marker how they want to reflect the image of God in their lives. We then brought the mirrors to the evening session. We talked about them and prayed over them. After turning them in, the CIY staff glued them onto a disco ball. Unfortunately, technical difficulties prevented them from hanging it up, but we all knew what was supposed to happen. The stage lights would have pointed to it, and it would have shined very brightly as we sang over and over, “Shine your light and let the whole world see, we’re singing for the glory of the risen King.”
Prayer Requests:
1. Our students wrote out a plan to train themselves to be more godly. Pray that they live out the plan.
2. I talked with the 4 graduated seniors we brought and asked them if there is anything they need in the next month or so from the youth ministry before they head to college. Unanimously and passionately, they said prayer. Please pray for Katie, Emily, Kari, and Ben, as all four of them begin attending college classes soon and enter into a whole new phase of life… the last phase before joining the world as a full-fledged adult just like us.
3. Continue to pray that decisions will be made this week for accepting Christ / baptism, rededicating their lives to Him, or even to go into ministry. I put the thought in their heads tonight to be thinking about it. We have a range of students here where all 3 decisions could be made in our group.
4. Pray for our safety tomorrow as we drive to Chattanooga for our extended free time. Pray also that although it may be a recreation day, that it won’t be a wasted day. That our group will bond more (if that’s even possible), that good conversation will happen, that spiritual growth will happen as we have fun!
It was our first full day here at Lee University. And, I must say, it was a successful day! The theme was “Truth.” The theme centered not around individual nit-picky truths (which often cause controversy - 1 Timothy 1:3-5), but rather on how Jesus Christ is truth. The truth is that He died on the cross to rescue us from the junk in our lives that we call sin, so that we can live freely!
On a personal note, 1 TImothy 1:8 hit me hard: “We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.” In lieu of grace, how do we use the law properly? It’s not to judge or condemn people. During the sermon tonight, which was done by video, the speaker stopped and had us answer questions in our groups. One of the questions asked if we have ever used truth improperly to judge or condemn someone instead of using it to show Jesus Christ (whose name just happens to mean “Savior”). We all could pretty much say we’re guilty of that. To use truth and the law properly, it’s meant to show that there is no way we can be perfect on our own. We need an outside force to make us perfect, and that outside force is Jesus.
One challenge each student was given tonight was to name a person they need to share their faith with, and then do it exactly one week from today: Tuesday, July 27. It’s a very tough challenge. They asked for students to stand up who were willing to take the vow to do this. Every one of our students stood. TCCC family, please hold them accountable to this. Parents, please encourage your son/daughter to do this. The speaker said it’s a fight, and you might get knocked to the ground, but we need to fight the fight for truth. The truth of Christ is a battle worth fighting!
Other things we did today:
1. We got our group picture taken on the stage.
2. We ordered a few pizzas after the main session to eat during our youth group time tonight. It was yum!
3. We had the early breakfast shift… 7:00am!!!
4. Most of us went to the CIY video elective. CIY is known for making very creative videos. I think CIY is one of the only organizations creative enough to make a video that will have you rolling on the floor and still get deep spiritual insight. The elective class was a little behind-the-scenes of their favorite videos, some goofy, some serious, all spiritually deep.
5. CIY assigned us the front row in the middle! So, yes, we were as close as you could get to the stage!
6. More mattress surfing!
7. One dorm room was TP’d.
8. Ben bought a book at the CIY bookstore… The Official Chuck Norris Fact Book written by Chuck Norris himself. Why they’re selling Chuck Norris’ book, I don’t have a clue! Did you know that when Chuck Norris does push-ups, he doesn’t push himself off the ground, he pushes the earth down!
PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Give God praise for what He is doing in these students! They are having a blast and really taking a look at their relationship with Jesus, exactly the way Jesus would want it!
2. Continued safety. No injuries yet… that I’ve been made aware of.
3. Pray for the Holy Spirit to really make His will known in these students. I have a feeling that He will be calling some of them to make some big decisions this week. Pray that they will be open to what He has to say to them.
4. Pray that the Holy Spirit guides our students to share their faith next week with the person they vowed to do so. Pray that they are brave enough to actually do this, and that they do it in a graceful, encouraging way.
P.S. I did bring my camera, but I left the USB cord at home, so I won’t be able to post any pictures while I’m here, but please check out our students’ Facebook pages if you can. Many of them are updating pictures from their cell phones.
After driving all over the “world” through cities like London, Philadelphia, Athens, and finally taking the exit labeled “Cleveland / Dayton,” making us wonder if we were in Ohio, we made it to Cleveland, TN, on the campus of Lee University! We took 9 high school students (4 boys, 5 girls) and 5 adults with us, but there are 1200 other high school students here as well!
We did a lot of unpacking, figuring things out, etc., but we’re finally settling down. We ate a dinner consisting of barbecue sandwiches, baked beans, chips, and some blondies for dessert. (The cafeteria is a very nice cafeteria, AND is all-you-can-eat!)
Today’s theme was “Grace.” What a powerful theme! The Aaron Pelsue Band led worship for us (and will all week). They began with the Miley Cyrus song, “Party in the USA.” At first, I of course was dying to make fun of it. However, when I saw so many students get into it, I thought of what Jesus would do. I think Jesus would be dancing like crazy to that song too and would call me a Pharisee for making fun of it. Jesus was VERY relevant to the culture of His day, and He is today! If we want to reach the youth of today with the message of Christ’s grace, we need to reach them where they are.
The message tonight, I wish I could describe it, but it really is indescribable. With the theme being “grace,” it’s something that you can only understand if you’ve experienced it. The speaker came out on stage with a backpack. It was full of red cards which represented sin. Throughout his talk, he would take out cards, and name a sin it represents like lust, cheating, not talking to your dad. He would throw them on the floor to illustrate how they don’t have to weigh on your back anymore when you have grace. At the end, he just dumped the whole backpack out. Now, each student had a red card in their hand, and they were given the option to throw it away in trash cans located throughout the auditorium if they wanted grace to take it away from them. While the students went one by one, and eventually in masses, the trash cans were then dumped on the stage, and some guys were sticking them on a tree on the stage while the band sang songs about grace. At one point, the music went silent for a few seconds, and as the band struck a new, loud chord, the limbs of the tree dramatically fell off, and the trunk of the tree was in the shape of a hand with a hole in the middle of it, representing how Christ died to give us grace so that all our red cards can be GONE! My eyes are watering right now just thinking about that moment. How awesome is that! How powerful! When the limbs fell off the tree, we all sang over and over, “Thank You for saving me, thank You for saving me.”
After the session, we went into youth group time. What awesome conversation we had! EVERYONE had something to say, even if it was just simply saying what grace makes them think of. I think almost everyone willingly prayed allowed, without being forced to, without even being told what to pray about!
Once it was in-the-dorm time, the infamous Mr. Dalton Christopher had to revive his CIY reputation and do some crazy things… yes, we put a mattress at the top of the stairs and took turns riding down the stairwell. Even the security guy said, “I’m supposed to ask you to stop, but this is too great!”
PRAYER REQUESTS:
Pray that the momentum that we got the first day continues and even grows throughout the week. Pray that our students not just learn a few new things (”Knowledge puffs up.”), but that they grow in loving our most incredible God! (”Love builds up.”) (See 1 Cor. 8:1.) Also, our students are from a variety of backgrounds and are at different places in their faith. Pray that God is working in the context of their own lives.
P.S.
If you want me to relay anything to the students to let them know you’re praying for them, or if you have any words of encouragement for them, just leave a comment, and I’ll pass it on to them at youth group time.