Well this will be a mixed bag for sure.
This past weekend I had the opportunity to help lead a retreat for a handful of youth workers at Youthfront Camp South. This came at the end of a busy and exhausting week, and even though I was facilitating the worship times including a lectio divina and an awareness practice, it was as much a time for me to retreat as it was for those attending. Saturday was beautiful and sunny with a gentle breeze, and it was about 73 degrees outside. I led an aural awareness. This is essentially a chance to be still and listen to what is happening around you. It is a way to become aware of something you may not normally perceive. I first experienced this kind of thing with my friend Ron Martoia who is brilliant at leading and facilitating this and many other awareness practices.
After trying to be intentional about our breathing, posture, muscles, and releasing tension, we laid still for 25 minutes. I framed the time around some wisdom from Thomas Merton:
“My life is a listening. His is a speaking. My salvation is to hear and respond.”
The responses following were amazing to hear. First we focused simply on what people were literally hearing during the time, then moved to thoughts and observations about how the experience might connect with their lives. Finally we talked about possible invitations or promptings from the Holy Spirit as a result of the experience. Another way to ask this question is how might we wake up to the kingdom realities that surround us but may not be perceived? This is tied to one of the first messages Jesus preached: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near. Repent literally translated here is metanoia: to change one’s mind or to embrace thoughts beyond the present limitations. Awareness practices are a doorway to this kind of transformation.
Following the experience I engaged the group in some discussion about what we try to do at South in terms of the environment we try to create. One particular question was very interesting to me. I’ve heard it in different forms before, but a youth worker asked: besides meal packaging at camp, what do you do here that is outward-focused?
I told this person that I have thought quite a bit about what we can or should engage in at South that is missional or outward. There certainly seems to be a growing desire from youth and their leaders to do something. My response was first that the physical location of South creates some limitations to what we are able to do locally, but I do not view this as a bad thing. I went on to describe, as we had experienced in our aural awareness, that it is important to have time and space in our lives to simply sit still. Without an awareness of the Spirit’s movement and God’s in-breaking kingdom, what do we think it is we are supposed to do? I do not think of camp as an end all-be all experience. It is a point in a young person’s journey. We are not operating under any illusions that we’re trying to create a new kind of society at camp. The point of camp is to leave camp and engage the world wherever people find themselves. We certainly try and hone in on this throughout a camper’s experience with us. While many people talk about summer camps as a perfect little ‘bubble’ where everything is right with the world, we work hard to burst the bubble and engage all areas of life in an honest way. In fact, contrary to many philosophies of high-energy-hype and a thrilling camp high, we work hard to slow people down and create an environment where they might experience the presence of God in a deep way—like in an awareness practice. I was a little surprised and certifiably delighted that the youth worker understood and appreciated the perspective.
As I continue to reflect on the conversation, two key things come to mind:
1) As people, especially Christians steeped in western society, we always gravitate towards serving or doing, often before we pause to reflect or discern what it is we should do. Additionally, we usually employ service to others as our ticket to having done what Christ calls us to, or what we think God wants from us—to serve others. Hear me: I think it is good to serve others, but let’s take a moment to look at an encounter Jesus had with the disciples in John 13:5-17. Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. He comes to Peter and Peter refuses. “You shall never wash my feet”, he says. To which Jesus responds, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” Why was Jesus so insistent? What is going on here? I don’t know. But I have a couple ideas.
- Serving is harder and more complex than we make it out to be.
- We must be served before we can serve.
2) Like Jesus, we need time to be alone. He modeled this well, and we pretty much opt out in our lives, or at best make this an optional add-on to our Christian living. And often, we do it in the name of service instead. Why go on retreat when you can go on a mission trip and accomplish something? This kind of ministry is dangerous. Before too long, service becomes more about the people serving than the people being served. This becomes like building a skyscraper without blueprints. And where are the blueprints? Get away, get alone, wake up to the kingdom reality that you simply cannot perceive or embrace when you are constantly active. Retreat is absolutely and permanently essential in preceding action.
Whew.
And finally, if you are a studious reader of this blog, you’ll recall that on February 5th 2011 I began a massive kitchen remodeling project with the help and expertise of my dad. This is the main reason I haven’t updated since then. My originally stated goal was to be finished by the end of March. Well, I’ve never done a major house project like this before, but I guess I should have known better. It is coming along nicely though! You can see some pictures below. Right now, I have finished a lot of what I hoped to do myself, and I’m waiting to hear back from a couple of cabinet companies that I’ve been talking with. Once we have new cabinets and countertops, I’ll drywall everything, redo the floor and voila!…(I wish it was that easy). But it has been super fun, and I’m really grateful to have a dad who is willing and able to help me learn how to do all this stuff. What a gift. I guess, I’m also really grateful to have a wife who patiently watches me fumble through it and hasn’t melted down yet.
There it is! Thanks for reading.
