sitting at a Starbucks in Orlando, oops... now a Starbucks in Palm Beach

So it’s officially a Wednesday. Don’t know why I thought I’d start by saying that but that’s what came to mind, it’s Wednesday, and I’m still trying to make sense of Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Make sense of them in a good kind of way, not in a I can’t remember cause I did something stupid kind of way. (well, it’s now Friday and I’m still working on writing this thing, ha ha, thus why I’m now at a starbucks in Palm Beach)

This weekend was Avalanche, which for those of you who are not a part of LCBC, Avalanche is the winter retreat for 7^th and 8^th graders. So this past Friday Pearl and I drove about 2 hours to meet up with about 135 caffeinated students and adults ready to eat, play, climb, sing, and reflect the weekend away.

I was asked to come and be the speaker for these students, which is an invitation that I take as a high honor. I remember when I was in middle school and our small youth group drove to the “massive church in Atlanta” for a student thing and after the band played music that I actually like and then a guy stood up and told stories that made me laugh and in the mix of it talked about God in a way that made sense I have always wanted to be that guy. Not particularly the one on stage, my pride is much too dangerous for me to pursue that, but the one who tells stories and in the mix of a conversation filled with humor, emotion, and “dirty ol real life” mix in God and who he is, what’s he’s doing in this world and how he interescts our lives in such a way to not make us “freaks of society” but that makes life make sense. That reveals how God is all around us and not as far away as we might often feel.

So this weekend, I had the great honor to be that Guy. This was not my first time being with these students, nor speaking in this manner, but by my nerves on Friday afternoon I don’t know if you could have told other wise. I think the weight and responsibility of doing what I was doing just sat on my chest like a big old elephant.

This weekend we walked through the Lord's prayer, we tried to capture the heart of what Jesus was saying to his rag tag band of followers and what it might look like for today. We explored the significance of a Jewish prayer shawl and the beautiful symbolism and ritual woven into it.

This weekend we said the Lord’s Prayer, many times, but we used the language not of a first century Rabbi but of a 21^st century Middle schooler who is trying to figure out how to follow in the ways of these teachings and this mysterious and divine man named Jesus.

Jesus said:

Pray like this: Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored. May your Kingdom come soon. May your will be done here on earth, just as it is in heaven. Give us our food for today, and forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. And don't let us yield to temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

So We said:

Our God is close like a good father, even when it doesn’t feel like it

Our God is fixing this world, and invites us to join Him in making it right

Our God has given us just enough for today,

Our God loves forgiveness, so I should as well

Our God protects us, and He uses me to protect my friends

It was truly a great weekend. It was humbling to see young hearts wrestle through the pain they have already experienced at the hands of pathetic earthly dads. To try and push aside the tidal waves of lies and marketing that shout how they’re not enough in so many ridiculous ways, but ways that have a knack for scaring one’s being for the rest of their life. To see them begin to grasp that every relationship in life has to be built around grace and forgiveness, and that if not, every relationship will only be messed up and full of pain, forgiveness is a must, no exceptions. And finally to see tiny arms link up to form safe little circles where words were spoken that remind their neighbors of how they are enough, how their God is close and never abandons, of how God invites them into something bigger then ipods, video games, and teenage crushes, of how they can accept forgiveness and in so doing give forgiveness, and how they want to be a voice that reminds them of these truths weeks and months from now when it’s so easy to have forgot how Jesus had taught us to pray.

It was a great great moment for me. I cried when it was all done, the big tears that mark your shirt and make your nose run, but they were good tears. Tears that come form a place of joy, of humility that God invites me, a messed up kid from Georgia with so much junk of my own, to be a part of what he’s doing in the lives of these students, and a place of hope at seeing what these students are capable of, of how they will change this world they are inheriting.

So to finish this really long post, I’ll offer a different perspective on the weekend. Here’s a link to one of the student’s response to the weekend.

And here’s a some of my favorite images from the weekend. They are by Ben Bennett (one of the amazing adults who gave up their weekend to love others), Cheyne Thomas (a 8^th grader who’s quickly making herself known as a gifted little photographer), and myself, but just a heads up, the really good ones, they took.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.