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| YEC '08 |
YEC '08 was WAY COOL!!!
This was the first time I had ever gone to YEC and I can tell you now that it is not the last. We had a great time and I can't say enough how awesome it is to see a group of youth that size there to praise God. Most adults, I am sure, will not ever get to experience anything like it.
The first thing I want to say to the adults is ... The 80's are back. These kids are dressing like we did and rocking it out. Crazy? Yes, to say the least. So get out your clippers and cut yourself a mohawk, grow it while you can and if you still have your youthful locks, hold your head upside down; spray it, wax it, or hot glue it; take a nap on it; and rock it out because its not just the girls that want to have fun. Yeah, they played Cindy Loper's song.
Anyhow, the conference was about being CONSUMED. And I am proud to say that it was not just a topic relevant to the kids. The speaker noted that we can become consumed by our desires, and to alot of teens, they can be consumed with wanted that perfect grade or to win that all important game; but as an adult I have to ask myself what consumes me. Sure helping out at the church and doing this that and the other takes up alot of time, but can I say it consumes me, or am I just burning up a bunch of time. Am I on fire for Christ.
Sometimes I feel that I was and now I am trying to relight a piece of wet wood, and I am sure many of us feel that way time to time, but I don't want to allow myself to get comfortable relighting that same old piece of wet wood. If we are consumed and on fire for Christ, how can we be comfortable and complacent.
Leia just told me we had 9 kids step up and go down to pray. Some prayed to receive God's free gift of eternal life. Others prayed to renew their commitment to Christ because a growing Christian wouldn't just sit there and not move to grow and some felt as though they had. 9 of 16 kids.
And we were challenged to take that fire for Christ and see how we could effect our world, starting with our neighborhoods. The kids were encouraged to go home and share with lost family members and friends. The teens were asked what they were doing to impact their schools.
Consumed.
How are we as adults consumed.
We're burnt up and burnt out with the stresses of work and raising families. We allow everything and anything to get in the way of what we know God would have us do. We are consumed with the biggest and best of everything. I can speak only for myself when I say I can, and often do, allow crazy things at church to tick me off. I call it church politics, and dismiss it as something that doesn't matter. But it does. It is something I allow to separate me from the body of Christ. I allow my dislike of a meeting, my dislike of conflict, my hatred of not getting my way, to douse cold water on the what should be burning log of my life serving God. I allow stupid inhibitions to control me and keep me from spreading God's word, laziness to keep me from studying God's word, and selfishness to keep me from representing God's word; all for the sum of me not living God's word and not allowing God's word to consume me.
These past couple days was going to be for me, a time to watch some youth run around for a while.
These past couple days turned out to be a time for me to reflect and see where I am measuring up to the plan God has for me. I hope and pray that as the children share what they may have learned, that it will also be a time of reflection for them as well as their parents.
We've said the youth is the church of tomorrow; this conference taught us that the youth is not. The youth is the church of today.
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