Challenge Accepted

I spent the past week in the wonderful city of New Orleans with the high school youth group I work with, and we attended a conference called Challenge.  The conference included several speakers, including Francis Chan, worship led by Kristian Stanfill, and much more.  The theme of the conference was Everything is New, and we went through the book of Colossians.  There were 5,000 plus people attending the conference, and it was such a blessing to be in one room with more than 5,000 people worshiping.  God definitely brought me to that conference for so many reasons, and he worked in my life a lot during this week.  One of the biggest takeaways for me was my prayer life, the ways in which I approach talking to my heavenly Father.  Opening God's Word or coming before God in prayer is no calm or light matter.  It is such a privilege to come before the creator of the universe, the one that gave me life and continues to give me life each day.  I have taken this privilege for granted so much as I have grown older.  Francis Chan described how when he first asked the woman that would become his wife out on a date, he spoke to her with such awe and wonder.  Now, 20 years later, with 5 kids, they answer the phone so commonly.  Familiarity has changed the way they approach each other, and the same thing can happen in our relationship with God.  It is so easy to speak the name of God without being in true awe of the great intensity that comes with talking to our God.  I have definitely been in the place for so long, but God met me right where I was at this past week, and I am in such awe now.  Another aspect of my prayer life that God confronted me on was that I don't come before God with huge matters.  I don't ask God to perform miracles or big things, and that is really because of a lack of faith in him.  God can do big things, and he wants me to ask him to do these things.

Besides the growth in my life, it was so great to be a youth leader on this trip.  It was amazing to see how the students are growing in God.  The group has such a tight community with each other on many levels, but they began to see that that community needs to include God.  Towards the end of the week they became quite a bit more vulnerable with each other, and it broke my heart to see some of their struggles.  This trip made it very clear to me that working with youth is something I don't ever want to give up.  High schoolers have such an energy that is so contagious; this was especially evident during our work projects.  We worked on a house and painted it each afternoon.  The whole group worked so hard and really came alive during this time.  Our group was very blessed by the people in the community, especially the woman that we painted the house for.  She was so thankful for us, and we had the opportunity of praying for her and the home.  The strength that God gives you when serving on trips like this is a beautiful thing.  It reminded me that God gives us the same strength each day when he gives us life.  Each day presents the opportunity to love Christ, love people, and serve in new and exciting ways.  Keeping that in mind can really improve my daily attitude.

One of the final messages talked about how faithfulness in the everyday life is the new radical life, and that is the challenge we can either choose to deny or accept.  Coming back to my job and typical life is already proving difficult, but staying rooted in my Savior is a challenge well-worth accepting.