This past weekend I led worship for some college students at a weekend retreat for my boy Kevin Boyd. I had a great time, which is interesting because I wasn’t all that crazy about doing it in the first place. But Kevin’s got a great group of students and I got to spend some high quality time with my youth minister, Dennis Perry. He taught the lessons for this retreat while I did the worship. God showed me something this weekend that I really needed to see. Now, when I got there on Friday, I got to take a peek at Dennis’ lesson outlines and topics. To be honest, I thought it was a little elementary. It covered very basic things like temptation, integrity, sin, etc. But by the end of the first lesson I was completely refreshed (and so were the students). I think it’s quite possible that people my age spend so much time looking for “deep Bible study”, heavy theology, and complex thoughts. Yet we are constantly finding ourselves stuck in a rut. We feel like no matter how “deep” we get, we still feel like we aren’t progressing in our spiritual walk. Could it be that we still feel like this because we haven’t yet dealt with some basic things like removing sin, overcoming a temptation, and having true integrity in our lives? You see, no matter how hard I try to dig into my Bible, no matter how many great sermons I listen to, no matter how much theology I delve into, I will remain where I am in regards to God if I refuse to listen to His demands regarding sin in my life and my spiritual lifestyle. I think this is a major hurdle for people my age, I think. We think we know our Bible, know our faith, know our salvation, therefore we consume our spiritual effort with looking for something else. We turn to popular books, trendy churches, and even post-modern thought. When the reality of it is, our intimacy with God is measured not by those things, but by very basic ideas. Is there sin in your life that is being overlooked? Do you live a live that resembles Christ to the world? How do you treat others? Do you listen to God as much as you ask God to listen to you? These are the things that bring intimacy to our spiritual life. This is what brings life to the Christian walk. Yet, it is this that is most often overlooked by people my age (including myself). We would much rather find a really good book, talk about what’s wrong with the church, or pontificate about philosophy.
This weekend was refreshing. Even in my adult life, my youth minister is still teaching me the things I need to learn. Thank you Dennis.