This past weekend, I went to a weekend retreat called Teens Encounter Christ. It's my third time going to one of these TEC weekends, and I have to say, I think this last one made the biggest impact on me. I had been praying about the weekend a lot in the weeks leading up to it, and my heart was really open to whatever God had to say to me. I could feel God's peace and... sovereignty so clearly. He truly has all of us in the palm of his hand. TRULY, we don't have to worry about anything.
Here are some of the things that really sunk in for me this weekend:
1. Silence is so holy. It is a blank canvas for prayer. In silence, we can focus on the enormousness of God and worship him with our spirits. Your thoughts can travel so much farther and deeper when there isn't any noise to distract you. I used to hate silence, but now I think of it almost as just another type of music. I highly recommend sitting in silence for a while and seeing where God takes you. "Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about such things."
2. There's this skit called the Everything Skit. It's set to the music of "Everything" by Lifehouse, um... if that wasn't obvious. It portrays this beautiful story of a girl who starts out dancing with God, but gradually wanders farther and farther away, led by various temptations. Then suddenly she drops everything and runs with all her might towards God, at which point he starts fighting to get her back, and eventually steps in and takes all the beating from the "temptations." Anyways, this time, when I watched it, I could best relate to the moments when the girl is trying to fight all the demons in order to get back to God. I was distraught, because it was clear from the video that all of those demons/temptations were stronger than her. How can someone as weak and vulnerable as a teenage girl hope to fight her way through all the temptations in this world? But then I saw that as the girl was fighting to get back to God, he wasn't just sitting there. He was helping her the whole time, pulling her towards himself. Okay, so my conclusion was that most of our life is spent in that fight. We hardly get a single moment when all is right with the world, but God will give us the strength and endurance to fight, and we will come out as whole, glorious creations of God. So pray for strength rather than for your problems to go away, it's been working for me.
3. TEC is a great opportunity to make new friends and family and expand your community. When I leave tec, I shouldn't be sad because I will miss the family I had there, I should be excited because now I have so many new family members to get to know!
4. The last talk that you listen to at TEC is about going back into the world, and taking with you everything that you experienced. I cried the whole time, because the real world and I don't have the best relationship :P But I also really learned a lot from it. God can give me the strength to shine in a place where there's not a lot of light. I don't have to live like I've always lived, or the way my friends live. Today I was more outgoing than I've been in a long time, and nothing but good came from it. I actually tried to be respectful and considerate and not as self-focused. I feel like I'm headed for a good place. "Greater things have yet to come, and greater things are still to be done here."
Peace, love, and sunshine to all y'all :)
