Living a centered life - Part 1

I spent the past weekend at a youth conference in Green Bay with 3200 middle school and high school students.  I've been to many similar conferences over the years, and they are always well worth the price I pay in sleep deprivation and exhaustion!

This year was no exception.  I believe every adult should experience worship in such a setting at least once in their lives!  The energy, the obvious presence of the Lord, and the sweet spirit of kinship among young people is really unique.  It's really difficult to describe.  If you ever get a chance to be a part of something like that, don't miss out.

I started journaling the first day I was there, deciding I would blog the experience in three parts.  So here we go - day one:

Getting here was not easy.  The past week has been filled with spiritual attacks - interrupted sleep due to a variety of unusual reasons, a sick dog, recurring sickness of my own, an exploding kitchen sink (yes, I said exploding), and a snowstorm which threatened travel plans.  I sensed the enemy did not want me to go, which (to me) meant God was about to do great and mighty things.  The attacks actually served to solidify my resolve to go, so I called in all my prayer warriors.  After a brief delay Friday morning, we headed out for Green Bay.  Thank you, prayer warriors - the roads were dry as a bone!

Upon arrival to the convention center, we found our booth and quickly set things up.  I was surprised to find we had been given a booth in an excellent location.  I expected to be stuck in a corner somewhere, since they were providing the booth for free!  The director of the conference came by and introduced himself, giving me an opportunity to gush some words of thanks.  He seemed excited that we were there, and that was encouraging.

After the First Free bus arrived with the rest of the kids and leaders, there was no time to relax.  I was immediately met by several girls who wanted to switch rooms.  Unfortunately I had to tell them "no", since we (leaders) had determined to not allow any switching, and instead rely on God's providence in placing them in the rooms they were in.  I hated that my first words to them were negative, but they seemed to get over it quickly enough.

Following the chaos of checking into rooms, we headed back to the convention center.  The booth was already surrounded by enthusiastic kids, all anxious to get these crazy clothespins we had designed.  The clothespins had the website for our book's blog on one side, and we had written "Don't Freak Out!" on the other side (the name of the book).  We had gotten the idea for the clothespins as a promotional tool from a band we met at Sonshine last summer.  We had optimistically made 1700 of them, assuming we would have plenty left over to use in other places.  Wrong!  The clothespins became the hot item of the conference.  All the kids wanted them, and they loved trying to sneak them on other people.  They found the most creative way to wear them, too.  Everywhere you went all weekend, you would see people with clothespins attached in various places.  We ended up having to ration them in order to have enough for the whole weekend.

Before the night's first rally, I checked on all of the girls in my small group.  We dealt with a lost wallet, improper swimwear, headaches, tiredness and homesickness.  And yes, we had only been there a few hours!  My thought was, "Wait a minute.  Why did I agree to do this?"  :)

The rally was thought-provoking and high energy.  Rockin' worship with Floodgate Alive and an inspiring (and funny) message from Bill Allison.  He defined what it means to live a centered life.  The Scripture was Mark 12:28-31, Jesus' response to the question about the greatest commandment.  Bill talked about how it is easier for us to love God than it is to love others, but that the Christian walk must include both.  Loving God is the vertical line in the cross, loving people is the horizontal.

In our small group later, we all agreed that it is definitely easier to love God than others. I asked the girls to think of the most annoying person in their lives right now, and to think of some way to show love to that person next week.  Then I asked them how they could love one another in their room tonight, knowing full well there would otherwise be arguments over bathroom time, sleeping arrangements, and temperature controls.

That was as much as I could get out of my girls for the night.  They were far too wound up (and sugared up), and their main goal for the evening was to go back to the convention center to listen to a band.  Fortunately, they were back in their rooms on time, so I knew I had some responsible girls.  Of course, they had to tell me how cute the guys were in the band.  *sigh*

The girls in my room graciously gave me a bed all to myself, which may have been due to the fact that I warned them about my snoring.  Either way, I am thankful.  Good night.