last week, Andy (our student pastor, http://andrewdailey.typepad.com/dailey_blog/, at least for the next few days) and i directed our state ministries' teen camp. rather than do a typical camp (you know, crazy games filling up the day with an occasional Bible study, fishing, and a worship service) we threw out most of the games, made the Bible study a "van-otion" (devo's in the van) and gave 6 hours of day in service to those in need, and closed each day with a lectio-driven worship service.
originally, it was to be work with a Habitat for Humanity house and family. but all the Habitat homes in the area were completed a little over a week before our camp, and before we could be sent into a dead panic, they were gracious enough to put us in touch with an awesome volunteer coordinator. she found projects with minstries all through the city just in time. as a result, instead of touching just one family and neighborhood with the love and Gospel of Jesus, we touched dozens
this camp was not well embraced by all of the campers --especially at first. but by the end of the week, the students seemed to understand that being a Christian is more than their relationship with Jesus (after all, if that were the case, you'd be dead at the altar). But by sharing in His sufferings, taking up His cross/mission daily, we too are to give our lives for the sake of others experiencing the love of Christ through our compassion, involvment and sharing the Gospel with them in tangible ways.
somehow, we think to recharge our spiritual batteries, we have to focus on ourselves--but that's counter Biblical instruction from Christ: "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it" (Matthew 16:25). i know that we need time for ourselves alone with God -- and i'm not downplaying that at all. but at a conflicted low point in the prophet Elijah's ministry, he sought the Lord on His mountain only to be asked the question "what are you doing here?" and later directed to go back the way he came, and to continue prophetically giving to the very people that were such a drain (1 Kings 19)
when we seek blessings for ourselves, is it really a blessing we receive or is it just a spiritual high (i'm wondering aloud and speaking of our pursuit of spiritual experience as a euphoric, emotional drug)? it seems to me that our American Christian experience is continually laced with these spiritual-drug hits through the latest worship song, concert, book, Bible study, and an endless supply of me-centered offerings from your local Christian bookstore--but i digress :)
as Jesus summed up his washing the disciples feet, He said in John 13:17, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them" -- This then would seem to say that blessing comes as a result of service, seeking the good or meeting the needs of others--not in seeking your own benefit. Paul quotes Jesus in Acts 20:35, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."
if we believe that (that it really is "more blessed to give than receive"), then the prescribed remedy for our spiritual depressions or ruts ought to be to go out and give--a workcamp rather than a retreat. i believe that when we serve, with the right heart, not only does God show up in the lives of those we serve, but also in our own lives.
In fact, i think when we serve, we won't have to go looking for God, because God comes looking for you. Paul wrote in Romans 12:2 "to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, Holy and pleasing to Him, because this is our spritual act of worship" -- and Jesus said that those worshippers that worship in spirit and in truth, "those are the worshippers the Father seeks" (John 4:32). God is seeking for spiritual worshippers -- those who are offering their lives in Holy sacrifice. And as i've written on here before, i think that Holiness is not merely the absence of evil but the embracing the activity of Christ. and what was the activity of Christ? "to serve and give His life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45)
i hope that one of the main thoughts that we communicated each day was this: you're not working, you're worshipping -- regardless if you're painting a wall, peeling potatoes, or doing the homeless' laundry--if your motive is right, it's worship. "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." (Colossians 3:23-24)
