Week 8 - Retreat

This weekend I attended my church singles group's annual retreat. It is always awesome, and this year was no exception. My favorite moment happened in the presence of the view in the picture above.

The picture is an attempt to capture the serene beauty of God's creation from my vantage point Saturday night. As beautiful as the picture is, what you cannot see or experience by looking at the photo is the way the moment touched all the senses. Closing my eyes, I could hear the whooshing of a flock of small birds zooming by overhead and the semi-sweet smell of grass and earth. As I sat and watched the entire scene, it appeared as though nature was in a playful mood. Fish jumping through the surface of the water, insects dancing to and fro, small birds darting in almost choreographed patterns, large egrets gliding inches from the water occasionally dragging a foot across the glassy surface. Meanwhile, the sunset backdrop continued to provide different hues that subtly changed the appearance of both sky and water.

While it appeared that nature was in a playful mood, prior to finding this delightful spot to gaze upon God's beauty, my mood was far less than playful. However, after spending quality time with my Lord via the lakeside sunset, He transformed my mood to more closely match the mood of the scene before me. Do you ever encounter an individual whose mood is in contrast to yours, but is just so contagious that you find yourself matching their mood? This is what God did for me yesterday evening.

The retreat this weekend filled me with good conversation with friends, convicting words of Biblical teaching, and a deepening appreciation for God's beauty. I have found immense value in retreating from the daily grind of life to seek God intentionally in a different and focused way, and I highly recommend it. When is the last time you retreated to spend time with your Father in Heaven?

Week 7 - Every Pin Matters

This week, my coworkers and I spent an evening at the bowling lanes together. It was clear from about frame 2 that we were each going to struggle to reach 100. But that didn't dampen our spirits.

After completing 5 frames--the halfway point--we huddled together and discussed the situation. The 5 of us had a combined score of 198. We decided that we would shoot for breaking 400 together, meaning we would need to do only slightly better in the final 5 frames and bowl a collective 202.

It was a fun way to utilize the time to do something together, and to put up a new goal to pursue without getting bored for the final 5 frames with our sub-100 scores. From time to time, one of us would knock down a single pin with the first ball of the frame, and we began to shout, "Every pin matters!" It was half joke/half serious.

As we neared the 10th frame, we had bowled a couple very good frames and it felt like 400 was in the bag. However, somehow, we faltered coming down the stretch and I found myself staring down a team score of 392 with only my 10th frame left to go. I needed 8 pins. Deep breath. Here we go. First ball, 3 pins. I had missed to the left of center (for the umpteenth time). Take one step to the right. Deep breath. Here we go. Second ball, 5 pins. We hit 400 exactly!

We celebrated achieving our goal and reaffirmed, "Every pin matters!" We knew that each of us had bowled poorly. Yet, we had reached a goal together. Not one of us reached 100, and I think the lowest score was something like a 50. But we had discovered something more beautiful than bowling a personal 300. We had discovered team unity, achievement of a goal together, and that even the least was as important as the greatest. After all, if our low scorer on the team had bowled 1 pin less, a 49, we would not have reached our team goal.

You may be the star player in your job, at your church, in your family, in your community or school; or you may view yourself as the least at your workplace, your church, in your family, your community or school. Either way, remember that every pin matters. If you, the greatest or least, give less than your best, the team suffers. If you however, being greatest or least, give your all, your team benefits.

Perhaps the Lord let us land right on 400 in order to observe that "every pin matters" most clearly. More importantly, realize this: if Christ has authority in your life and you have submitted your life to Him, the Creator of the universe is now on your team. He will bowl a 300 every time. We may bowl a 50 or a 150, but the Creator of the universe has invited us on His team, and He wants us to know that we matter. We matter because of the value He places on us as His children. And we are victorious, not because of our contribution, but because Christ has conquered death and evil through His death and resurrection.