Last Wednesday I taught youth group. I wasn't sure what to share with the group, but somehow in the midst of a lot of things going on right now, I was reminded of a very important idea. I've been reading the book "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and in chapter two Chan addresses the realization that you and I are not guarenteed our next breath.
I opened youth group with a ice breaker game, The Mummy Game, where kids are broken off into groups of about 3 and given two rolls of toliet paper. They have to then wrap one of their team members with the toliet paper, making them look like a mummy. After that, they have to carry their mummy through an obstacle (for us it was through a room across the way and outside to a play structure with a slide. They had to slide down and then come inside and spin ten times around and travel back to the junior high room). I used the game as an object lesson for the lesson later.
Before youth group, Josh and Aaron and I prepared a room across the way from the junior high room and created an atmosphere that was reflective, with candles, mirrors and a cross in the middle of the room. We found rectangles of carpet pieces and spread those around as well.
I prepared the group before I took them into our special room, that tonight was going to be different, a time meant to reflect on our own lives as well as some acoustic worship.
As we got in there, I prayed and we sang some songs...sounded beautiful!
Then I asked them to close their eyes and think about a few questions and thoughts I'd say, considering them for their own lives.
Here's some of what I shared, from my notes and my memory...
The reality is that you and I could die before youth group ends. I'm not trying to scare anyone or throw you into a frenzy of worry. This is reality. You and I are not guarenteed our next breath. Any number of horrible or tragic events could happen to us before youth group ends, or when you walk across the street or go home. You and I are not guarenteed our next breath.
And none of what you are doing now will matter; none of what you did before youth group began will matter, like that phone number you got, that person you flirted with or that scandalous text message you sent. None of that is going to matter 100, 200, 300 years down the road.
Here's my question: So why are we living like we're indestructable? Why are we wasting each breath that we've been given, each breath that is a gift from God? Why are we wasting each breath on gossip, on hooking up with people based on nothing more than their personal appearance? Why are we wasting each breath on sports that take all of our time and energy, on jobs that bring us down? Why are we wasting each day of our lives making fun of others, taking behind people's backs. Why are we wasting our lives causing drama on myspace? Why are we wasting our lives rebelling against the only kind of real stability in our lives?
And when will we wake up? When will we wake up to what is really important? When will we live life the way God intended this gift to be used?
You and I think we're living a "good life," doing "good things." I mean your life isn't as bad as that girl sitting across the room, the one you call a slut behind her back. Your life isn't that bad, is it? Is it?
You see, we tend to forget that life is here one day and one the next. Life is a vapor.
Why do we live like we'll never die, instead of living every moment like it's our last?
Open your eyes...
There's a story told in the book "Crazy Love" about a 14 year old girl named Brooke. Brooke wanted to be a "history maker at a young age." She was pro-active to start a Bible Study on her junior high public school campus. She babysat and with her babysitting money, she purchased Bibles to give out to her friends that she would lead to the Lord. On the way to the movies one night with friends, Brooke was in an accident and she breathed her last breath that night. Francis Chan, the author of the book performed the funeral service for Brooke. Over 1500 people attended and when Chan gave an invitation to come to the Lord, over 200 people responded. All the Bible's that Brooke purchased to give to her friends? They were handed out at the service to those 200 people who came to the Lord. In just a short moment, Brookes young life had changed and impacted so many others. Incredible.
How are you living life? How are you allowing petty little issues to consume your life?
A lot of us often wonder what is the point of life? Why are we even here and why keep going? The purpose of our lives is to bring glory back to the God who created us. For some of you, you have never met your Maker, the one who created you, who knew you while you were still in your mothers womb. He knows you intimately. We sing of Santa Claus that "he see's us when we're sleeping; he knows when we're awake; he knows if we've been good or bad..." Imagine God who goes behind intimacy and knowledge of dear ol' Santa. He knows you, inside and out. He see's what you do in private and how hurt and confused you are. He see's your pain and tears.
For some of you, you need to see God as a Father, because you've never known a Father, or a Dad who loves you and doesn't walk out. God, as a Father, never walks out when he's had too much or when you have too much crap going on and he can't deal with it. He's never gonna leave you. Embrace that...meet your Maker.
If our purpose is to bring glory back to God who created us to begin with, it is in a way, saying thanks to God. How are you saying thanks to God with the way you live your life, the things you say and do in private and in public?
I've been to a lot of funerals in my life, probably more funerals than I have been to weddings. But I've been to two different kinds of funerals. The first kind I've been to is for someone I have known who is absolutely incredible, who lived a life that changed others and impacted the world around them. They were love and we all felt love for them. And, when people get up at the funeral to talk about them, they have nothing but incredible things to say about them. The second kind of funeral I've attended is for someone who hurt and frustrated people, who lived a life that wasn't fruitful. And, when people get up to talk about them, because it's a funeral and you have to be polite and cordial, people have to cover up how we really felt about them. But if you had to be brutally honest, what would you say about that person?
I had an assignment when I was in college. This assignment sounded strange at first, but what I had to do was I had to imagine and plan out my future funeral service. Strange, huh?! I had to think about who would attend the funeral and what would they say about me. Awkward...I not only had to think about the people that I loved and who supported me and what they would say about my life, but I also had to think about my enemies and people who had wronged me and hurt me. What would they say about my life? That was a very hard reality.
(I gave the youth the opportunity to do something similar. I handed out pieces of paper and pens and asked them to write on one side of the paper eight people who love them, totally support them. Then I had them think of words those people would use to describe them. But I also had them do the opposite. On the other side of the paper, I had them try to list eight of their enemies, people who had it in for them, who hurt them. Then they had to think of words those people would use to describe them. I started looking around the room and saw lots of tears...God was totally working...)
Be brutally honest...what would those people say about you and the life you had lived? And, what if you had known someone and there was hurt that had developed. What if down the road, you had changed, grown and matured? You were living differently. But you never had the opportunity to go back to that person and say, listen, I've changed...I'm not the same. Maybe you even needed to apologize to that person, but you or that other person had their last breath on this earth and then were gone. Would you have regrets?
In Revelation 3, God describes a church called Sardis. He says this alarming reality to them: "I know your deeds, you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead."
How many of us are carrying around dead things in our life, but think we are alive? We played the Mummy Game at the beginning of youth group, and like that, we choose to carry around those dead Mummys, even when their bandages fall off and look gross, we try to patch them up and repair them...but their still dead! How many of us have those things that we know are dead in our lives, but we still choose to hold on to them? How many of us have those things we know we just need to be done with and leave them at the cross, realizes that Christ has paid it all...now walk alive in Christ?
Your good deeds, those great things you do for others, is not what matters. Those aren't necessarily what makes you who you are. Who are you before Christ? That's what matters.
Have you met your Maker? If you have, then make Him known.
We should live to leave a legacy.
Live each day, dying to your self, because you have been made alive in Christ. Trust God...He desires plans for your life, that will not harm you, but will give you a future and a hope...trust Him (Jer. 29:11).
(We worshiped a bit more. There were lots of tears...I could tell that God was really working, even in staff. I asked them if they needed a visual of those dead things being taken care of...to take a piece of paper, write those things down and leave it at the cross we had in the middle of the floor.)
Here are some questions to reflect on...
What areas of your life are selfish?
What areas are safe and comfortable? There is a Christian radio station whose motto is "Safe for the whole family." I can't stand that motto because Christianity is anything but safe. If you or I were in Sudan, we wouldn't even be meeting in a church, publically proclaming Christ or even singing songs of worship, especially as loud as we are. Every thing we have known, those comforts, would be stripped away. Your own family may even disown you. What areas of your life are safe and comfortable, because you need to be prepared to be shaken! Don't be safe just going through the motions...who are you really before God. Be brutally honest.
How do you love others?
How will you bring glory to God and say thanks to your Maker?
Matthew 10:32, Jesus is talking. He says, "Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. Whoever disowns me before men, I will disown before my Father in heaven."
That's the brutal honesty. That's the reality.
(I concluded in prayer, but I also made the staff available to them, if they needed prayer, etc. It was an incredible night...I'm so thankful to God for the work that he did...thankful he could use me...)
-Anna
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