I have the best students. After being out sick all of last week one of my girls came back with this sweet birthday poster full of candy. Then Rachel brought in this canvas with a quote that I'm all about and is now proudly hanging on my wall. I love their creativity.
Lent begins this week. In the past couple years I haven't done anything for it in part to my frustration that it's become a diet of giving up sweets, fast food and pop for everyone I talk to. I have to believe the intention of Lent was not for all Christians to lose weight. At church on Sunday I was struck at the words, "Lent is about shifting our focus from us to Christ." This year we're going to have a Lent Project-- a new challenge each week that we can all do together to help us shift our focus.
This week's challenge is to pray for 5 minutes a day. Set an alarm on your phone to wake up 5 minutes earlier or to spend 5 minutes right before you go to bed. You can pray in your head, make a list of things you're thankful for, pray specifically for other people, journal or write a letter to God. Just 5 minutes. We can handle that.
I'm so excited about the theme of purity and relationships we're jumping into for the next few weeks of Campaigners. Tonight we watched Rob Bell's Flame Nooma video about the way God created love. It's definitely worth checking out. We split into groups by gender and had such an awesome open conversation about the three flames-- friendship, commitment and romantic love-- and how those are designed to work together to fully satisfy. At the end of the conversation the girls wrote down questions they have for the guys. We'll come back to those another week. I'm excited that this will be an ongoing conversation and think there is so much for us to talk about.
We want the very best that God has to offer these girls. I know that some of the things we talk about in Campaigners are new ideas they've never heard before because they're so different then what society tells us is normal. We're about creating a new standard, higher expectations and a life following God that just works better.
After Campaigners one of our girls wrote this incredible testimony on Instagram, "I came to Young Life thinking it would be just another thing I'd have to go to and not really understand what they were trying to say to me. But I was too curious to stay away. So I went the first time to Club and that was ok but I didn't know anyone so I didn't really connect, like always. I can't ever seem to truly connect to something new. But then it wasn't that I wanted to go to Young Life at the beginning, I just couldn't stay away. This "club" isn't even that... It's a family that loves and cares for you just as much as the one you have at home. This family is held together by the hands of God himself. I don't know what I'd do without it."
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