SLS Retreat, Radical Christianity, and Being Busy

The Servant Leadership Staff returned today, and we had our SLS Retreat kickoff tonight at the pool.  Dr. Tatlock’s message was right-on and inspiring.  I have grown very frustrated with talking about radical Christianity and true discipleship, though.  Not because it’s a poor topic to talk about, but rather because it remains necessary to talk about it.  It’s high time to let our actions speak.  And if we hear silence, then we will know just what kind of people we are.

I am sensing the tug of daily details that disallow much focus throughout the day.  It is increasingly difficult to set my mind on things above in this always-particularly-busy month.  Cindi and I walked back to Oak Manor from the campus pool tonight, and even the 30 minutes that we were alone in the silence was quite refreshing.  There is a calm and a stillness that comes over my soul when I walk away from a crowd of people and the din fades and the heart relaxes.  I love my brothers and sisters, but I am very thankful for silence.  God so often draws near in those times in special ways.  The value system that our Father has prescribed is so clear and unmistakable and undebatable in those moments of tranquility — life is to be lived for Him and for His glory and for the raising high of Jesus Christ and His cross.

If you pray, please pray for me this week that my heart would be selfless and that I would sense my spiritual emptiness (“poor in spirit”) and would be filled with more of Christ and His character by the Spirit’s work through the Word.

A New School Year

The school year has begun.  RD Retreat started at the beginning of August, and RA Retreat was last week.  SLS Retreat is this week (beginning Monday night), and all the new students will arrive this coming Saturday.

There are many, many details to take care of, and it becomes quite difficult to remember all that needs to be done on any given day.  I’m very thankful for the few years of experience on staff that God has given me, and the hard times that it took to gain that experience.

My heart seems much more calm and steady than usual, by the Lord’s grace.  I think that it’s because I’ve been through this a number of times before now — experience is definitely a means of grace that God uses to guard me against anxiety.  But I do want to learn to trust Him more deeply and fully in the times when I’m facing situations in which I have no experience and no earthly constructs with which to process them.

As always, the year will be over before I can say “Maranatha.”  I pray that the quickness with which the past 23-and-a-half have passed by will be a lesson that I will remember throughout this year that is presently beginning.  This year is not mine — it belongs to Another — may I not waste it.