“His disciples asked him: Who sinned? This man or his parents that he was born blind.” John 9:2
“When Jesus saw how much faith they had, he said to the man, your sins are forgiven you, my friend.” Luke 5:20
What about sin? How does it apply to someone with a severe mental disability? The answer is most vividly portrayed in the story of the paralytic in Capernaum, from which our ministry has its name, and the answer comes from Jesus.
As this man is lowered in front of Jesus, there is a beautiful moment where Jesus looks up at this man’s four loyal “go through the roof” friends who will stop at nothing to get their friend to Jesus. Jesus sees their solid action packed faith. I’m sure he smiles and laughs and in the same breath turns to the paralytic.
It’s easy to think that Jesus spoke immediately when reading the text. But I imagine there was first a deep compassionate gaze at this man. And then he says, “Your sins are forgiven, my friend”.
Now we have no idea of the type of disability or severity of the paralysis. Jesus gives us a wonderful example as well as a theological instruction. He does not view the paralytic through his disability. He looks right past that as He looks deeply into his soul. The place of longings, hopes, fears, joy, worries, and…sin. He sees this man like all others; as one created in the image of God and that image marred by sin. Greater than the paralytic’s physical need is the need of his soul and that’s where Jesus directs his first contact.
After this he does address his physical needs by healing him and restoring him to the community. Jesus cares for both soul and body. We don’t see Jesus caring for his soul, while ignoring his body, nor do we see Jesus healing his body, while ignoring his soul. He does both, which all of us experience, especially at camp with our friends.
In this act Jesus thwarts the Pharisee’s theology which would have viewed the paralytic’s condition as the result of sin without believing there could be a reversal of his soul condition. By forgiving the paralytic, Jesus is restoring the man to full standing with God and with those in the community who sinned against him by making him an outcast to live in a relational exile.
Jesus is revealing forgiveness for sin and being sinned against. The paralytic is now empowered for new life. With God. With his friends. With the community. With himself. All because Jesus, friend of sinners, forgives the sin of all that come to him no matter ability or disability. At the end of John 9, Jesus indicates that true disability comes from refusing to acknowledge one’s own sin. All have sinned but not all recognize or believe this. Jesus offered forgiveness to the paralytic and he gladly received it.
Next week: The Cross
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Cracked Clay Pots - January 20 2011
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Gen 1:26 (NIV)
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life…” John 9:3 (NIV)
As we are in the 25th year of Young Life Capernaum, I thought it would be helpful to spend some time on what I have learned biblically and theologically as I have given my life to Christ and serve my friends with disabilities. So the next few reflections I write will focus on this.
It seems to me the most basic starting point concerns kids’ identity in this world. Are they accidents and unfortunate tragedies? Are they less than others because of mental disability? This is what much of our world believes and sadly the church is not all that different. However, these perceptions say a great deal more about our culture than they speak with any accuracy about our friends with disabilities.
It seems to me there are two central verses when it comes to looking at our friends with disabilities. In Genesis 1:26 we are told that all of humankind, male and female, is made in the image of God. All. Not some. Not just righteous, saved people. Not just physically or mentally whole. All!
This is how we see our friends and how we portray them to our culture. They are created in the image of God and because of this they are no less or more than anyone else. They are people made in the image of God who happen to have disabilities, rather than disabilities who happen to be kids with the image of God tucked away somewhere inside their souls.
One question that all of us have probably heard or asked ourselves is, “Are their bodies the result of the fall?” There is disagreement on this. I know people who say they will remain this way with their disabilities in heaven because to say otherwise would be to designate them as less than.
While I don’t pretend to believe I or anyone else can know with certainty, I don’t believe this. Just as I know I would want a new body in heaven, a desire that anyone who ages would readily welcome, I believe God’s creation of us is to have bodies that work as He designed them to work.
Jesus’ statement in John 9 to His disciples counters the idea that this means they are in some way defective. His disciples assumed the blind man was born blind as the result of sin; as a result of the fall. Jesus blows this to pieces saying that he was born this way to show the glory of God. And then Jesus heals him. This chapter, along with 2 Samuel 9 and Acts 3 are whole chapters focused on a person with a disability. In John 9 and Acts 3, the content of the chapters and the dialogue are a direct result of Jesus’ encounter with a person with a disability.
Here Jesus is saying to the blind man, to His disciples, and to all of us that the blind man is not a mistake. Instead he is the vehicle through which the glory of God is revealed in his disability. Haven’t we all experienced this with our friends at club in countless beautiful ways?
When we look at Paul’s reference to us as cracked clay jars where the treasure of Christ spills out, is this not especially true for our friends with disabilities? I believe our friends are a witness to all of us that God’s strength is perfected in weakness rather than in our strength and ability.
In this understanding, our friends with disabilities become our prophets and prophetesses – turning us away from the idol worship of power, success, and appearance. They call us to our gloriously flawed humanity while recognizing God does His greatest work in the lowly, ordinary, and weak in this world – cracked clay pots.
Paul in I Corinthians speaks of the Body of Christ and all its different members. At one point he states, “God himself has put our bodies together in such a way as to give greater honor to those parts that it lacked…” He also says that we cannot get along without parts of the body that seem to be weaker, and those parts we think aren’t worth very much are the ones we treat with greater care; while the parts of the body that don’t look very nice receive special attention, which the more beautiful parts of our body do not need.
In all this our friends are whole because they are created in the image of God, and yet like us they are human, fragile, and weak. God redeems this by reminding us it’s through our very weakness and disability that He most powerfully reveals Himself.
Next week we will look at sin.
Nick
"Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life…” John 9:3 (NIV)
As we are in the 25th year of Young Life Capernaum, I thought it would be helpful to spend some time on what I have learned biblically and theologically as I have given my life to Christ and serve my friends with disabilities. So the next few reflections I write will focus on this.
It seems to me the most basic starting point concerns kids’ identity in this world. Are they accidents and unfortunate tragedies? Are they less than others because of mental disability? This is what much of our world believes and sadly the church is not all that different. However, these perceptions say a great deal more about our culture than they speak with any accuracy about our friends with disabilities.
It seems to me there are two central verses when it comes to looking at our friends with disabilities. In Genesis 1:26 we are told that all of humankind, male and female, is made in the image of God. All. Not some. Not just righteous, saved people. Not just physically or mentally whole. All!
This is how we see our friends and how we portray them to our culture. They are created in the image of God and because of this they are no less or more than anyone else. They are people made in the image of God who happen to have disabilities, rather than disabilities who happen to be kids with the image of God tucked away somewhere inside their souls.
One question that all of us have probably heard or asked ourselves is, “Are their bodies the result of the fall?” There is disagreement on this. I know people who say they will remain this way with their disabilities in heaven because to say otherwise would be to designate them as less than.
While I don’t pretend to believe I or anyone else can know with certainty, I don’t believe this. Just as I know I would want a new body in heaven, a desire that anyone who ages would readily welcome, I believe God’s creation of us is to have bodies that work as He designed them to work.
Jesus’ statement in John 9 to His disciples counters the idea that this means they are in some way defective. His disciples assumed the blind man was born blind as the result of sin; as a result of the fall. Jesus blows this to pieces saying that he was born this way to show the glory of God. And then Jesus heals him. This chapter, along with 2 Samuel 9 and Acts 3 are whole chapters focused on a person with a disability. In John 9 and Acts 3, the content of the chapters and the dialogue are a direct result of Jesus’ encounter with a person with a disability.
Here Jesus is saying to the blind man, to His disciples, and to all of us that the blind man is not a mistake. Instead he is the vehicle through which the glory of God is revealed in his disability. Haven’t we all experienced this with our friends at club in countless beautiful ways?
When we look at Paul’s reference to us as cracked clay jars where the treasure of Christ spills out, is this not especially true for our friends with disabilities? I believe our friends are a witness to all of us that God’s strength is perfected in weakness rather than in our strength and ability.
In this understanding, our friends with disabilities become our prophets and prophetesses – turning us away from the idol worship of power, success, and appearance. They call us to our gloriously flawed humanity while recognizing God does His greatest work in the lowly, ordinary, and weak in this world – cracked clay pots.
Paul in I Corinthians speaks of the Body of Christ and all its different members. At one point he states, “God himself has put our bodies together in such a way as to give greater honor to those parts that it lacked…” He also says that we cannot get along without parts of the body that seem to be weaker, and those parts we think aren’t worth very much are the ones we treat with greater care; while the parts of the body that don’t look very nice receive special attention, which the more beautiful parts of our body do not need.
In all this our friends are whole because they are created in the image of God, and yet like us they are human, fragile, and weak. God redeems this by reminding us it’s through our very weakness and disability that He most powerfully reveals Himself.
Next week we will look at sin.
Nick
Being a friend - January 13 2011
“And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors as though God were making his appeal through us…” (2Corinthians 5:20)
As God in His grace and sovereignty blows on Young Life Capernaum’s growth around the world it is good to pause and remember who we are and who we are not.
I was so frightened and intimidated when I began Capernaum. I even said no when I was asked to become Area Director because I thought a “professional” had to lead this. I was wrong.
The beauty of what God has created is that He has called ordinary non-professionals to be friends to kids with disabilities and encounter Jesus with them. We are not occupational or physical therapists. Though some of us may be, it is still first to friendship and a ministry of reconciliation to which we are called.
Now, of course, we will learn how we can better serve our friends. We will be compelled to deal with a wider range of issues as we enter their world. We cannot ignore these issues if we truly want to be incarnational in our approach to them.
However, their worlds are filled with professionals. The key ingredient missing in their lives is friendship. It is what our friends long for and their parents desperately desire for them.
This is the place of our professionalism and confidence. It is being the best friend possible to kids. A friend that looks like, sounds like, and feels like Jesus. As we are friends like that, lives change, including ours.
So, dear friends, keep focused on who God has called us to be and live that out full throttle. May God give thousands of kids with disabilities a new friend this year as we venture into their lives.
A Friend of Kids,
Nick
As God in His grace and sovereignty blows on Young Life Capernaum’s growth around the world it is good to pause and remember who we are and who we are not.
I was so frightened and intimidated when I began Capernaum. I even said no when I was asked to become Area Director because I thought a “professional” had to lead this. I was wrong.
The beauty of what God has created is that He has called ordinary non-professionals to be friends to kids with disabilities and encounter Jesus with them. We are not occupational or physical therapists. Though some of us may be, it is still first to friendship and a ministry of reconciliation to which we are called.
Now, of course, we will learn how we can better serve our friends. We will be compelled to deal with a wider range of issues as we enter their world. We cannot ignore these issues if we truly want to be incarnational in our approach to them.
However, their worlds are filled with professionals. The key ingredient missing in their lives is friendship. It is what our friends long for and their parents desperately desire for them.
This is the place of our professionalism and confidence. It is being the best friend possible to kids. A friend that looks like, sounds like, and feels like Jesus. As we are friends like that, lives change, including ours.
So, dear friends, keep focused on who God has called us to be and live that out full throttle. May God give thousands of kids with disabilities a new friend this year as we venture into their lives.
A Friend of Kids,
Nick
Happy New Year - January 7 2011
He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 1:5)
Dear Team!
Happy and Blessed New Year to you! For me the ending of an old year and the unfolding of a new one is always an amazing sacred event.
I look back and realize that no matter how hard or good it was, God was faithful! Again. Another year that He provided, helped, forgave, encouraged, and changed me. I had so many monumental joys in 2010 in my life and ministry. I bet you did too. And I had the tragedy of my beloved brother’s death. I know many of us have had deep challenges, struggles, and tragedies as well. And yet with gratitude and joy we can truly say, “God is Faithful!” What a gift this is. I recorded 30 ways God met me in 2010 in my journal. I am so thankful and give glory to God.
As I begin my walk with Jesus in 2011 it’s with anticipation but also my continued grieving over what I’ve lost. Yet I see God constantly bringing life and resurrection out of this painful loss. I continue to look moment by moment of what God wants to do in me through my brother’s death and God continues to speak and weave.
I want to encourage you this year to be kind to everyone because everyone is fighting a hard battle. I want to encourage you to live with constant gratitude for all you have. I want to encourage you in your struggles to fix your eyes on Jesus and know that He will be faithful again in 2011. I want to encourage you to believe and expect wonders and miracles in your life and ministry from the God who makes all things new. I want to encourage you to believe God can move suddenly, in a breakthrough, in a place where you feel stuck. I want to encourage you to dream wild, ask big, and love large towards God, leaders, and kids in your ministry.
God goes before us in 2011! The best is yet to come! He won’t leave us or forsake us!
Be encouraged!
I am praying for you!
Nick
Dear Team!
Happy and Blessed New Year to you! For me the ending of an old year and the unfolding of a new one is always an amazing sacred event.
I look back and realize that no matter how hard or good it was, God was faithful! Again. Another year that He provided, helped, forgave, encouraged, and changed me. I had so many monumental joys in 2010 in my life and ministry. I bet you did too. And I had the tragedy of my beloved brother’s death. I know many of us have had deep challenges, struggles, and tragedies as well. And yet with gratitude and joy we can truly say, “God is Faithful!” What a gift this is. I recorded 30 ways God met me in 2010 in my journal. I am so thankful and give glory to God.
As I begin my walk with Jesus in 2011 it’s with anticipation but also my continued grieving over what I’ve lost. Yet I see God constantly bringing life and resurrection out of this painful loss. I continue to look moment by moment of what God wants to do in me through my brother’s death and God continues to speak and weave.
I want to encourage you this year to be kind to everyone because everyone is fighting a hard battle. I want to encourage you to live with constant gratitude for all you have. I want to encourage you in your struggles to fix your eyes on Jesus and know that He will be faithful again in 2011. I want to encourage you to believe and expect wonders and miracles in your life and ministry from the God who makes all things new. I want to encourage you to believe God can move suddenly, in a breakthrough, in a place where you feel stuck. I want to encourage you to dream wild, ask big, and love large towards God, leaders, and kids in your ministry.
God goes before us in 2011! The best is yet to come! He won’t leave us or forsake us!
Be encouraged!
I am praying for you!
Nick
Monday, June 21, 2010
What does it profit a man?
What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul? Luke 9:25
“Martha, Martha”, the Lord answered, “You are upset about many things but only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the best part and it will no be taken away from her.” Luke 10:42
Last week was a glorious week. Pam was here in San Jose with Amira and I. It is a rare experience when we get to spend time together in the same place, as friends and as a team. So we drove to Santa Cruz and had breakfast in my favorite place, Aldo’s. Aldo’s has an outdoor deck right on the ocean overlooking a lighthouse. We sat together basking in the sea air and the warmth of each other’s friendship. How I love and cherish my sisters.
We began a conversation that each of you reading this will understand. Where is the line of continued growth and our own limitations? This is a difficult question. We all love the Lord and His work. We love kids and we long for the Gospel to reach every kid with a disability in the world. It’s a grand and glorious vision. The problem comes when I think I have to pull this off and make this my work instead of the Lord’s work. The result can be catastrophic: weariness, being overwhelmed, frustration, anger, health, loss of quality in family and friends.
I believe Luke 9:25 is about more than being wrongly centered on material greed. I believe it can also read like this: What does it profit a person if they build the greatest and most expansive ministry, but lose their own soul. Is it possible to lose your own soul in ministry? The frightening and sobering answer is yes!
How do you do that?
• Believe that you are God and it is all up to you
• Say “yes” to everything
• Say “yes” without consulting the Holy Spirit
• Say “yes” without council from your community
• Live for an audience of multiple people, rather an audience of one
• Stack up days and days without a break
• Believe if you don’t do it then it won’t get done or done well
• Don’t exercise
• Eat poorly
• Believe you have no human limitations
• Stuff feelings rather than confessing to your friends
• Your “to-do” list is longer than your prayer list
• You talk way more to kids about God than to God about kids
• Believe you are a failure if it all doesn’t get done or the numbers aren’t big enough
Dearest friends, the YL Capernaum work is God’s. As Mother Teresa said, “We are just pencils in His hands. He uses us to write HIS story.” It takes discipline to remain a pencil and refuse seeking to become the author!
Living this and praying this with you
Nick
“Martha, Martha”, the Lord answered, “You are upset about many things but only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the best part and it will no be taken away from her.” Luke 10:42
Last week was a glorious week. Pam was here in San Jose with Amira and I. It is a rare experience when we get to spend time together in the same place, as friends and as a team. So we drove to Santa Cruz and had breakfast in my favorite place, Aldo’s. Aldo’s has an outdoor deck right on the ocean overlooking a lighthouse. We sat together basking in the sea air and the warmth of each other’s friendship. How I love and cherish my sisters.
We began a conversation that each of you reading this will understand. Where is the line of continued growth and our own limitations? This is a difficult question. We all love the Lord and His work. We love kids and we long for the Gospel to reach every kid with a disability in the world. It’s a grand and glorious vision. The problem comes when I think I have to pull this off and make this my work instead of the Lord’s work. The result can be catastrophic: weariness, being overwhelmed, frustration, anger, health, loss of quality in family and friends.
I believe Luke 9:25 is about more than being wrongly centered on material greed. I believe it can also read like this: What does it profit a person if they build the greatest and most expansive ministry, but lose their own soul. Is it possible to lose your own soul in ministry? The frightening and sobering answer is yes!
How do you do that?
• Believe that you are God and it is all up to you
• Say “yes” to everything
• Say “yes” without consulting the Holy Spirit
• Say “yes” without council from your community
• Live for an audience of multiple people, rather an audience of one
• Stack up days and days without a break
• Believe if you don’t do it then it won’t get done or done well
• Don’t exercise
• Eat poorly
• Believe you have no human limitations
• Stuff feelings rather than confessing to your friends
• Your “to-do” list is longer than your prayer list
• You talk way more to kids about God than to God about kids
• Believe you are a failure if it all doesn’t get done or the numbers aren’t big enough
Dearest friends, the YL Capernaum work is God’s. As Mother Teresa said, “We are just pencils in His hands. He uses us to write HIS story.” It takes discipline to remain a pencil and refuse seeking to become the author!
Living this and praying this with you
Nick
Thursday, May 13, 2010
When There Is No Empty Day
How’s your schedule? Is it like mine? Non-stop demands, limitless emails, phone calls, tasks, family to pay attention to, little league games, school concerts, church, friends to care for and other problems or illnesses that affect you. Is it even possible to find an empty day?
I have been wrestling with this lately. Most of the things are good, but still there is a drain when you have to be “constantly on” so to speak. I am faithful to my time with the Lord, which is my sanity, but once I leave that time, it feels like a flood breaks and drowns me. I have found out three things that I must commit to do:
1) Practice mini Sabbaths throughout the day. A moment here, a moment there. I stop; I close the office door or take a 5-minute walk and breath in the Lord’s presence.
2) A monthly day of solitude. All technology off for the day, the challenge at the heart of this is: Do I believe I am God? Or do I believe God is God. Do I believe that I run my ministry or that God runs my ministry? I suspect we often believe we are God.
3) Sit with friends weekly. Share and pour out our hearts. Confess our anxieties and pray together and for one another.
I know we probably know these things. That is never the problem. The question is do we practice these things? I pray for you and myself this Psalm:
My heart is not proud O Lord. My eyes are not haughty. I do not concern
myself with great matters or things too difficult for me. But I have
stilled and quieted my soul like a content child at its mother’s
breast, like a contented child is my soul within me. O Israel!
O Capernaum! Put your hope in the Lord both now and forever more.
Psalm 131
Seeking the Lord as my contentment,
Nick
I have been wrestling with this lately. Most of the things are good, but still there is a drain when you have to be “constantly on” so to speak. I am faithful to my time with the Lord, which is my sanity, but once I leave that time, it feels like a flood breaks and drowns me. I have found out three things that I must commit to do:
1) Practice mini Sabbaths throughout the day. A moment here, a moment there. I stop; I close the office door or take a 5-minute walk and breath in the Lord’s presence.
2) A monthly day of solitude. All technology off for the day, the challenge at the heart of this is: Do I believe I am God? Or do I believe God is God. Do I believe that I run my ministry or that God runs my ministry? I suspect we often believe we are God.
3) Sit with friends weekly. Share and pour out our hearts. Confess our anxieties and pray together and for one another.
I know we probably know these things. That is never the problem. The question is do we practice these things? I pray for you and myself this Psalm:
My heart is not proud O Lord. My eyes are not haughty. I do not concern
myself with great matters or things too difficult for me. But I have
stilled and quieted my soul like a content child at its mother’s
breast, like a contented child is my soul within me. O Israel!
O Capernaum! Put your hope in the Lord both now and forever more.
Psalm 131
Seeking the Lord as my contentment,
Nick
Friday, May 7, 2010
Proclaim Jesus!
The apostles left the Sanhedrin rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day in the temple courts and from house to house they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the Good News that Jesus is the Christ! (Acts 5:41-42)
I am studying the Book of Acts. It is amazing! Pentecost comes and Peter gives a club talk and all of a sudden they have a Campaigner group of 3000. After this, the first ministry act post Pentecost was the healing of a man with a disability at the Gate Beautiful near the Temple. Isn’t this just like God? A person with a disability daily ignored and passed by and seen as a wretch, has basically a sign over him saying “Beautiful.” On this day, Peter and John do not pass him by, but instead heal him in Jesus’ name.
Now things really start to get out of control. Peter and John get in trouble for preaching Jesus while 2000 more are added to their number. The disciples are flogged and get this! They go away rejoicing that they could suffer for the sake of the Name. They report all this to their community. They don’t get into a planning session about how they are going to care for 5000 new believers. Instead they pray for more boldness to speak the Name. They pray for more signs and wonders from the Holy Spirit. They pray for a greater telling of the Good News and more fruit. Then their meeting place is shook and the Holy Spirit is poured out again. Wow!
Does this blow your mind like it does mine? Their strategy seems to be simple and unspoken amongst them: Proclaim Jesus! Fellowship with each other daily and pray for more boldness, signs and wonders. And wrapped up in all this is an incredible sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to let the Spirit blow and flow as He wills. They stay out of the way. They seek to fall into this wild raging river of the Holy Spirit. They are relaxed with being out of control and not knowing what is going to happen next.
There is also a beautiful sense of unselfconsciousness. They have truly died to self and are alive to God and each other. Isn’t it true when we are swept up into God’s business we have little time to be annoyed by one another? What does this all mean? I am not fully sure but I am going to concentrate on waiting on the Holy Spirit and then in His fire and wind around my life doing three things:
1) Proclaim Jesus to Kids’ boldly
2) Fellowship daily with fellow staff
3) Pray for signs and wonders
Holy Spirit fall on all of us in YL Capernaum. Stretch out your hand with signs, wonders, healings and miracles. Holy Spirit set YL Capernaum ablaze as a wild fire throughout Young Life and beyond. O Lord, add thousands of kids with disabilities to our number. Grant us boldness to proclaim your Name. Let our fellowship be sweet and deep. Immerse us in prayer and we rejoice in all this when we suffer for your Name. We are yours. Let us be resilient! Let us glorify you and rejoice that we bear your Name – Christ-ones!
Out of Control,
Nick
I am studying the Book of Acts. It is amazing! Pentecost comes and Peter gives a club talk and all of a sudden they have a Campaigner group of 3000. After this, the first ministry act post Pentecost was the healing of a man with a disability at the Gate Beautiful near the Temple. Isn’t this just like God? A person with a disability daily ignored and passed by and seen as a wretch, has basically a sign over him saying “Beautiful.” On this day, Peter and John do not pass him by, but instead heal him in Jesus’ name.
Now things really start to get out of control. Peter and John get in trouble for preaching Jesus while 2000 more are added to their number. The disciples are flogged and get this! They go away rejoicing that they could suffer for the sake of the Name. They report all this to their community. They don’t get into a planning session about how they are going to care for 5000 new believers. Instead they pray for more boldness to speak the Name. They pray for more signs and wonders from the Holy Spirit. They pray for a greater telling of the Good News and more fruit. Then their meeting place is shook and the Holy Spirit is poured out again. Wow!
Does this blow your mind like it does mine? Their strategy seems to be simple and unspoken amongst them: Proclaim Jesus! Fellowship with each other daily and pray for more boldness, signs and wonders. And wrapped up in all this is an incredible sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to let the Spirit blow and flow as He wills. They stay out of the way. They seek to fall into this wild raging river of the Holy Spirit. They are relaxed with being out of control and not knowing what is going to happen next.
There is also a beautiful sense of unselfconsciousness. They have truly died to self and are alive to God and each other. Isn’t it true when we are swept up into God’s business we have little time to be annoyed by one another? What does this all mean? I am not fully sure but I am going to concentrate on waiting on the Holy Spirit and then in His fire and wind around my life doing three things:
1) Proclaim Jesus to Kids’ boldly
2) Fellowship daily with fellow staff
3) Pray for signs and wonders
Holy Spirit fall on all of us in YL Capernaum. Stretch out your hand with signs, wonders, healings and miracles. Holy Spirit set YL Capernaum ablaze as a wild fire throughout Young Life and beyond. O Lord, add thousands of kids with disabilities to our number. Grant us boldness to proclaim your Name. Let our fellowship be sweet and deep. Immerse us in prayer and we rejoice in all this when we suffer for your Name. We are yours. Let us be resilient! Let us glorify you and rejoice that we bear your Name – Christ-ones!
Out of Control,
Nick
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