The students with the Robbie Seay Band! I was'nt home for maybe twenty minutes on Sunday before I had caught two ego waffles on fire setting off the buzzers in my apartment building. This not out of the ordinary behaviour for me. I do stupid stuff all the time. However, I love that this particular incident occured right after I returned from taking my youth on a retreat. This incident got me to thinking...
Youth retreats are alot like flaming waffles.
The phoenema of youth retreats is nothing new to this great this nation. I love them. Students love them. They are opportunities to get away as a group, connect with eachother, and others like us through Christ. And hey! Its a chance for students to get away from their parents for a weekend. Which I have learned they love.
Now here is where the flaming waffles come in.
These retreats can be a double edge sword. We take our students, a.k.a the waffles, and put them in this enviroment, a.k.a. the toaster oven, where by they will be heated up in a short amount of time. The students are set on fire, thus bringing on feelings of conviction with passion. That conviction and passion is contagious. It lights up arenas and convention centers constantly at youth conferences. So we have these huge arenas full of passionate students, on fire, making noise, which is where the smoke alarm comes in. Their praising, raising hands, making committments, rededicating, praying. But then comes the time to leave. The timer has ticked and its time to take the flaming waffles out of the toaster oven.
And then they go back to their high schools. Their high schools where God has been forced out. Their back in that enviroment where they have learned what to say and not to say. What to do and what not to do. They are back in survival mode. That passion for Christ is often times extinguished.
It is a vicious cycle many students fall into; that youth pastors fall into. What we forget is that this radical way of living, this radical worship, this intimacy with Christ we experience at youth conferences, is the way God has intended for us to live. In his book, Crazy Love, Francis Chan says: " Lukewarm people call radical what Jesus expects of His believers." What a truth that is!
To AWAKE students,
You are a flaming waffle. You have been taken out of that passionate, crazy enviroment that was our Revolution retreat. Now you are burning in an enviroment where fire is not accepted. You smell. You are setting off alarms. You are suddenly aware that maybe being a flaming waffle is a bad thing. But dont give in. Christ longs to shine through your life. When gets tough remember Romans 5:3-5! Love you guys!
"Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you."
-Isaiah 60:1
