It has been a fantastic weekend, and I'm feeling really grateful for a lot of reasons. A few weeks ago, my uncle had major surgery for long cancer, and last week my brother and I went to visit him in the SICU. I was pretty apprehensive about it, since I knew it might be a little awkward and a little scary seeing my uncle with tubes coming out of him. Even though my parents are nurses and I'm generally comfortable with hospitals, I've never really had to see a family member in the hospital. Anyway, I'm really glad that I ended up visiting. We had small talk, and my uncle was a very good sport about it all. He's usually the first to complain about something, but he seemed to be much calmer, knowing that his life was in someone else's hands. It was an interesting thing to witness. I felt a closeness to and a gratitude for his presence, and it's been a long time coming.
Then on Friday, I helped cook breakfast and lunch for the girls' retreat, which was great. I always get a lot of joy out of serving meals, and the gratitude that they had for the volunteers was overwhelming. It reinforced my ministry for me, which was a good feeling. Friday night, I got to spend some time at home and dress shopping with my mother and sister. Then, Saturday my sister and I spent the whole day together, walking around town and then going to a concert together. Lastly, this afternoon, I went to her dance recital, which was bittersweet for me. I used to be a dancer, and it was a little sad to see my baby sister in her very last dance recital. It was a cool moment, though.
The best part of the weekend, however, was my youth group meeting tonight. One of my girls was on the retreat this weekend, and I was a little nervous that she wouldn't get anything out of it. She doesn't usually speak during meetings, and she doesn't ever seem very interested in what we're doing, so I wasn't sure what a 4-day encounter style retreat would do for her. But here's the amazing thing: she wouldn't shut up about it! She was telling EVERYONE about how awesome the retreat was, and how she grew to love her "sisters" in Christ...and how she finally felt how deeply God loved her.
Wow! Here I am, worrying that she wouldn't like the retreat, and God surprises me again. He worked through the team, the people mentoring her, and the elements of the retreat to speak to her. She felt His love and His presence, and it was so beautiful to hear her reflect on it. When she talked about the retreat, her eyes lit up. It was like the Spirit came alive in her. It was such a proud moment for me as a youth minister, seeing a transformation like that. It made me remember my first retreat, and how the Spirit worked through me. I remember telling MY youth group about it, and trying to explain the unexplainable. It was a great moment for me, and I felt like she and I bonded over this experience...even though I wasn't on the retreat, I understood what she felt, because I've felt it before. And the best part is that she is now planning on attending a leadership training retreat so that she can be on the next retreat as a leader. And she wants to do our summer mission trip, too.
God is so, so good. That's really the point of this post. I so often forget that God works wonders in our lives. And it's not always a big deal...sometimes, it's the little things. I felt the presence of God both at my sister's dance recital and during youth group tonight. I feel it on the top of a mountain overlooking the Hudson Valley while also feeling it serving food to hungry retreatants. That's the beauty of God: He is everywhere. Not only is He everywhere: He just Is. He is the underlying current supporting our very humble human experience. God is the peace in the storm while at the same time being the catalyst that begins a spiritual revolution.
That's a God that I believe in. And He is good...all the time. May you see the presence of God in the ordinary and extraordinary of your lives.
Peace.
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