Tuesday 5 February 2013

Parties and Baptisms

I liked this weekend. For the last 9 years the first weekend of February has been truly special. Most of it has been because of the Snowflake youth retreat that always happens at this time. The last 6 years have also held an anniversary service for 24/7 Church and then a Super Bowl party right after.

It's really one of the best weekends of the year for me because I do something every day of it and it's a lot of fun. This year it was a bit different. I haven't attended Snowflake in 2 or 3 years now but something still happened on Saturday.

Friday I just rested at home. I had the option to do something if I wanted to, I just chose not to because I had already been doing something every other day during the week and I was tired. I also had to get up at 7am the next morning. I know, that's not horrible but I rarely wake up early on Saturday mornings. So I just went home after work and I just rested.

Saturday I went to a men's event at 24/7. Basically we watched a bunch of videos on what men need to be (according to the Bible... more on that at a later time) and talked about them in small groups.

In basic, they were talking about how men have become fairly quiet when it comes to properly balancing all life's parts together. I know this to be true. I have experienced it and I have seen it in other people. Our family and work lives have been blurred together and each part is demanding more time. How do we work with that? How do we deal with it well when we try to please everybody?

The videos gave some answers and left a few more things open (to be expected since it was a preview of a longer series). But it generally handled what a man is supposed to be very well. Although I'm expecting that my life will be a bit different than what the men in the videos were trying to portray (again, a topic for later). Overall it was informative and well done in its purpose. My criticism is that I didn't learn much; in fact it seemed to reinforce everything I already knew about what a man should be.

On Sunday, we had our anniversary service. It was great! The turnout was great. Four people were baptized! There was still a Super Bowl party and that was a lot of fun. I learned that my flip phone is now considered ancient among high school students... which is probably why I don't use it. I got to hang out with people I know and laugh at the special commercials with them.

All in all, it turned out to be a really good weekend. Perhaps it wasn't like a former high school weekend with a youth conference in Niagara Falls but it was still a lot of fun and a lot of good things happened that reflected what life has been like for the last year... or at least the last few months.

It gave me a greater appreciation of the smaller week-to-week experiences that I go through because without those small moments, the big moments aren't very big at all. This weekend throughout the next many years will probably maintain the significance whether I'm busy or not.

May you see the mundane things in life with a better appreciation for what they give you when you give to them. God bless all of you and have a great week.