To Save a Life: Week 4 Review

Group Stats:
8 students

• 0 new
• 8 returning

We had a successful night last night discussing how we can not only re-write our own story, but how we can help other’s to re-write their story.

We started with a review of last week. We spent some time talking about the various challenges the students had for the week. Most of them participated in at least one of the challenges and they were eager to share their stories.

One of the challenges involved them sitting alone somewhere around their school. In most cases, the students did not have to wait long for someone to approach them and either, start talking to them, or straight up ask them, “Why are you sitting alone?” A few of the students even met new people through the exercise. Each student that did it got something different from the experience. It was interesting to listen to them talk about it. It was also apparent that each of the students has a good group of friends and sitting alone was not normal for them.

We also spent a few minutes reminding ourselves of the message from last week. We remembered that it is typically our lack of faith that is the reason why we are not doing more/saying more to our peers about their salvation.

I prayed for the evening and went over, briefly, what the purpose of the class was. We then jumped right into the movie clip.

In the clip, Jake’s girlfriend is sitting in her car outside the abortion clinic contemplating what to do. She is in tears. At the same time, Jake is coming to the realization that he needs to re-write his life to show his girlfriend that he loves her and that he is there for her. He is finally able to find her and tell her his plans; he is giving up his college dreams so that he can be there with her through this. By this point, she has already decided not to go through with the abortion.

Jake says to her that she has spent her whole life trying to please others. She has tried to live up to everyone else’s expectation of her.

I think this is something most of us could relate to. We believe things about ourselves based on what others tell us, or what we assume they think about us. And, we try to live up to unrealistic expectations and always fall short.

These ideas led us into the activity for the evening. Each person in the class, including myself, took a piece of paper and wrote something negative about themselves at the top of the paper. We then taped those pieces of paper up around the room. These ’loglines’ described us, as we see ourselves, based on our experience. Some examples are:

“I am not man enough”
“I am a fake”
“People take advantage of me because I am too nice”
“I put too much pressure on myself to do well in school”

…and so on

Once all the papers were up on the wall, we all walked around and re-wrote each other’s story. We turned the negative into a positive. See if you can do the same for the loglines above.

After everyone was done we sat down and talked about the exercise. We discussed what it was like to read what people wrote to us. Everyone agreed that it felt good to know that we are cared for. Likewise, we also discussed how it felt to re-write other peoples’ loglines. It gave us power. One student felt ‘wise.’ And, we all liked knowing that we were helping other people.

From the exercise we transitioned into the message for the evening which discussed how we define ourselves by false impressions given to us by the world, and how we can overcome that false thinking through God. We talked about how God’s gift of salvation has washed us clean of all of those past failures, mistakes, and sins which we have used to define ourselves.

We closed with the challenge for next week which is to think of someone whose life we can help re-write, and do it.

To Save a Life: Week 4 Message

Your Life: Rebooted

Who are you? I mean, when you look in the mirror in the morning, what do you see?

A lot of people see pain. They see weakness. They see failure. They see someone who is worthless, unwanted, and not good enough.

Why are these things the first thing we see when we look at ourselves?

I think it is because that is what other people have told us to see. Our life experience in this world tells us one thing. God, as we are learning, tells us another.

There was a woman named Margaret who sought professional help from a psychologist because she was in a deep depression. After diving into her life’s history the psychologist was able to pinpoint a moment in time when her issues began.

As a child, Margret was constantly late to school for whatever reason. In order to teach her a lesson her teacher her had her stand at the front of the class and, one by one, each student walked up to the chalk board and wrote something negative about the young girl. As you can imagine, her fellow classmates did not have her feelings in mind. They wrote all kind of wicked things about her. They wrote that she was ugly, useless, and dumb. They made fun of the way she looked, the way she smelled, the way she talked, and the way she dressed. By the end of the exercise little Margret was in tears. And every day after that she thought about all the things her classmates said about her. Day after day, month after month, year after year she repeated these things to herself. She believed they were all true. And this sent her into her depression. She was filled with sadness, anger, and resentment.

The psychologist asked her to re-live that day in her mind. He wanted her to, one more time, watch every student get up from their desk, take the chalk, and write on the board. Margret had no problem doing this, as she had done it so many times before, and so she went about the task of re-living all 25 things that those students wrote.

When she thought she was done, the psychologist reminded her of one last kid in the class. She resisted. She knew for sure that she had gone through everyone.

He told her, “No, there is one more. Do you see him? He is sitting in the back of the classroom. He is standing up now, walking to the front of the room, taking the chalk from the teacher and setting it down on the ledge of the chalkboard. Now he is picking up the eraser and erasing all those things that were written. He picks up the chalk again and writes new things…

Margret is beautiful.
Margret is loved.
Margret is strong.
Margret has great courage.”

…and on and on

The psychologist explained that the little boy was Jesus and that through Him all those bad things she thought about herself were washed away. Through Him, her life story was rebooted.

Our parents, teachers, and friends have tried to convince us that certain things about us are true. And it always seems like the mistakes we make in life validate what they said. We let our screw-ups, our failures, and our sins define who we are.

But who are we really?

We are the creation of the most almighty being in the universe. We were conceived and created by the same God that created the planets, the sun, and the stars and who set it all in perfect motion. And, He made us in His image. If He is the king of the universe and we are His creation, than that makes us princes, and princesses. And, because we choose Him…because we have accepted the gift of eternal life that He has offered us, that makes us heirs to the greatest kingdom ever! We get to spend eternity in heaven, surrounded by pure love. Does that sound like a place for losers and failures, for weaklings, and people who aren’t god enough?

Yes. We will fail. Most of you haven’t even come close to the biggest mistake/failure of your life. But that doesn’t define who you are. What our failures do is help us to put more and more of our trust in God.

Romans 5:3-4 (NLT)

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.

This says to me that the more crap we face in our lives, the stronger our character will be. And the stronger our character is, the more confident we can be in our own salvation. When we realize that we can’t stop the crap from happening, and that we can’t fix ourselves, then we find out that we must turn to God and let Him erase our failures. In doing so, we find we can endure more of the crap the world will throw at us.

When we let go of all the bad stuff on the chalk board that is our life, and let God erase it, then we begin to understand just how much we are loved. We find out that we don’t need to seek validation from this world because we have already been validated.  When we seek validation from our parents, teachers, bosses, and peers, we will be let down. They are people, like us, dealing with their own sense of self-worth. When we understand that God has already given us everything we are looking for (i.e. love, affection, worth) then we can boldly move forward in our lives, confident in ourselves, and with full knowledge that God has truly saved us.

Who are you now?

To Save a Life: Week 4 Thoughts

I’m very excited to see where this week’s lesson takes us. We have bonded as a group, people are opening up to let the group help them heal, and we are all there to not just help each other, but to reach out to the hurting, outside of the group, and offer them a better way.

This week we will continue with healing for the group. We will rewrite our stories to steer them in a positive direction.

We know that with God all things are possible. Yet, when we look at our own lives we see that they haven’t quite gone the way we had hoped or expected. And many times, when we are in he midst of our own lives; our own worries, fears, and hangups, it is hard to see the positive.

Galatians 6:2 says, “Bear one another’s burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ.”

This week we will learn how to bear each other’s burdens and give each other an alternate perspective on each other’s lives. In the process, this will help us follow the law of Christ, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and mind…and to love our neighbor as ourself.

So yeah, it should be a good week.

Also, if you are reading this, and you are hurting in some way, need prayer, or just someone to listen. Please feel free to reach out to me. You can leave a comment below or email me at rvanas78 at gmail dot com.

“We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.” (Romans 5:3-4 NLT)

To Save a Life: Week 3 Review

Say Something…Do Something

Group Stats:
12 students

• 1 new
• 11 returning

We had a very good class last night. More and more students are participating in the discussion and I love to hear their point of view on these topics. And, several of the students are taking what we discuss out into the world and reaching out to their peers. All credit to God for using this time to talk to each and every student that joins us week in and week out.

We opened with a review of last week’s lesson. We were reminded of Roger’s monologue in the movie and that we are all just pennies.

I was exhausted going into class. I felt like it was difficult to focus and despite writing out the message, I still didn’t feel like I was 100% confident in covering the topic for the week. I don’t know if it was lack of preparation or had just been a long day, but part of me did not want to be there. Hmmm…who could have been behind that kind of attack??

I explained to the class how I was feeling tired and not fully with it and then we prayed for the evening. Just taking that few moments to focus on God; to invite him into our class and be a part of our journey was enough to help center me. Anyways, the more we have to rely on God, the more He can do. So, if I am exhausted and out of focus, then I have to give it all over to Him which makes for a much better situation.

This week we watched a clip from the movie where the youth pastor discusses judgment. He asks the youth group to take a moment to think about who they have judged. Jake, the main character, tries to focus on the task, but is interrupted by all the talking in the room. He observes that no one is doing what Chris asked and is genuinely distraught by the situation. He jumps to his feet and grabs the attention of the youth group. He explains how his girlfriend just left the group because she felt judged (it was her first night there). He poses a question to the group; what is the point of all this if you aren’t going to let it change you? Meaning, what’s the point of going to youth group, and listening to the pastor speak God’s truths, if you aren’t going to let His word have an impact on your life? Chris asks what the other students should be doing. The group (most of them) decides that they should meet up for lunch together at school.

This scene kicked off a discussion about judgment. I hadn’t really planned on this conversation, but I figured it was something we could all relate to. I asked who in the room had every felt judged and everyone raised their hand. We began to share stories about different situations we had all faced; how we had been judged by our age, or our appearance, being in the wrong place at the wrong time or just around people where we didn’t fit their mold. Likewise, we all agreed that we had judged others. And we shared stories about that.

One of the things we concluded was that it was near impossible not to judge people in some way. We all have our ideas of how people should be and when someone doesn’t fit into that picture, then we tend to judge. That judgment may not be a condemning judgment, nor would it even affect the way we treated another human. But, it is judgment none the less and something we need to be aware that we do.

We probably could have talked for another 2 hours on the topic. They all had a lot to share. But, I was feeling like we were moving off topic and there was quite a bit of people talking over people. We were losing focus on respect for each other. So, I brought it to a close and we moved into small group.

In their ‘family groups’ I asked them to discuss the scene from the movie and talk about how they would have reacted if they had been sitting in that room. I also asked them to discuss what things they could do to “let this change them.”

While sitting back and listening to the two groups talk, I could tell they were still very much interested in discussing judgment; how they had been judged, and how they had judged others. Some of the people tried to stay on task and discuss how they would have reacted in that room. They discussed an actual situation we had happen a couple weeks ago in the main high school youth group where a student stood up and spoke out. He challenged the group to stop being such cowards about their faith (like he said he had been). It was a moment most of those kids will not soon forget, and the student received very positive feedback from his peers about being so brave.

Another thing I was able to observe was that the group has bonded over the past few weeks. This was the first night where we really felt like a group. Part of me feels that’s a great thing, especially since everyone is sharing now and everyone feels comfortable, but another part of me feels like perhaps we need to stay in that uncomfortable place and reach out and bring in some new faces. Pray on that one for me.

After 10 minutes of discussion I pulled the students back into one group and gave the message for the week.

I wanted to challenge their faith. I want them to be conscious of their responsibility as believers and followers of Christ. And so I talked about what it means to follow Christ and what responsibilities go along with that. I asked them if they truly did believe what they say they believe and challenged them to really think about that a various times in their everyday life. It’s easy to be a believer amongst believers. But how willing are we to stand up for what we believe when we are surrounded by the world?

They closed in prayer in groups of 2-3 and I was amazed at how quickly they jumped into prayer. They are being real with each other and I think that’s so great. Pray that God continues His good work in our group. Pray that he protects all of us over the next week from evil. And, as always, pray that His will be done not just in our group, but all over the world.

To Save a Life: Week 3 Message

Say Something…Do Something

Revelations 3:15-16 (NLT)

15 “I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! 16 But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth!

This is a pretty hard couple of verses to swallow. It’s saying that you should either be on fire for God, or not about God at all because in both cases, God can use you for His glory. It’s saying, get off the fence and make a decision because otherwise you are trying to serve two masters. You can’t be one way around your family, school friends, or co-workers, and be another way here at church.

I think most of us in the room fall somewhere between lukewarm and hot; if we are to assume the ‘hot’ is good in this case. If we are on fire for God then He can use us to do His will. If we are lukewarm then we are sitting on the sidelines, watching the game happen, but unwilling to get in there and play. Does God still love you if you are lukewarm? Absolutely! But there isn’t a whole lot he can do with us if he is asking us to go out in the world and show His love to others and we continually refuse to obey.

We all love God. We have all made a commitment to God. We have all given our lives over to Him and accepted Jesus as our savior. Our sins have been washed away and we expect to spend eternity in heaven. Awesome! We’ve bought the insurance policy and are set. But there is more we can do.

As believers, we are His ambassadors. We represent heaven on Earth. Does that make us perfect? No. Does that mean we can judge people? No. What it gives us is a responsibility to love. We are now meant to reach out and let people know about the amazing thing God did for us when He sacrificed His son to show His love for us so that we could have eternity in heaven.

So why is it so hard to say something to those people who we see and who we know are hurting? Why is it so hard to do something when there is so much pain happening around us?

I think what it boils down to is the strength of our faith. We don’t say or do something because we don’t fully believe it could make a difference. If we did, then we wouldn’t care what our friends, or family members, would say about us. If our faith was strong then we wouldn’t hesitate to go out and do what God has called us to do. We wouldn’t justify sitting on the side lines and watching the game go on around us.

If we were strong in our faith we would let ourselves continually be changed by God’s word. So ask yourself, “Do I really believe in all this? Am I willing to let it change me?”

Don’t answer right now…not sitting in this room here at church surrounded by other believers.

Ask yourself when it is just you, sitting in your room; when the only One who can hear you is God.

Ask yourself when you are out with your friends on the weekends and you just want to have a good time, but you see someone in emotional pain.

Ask yourself when you are at work and your co-workers are talking about the crazy things they did over the weekend and you have a choice to tell them about what you heard at church, or what you read in the Bible…or will you skip over that stuff and just tell them about the fun you had?

Ask yourself, “Do I really believe in all this? Am I willing to let it change me?” when you are standing at the line, about to cross over into sin, and see what your answer is then.

And when you are ready to answer “yes” to both those questions, then it is time to figure out the next step. What changes can you make? In the movie, To Save a Life, the students decided to come together at school and eat lunch. Doing so gave them a sense of community and the confidence to reach out and find students that were hurting and give them a place where they would be accepted. That worked for them. What will work for you?

Don’t let this world make you lukewarm. Choose to say something. Choose to do something. You’ll be amazed at what God can do with you.

To Save a Life: Week 3 Thoughts

I am very much looking forward to this week’s group meeting. It will again be challenging, but if it were easy then it wouldn’t be effective.

One of the most eye opening scenes in the movie happens when the main character poses the question, “What is the point of all this if you don’t let it change you?”

He is speaking about youth group, or perhaps just being a follower of Jesus. What is the point of reading the Bible, getting together in small groups and discussing the word, going to church on Sunday, and everything else we do as ‘Christians’ if we aren’t letting it change how we fundamentally view the world and act in it?

It’s a tough question and one that we all must answer. There is no sense in being a covert Christian; in hiding what you believe to not seem alien to the rest of the world, yet so many of us, including myself, are guilty of this. We fit in to different groups in different ways. We act one way a church and then another at work, school, with our families, and in our various social circles.

We are going to discuss this idea this week and figure out how we can let this change us; how we can begin to let the Holy Spirit move in our lives so that God’s will can be done.

My prayer this week is that we can continue where we left off last week and move towards healing in our own lives so that God can use us to reach out to those people around us who are hurting and lonely. I pray that we can move forward unashamed of our faith. Please pray with me.

To Save a Life: Week 2 Review

You’re Not Alone

Praise God. We had an excellent class last night. I think we had 11 students; 2 were new.

We began the class by reviewing what we learned last week. We talked about the clip from the movie we watched last week and reminded ourselves that God loves all of us, and not just all of us who were sitting in that room, but ALL of us, regardless of how cool we are, or aren’t; regardless of how weird we are, how ugly we are, or how lonely we are. And, when we face challenges in life, God will never give us more than we can handle.

The discussion started out well. A few people had trouble remembering what we went over last week, but once we started talking, everyone else remembered. It was a great opportunity to fill in the two new people as well.

We prayed for the night.

We watched another clip from the movie, To Save a Life. In this clip we get to hear Roger’s inner monologue and find out what lead him to his suicide. He wrote his thoughts out in a blog post on a social network that Jake, the main character, finds after Roger’s suicide. Roger felt alone. He felt ignored. He felt like he could walk into a crowded room and scream and no one would hear him. He felt as if he kept crying out for help, but no one would listen. He knew he was unhappy. And, the accumulation of all these feelings brought him to a place where he felt that killing himself was the only way to escape.

After the clip I asked the group how they would feel if they were reading the same thing from one of their friends. They replied that they would feel upset, mad at themselves, angry, and guilty. Then I asked them how they would feel if they read the same thing, but their friend was still alive. We all agreed that, much like Johnny in the movie, we would feel like our friend was not serious or that they were doing it for attention. Most of us knew someone who used similar tactics to gain attention, but who were ultimately not realistically considering suicide. We agreed that it was difficult to know how to deal with this kind of thing. We also discussed whether or not Roger did all he could do. After all, his own mother didn’t even know he was hurting and when he went to youth group, he didn’t stay long enough to really give it a chance. To Roger, it must have felt like enough, but he had probably already made up his mind that his only option was suicide. When you have completely isolated yourself from the rest of the world, your options must seem very limited.

The next activity we did was called, Walk Across the River. We all stood on one side of the room and I read various statements that all began with, “Please walk across the river if…”

We had various phrases that ended that sentence. For example,

“Please walk across the river if you are stressed out.”

“Please walk across the river if you’re parent s are divorced.”

The statements go on and on and get more personal each time.

In each case, the people to whom the statement applied would walk across the room. What we were able to determine from this activity, and the subsequent small group conversations, was that we had all, at some point, felt hurt, abandoned, and/or alone. The students, I believe, were very honest in the stories they shared with their groups. The pain that we so often cover up was revealed and we began to show our true selves, not for attention, not for outdoing each other’s stories, not because misery loves company, but for healing.

We also determined that if each of us has felt that pain, then it must be pretty common. In fact, we could probably assume that everyone on the planet has felt a similar pain. And, in most cases, that pain was caused by someone else; another human, a friend, a family member, a boyfriend/girlfriend, a teacher, and so on. So if everyone has been hurt by someone else, then there is only One in whom we can put our full trust. God is the only one who will never let us down, who will always be there for us, who will never stab us in the back, take advantage of us, abuse us, or leave us.

The mood was serious at this point. God was moving, the Holy Spirit was working, and we were all realizing different things about how we have been treated, and how we have treated others. Hopefully, the students were getting this idea of just how much God loves them. Hopefully, they are beginning to understand how much they need Him in their lives.

As this was sinking in we began the message for the week which I have also posted. It is based on the message provide in the series and stems from a talk that the character Chris, in the movie, gave to his youth group regarding peoples’ value and how people value others. In it, I talked about how we assign a worth to the people we meet, and how Jesus teaches us what our true worth is. There was some good discussion that came out of it.

We ended the evening in prayer. Each student found another student whom they may not be well acquainted with and prayed together for God to show them who in their life they need to reach out to, and when God shows them that person, or people, that they will have the courage to be obedient to God’s call and reach out so that God can work through them and His will be done.

Overall, I was very pleased with the evening and look forward to next week’s lesson, Say Something…Do Something.

To Save a Life: Week 2 Message

We Are All Pennies

Throughout our lives we have encountered many people. And, each time we meet someone new we subconsciously assign a worth to that person. Meaning, we decide in a very short period of time, and based on very few real factors, if we want to be friends with that person or not. Sometimes we are forced into relationships by our teachers, bosses, parents, or youth leaders. Sometimes we want to be friends with someone because of what other people think of them. Sometimes we want to avoid people because of what other people think of them. But, in call cases, we make a decision as to what that person is worth to our lives.

In the movie, To Save a Life, they talk about a $20 bill and ask what you would do for it. And, many people would go out of their way for an extra $20, but not for and extra penny. A penny isn’t worth anything. A penny can’t buy you anything. A penny can’t do anything for you.

Throughout history, society has divided people into their worth. There has pretty much always been a class system where people are put into their place and unable to move out of that class. Poor people would always be poor, and, likewise, rich people would always be rich. Within the last 100 years or so we have seen the rise of the middle class and this is the predominant population in the United States. Even still, after thousands of years of human history, people are still given a worth.

In the bible we saw distinct lines drawn between the Pharisees, those rich religious leaders whom everyone sought to please and the general population which was poor and uneducated; the pennies. But out of those poor, uneducated, pennies came the son of a carpenter who began speaking out against the Pharisees. And, from 12 pennies came a new way of thinking, and it offered eternal life to all the pennies. Jesus teaches us that we are all pennies. Listen to what Philippians 2:5-8 says:

5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

6 Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.

7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges,
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,

8 he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross

Jesus, the son of God; God Himself, did not think of himself as equal with God, but rather regarded himself as a slave; a penny. And, through his obedience to God, he dies on the cross to save us, because He loves us.

We are all basically worthless because of our sin. We are addicted to sin and the only way we can be cleansed of that sin is to put our trust in Him. Why? Because he loved each of us worthless pennies enough to come down to Earth, as God’s only son, and die for us, and take on the burden of our sin himself….because HE LOVED EACH OF US. That includes all the people you have assigned as pennies throughout your life, all the kids you pass by in school and try to avoid making eye contact with, all your teachers, your parents, and your weird cousins…everyone.

That’s pretty convicting. God freely loves everyone and was willing to die for us, yet we feel the need to assign a worth to everyone we meet.

Now, it’s true, there are some people whom we are just more compatible with than others. And, I’m not saying you need to go out and be everyone’s friends. You don’t have to like everyone, but you should try to love everyone. We tend to pre-judge people, especially when it comes to inviting them to FUSE or talking to them about God. We think we know what their response will be. We say, “Oh they wouldn’t want to come to FUSE because…” and fill in the blank. I’m sure you can do it, because we have all done it in the past.

We are withholding the opportunity to have eternal life in heaven. We are choosing for other people based on the worth we have assigned them. Is it really our place to make that decision for other people? Or, do we have a responsibility to gather as many pennies as possible and give them the opportunity to come with us to heaven?

A single penny is relatively useless. But, you need 100 pennies to make a dollar. When a bunch of useless pennies come together, they can start to make a difference. Jesus began the work of gathering pennies and it is our responsibility to continue that work.

So think about whom you have neglected; who you have answered the question of eternity for; and whose life you could have a positive impact on.

To Save a Life: Week 2 Thoughts

This week we are going to be diving a little deeper. I pray that God will use the next few days to soften the hearts of the students so they will be open to sharing more of themselves with the group. Without going into too much detail, this week is going to be a challenge.

It will be a challenge for me because I am not the most emotional person on the planet. I put up walls to protect myself from seeming vulnerable, or from getting hurt. I put up walls so that I can control how people see me, or what they think of me. I use reason and logic to make decisions. I don’t tend to jump into anything with out knowing the possible outcomes. Honestly, I don’t know how this week is going to go, and I don’t necessarily want to do one of the activities we have planned, but it is important to the growth of the students and so it is my responsibility to do it.

It will be a challenge for the students because they will have to open up. They will have to make themselves vulnerable, risk looking week, and trust that our agreement that the things the we discuss in that room stay in that room. I am going to have to ask this group of students to knock down their own walls so that God can heal their hurts and help them to see the lonely and the hurting around them.

Because this activity will be tough emotionally, I plan to be a participant as well as the facilitator.

I know God is using the series to not only reach the students, but to reach me as well. And, in the process of learning to deal with our hurts and struggles, we will all become closer, and perhaps allow ourselves to be a bit vulnerable; which freaks me out. I, however, was obedient in my call to lead a group I have no business leading. So, I will be obedient in this as well.

We are filling our tool belts with the necessary equipment to reach out to the people in our world that desperately need a savior; that need to know they have a purpose on this planet, and that they are loved. May God give us the opportunity to use these tools to do His work.

To Save a Life: Week 1 Review

Last night we had our first lesson from the To Save a Life series. Our topic was ‘Lowering the Waterline’ …more on that in a bit.

Overall, I feel the night went well. There were 13 students who showed up. As expected, there was quite a diverse crowd. We had several high school freshman, and handful of seniors, one college student, and everything in between. There was a good spirit in the room and I believe everyone was there because they genuinely wanted to learn something.

A few of the new people had not seen the movie so we did a quick recap for them. I went over the format for the evening and then we watched a clip from the movie. Afterwards, I prayed to help the room, and myself, get focused on what we were there to do, and then we began our discussion.

To get the group talking, we each took a turn finishing the sentence, “if you really knew me, you would know…”

I began, and talked about some of the challenges I faced in high school, mostly problems with my self-imagine and lack of confidence do to the side effects of puberty. Next, they broke out in two groups and everyone in the group took turns. It made for some interesting conversation and I think most everyone took it seriously. Since it was the first night and some of us are still just getting to know others in the room, the topics discussed didn’t go too deep. However, as we have more small-group discussions like this and build up our trust levels, then I expect the students will share more and more. And in sharing we will not only learn how to better identify and learn to deal with our own issues, but also how to help other’s deal with things they are going through. Dealing with these issue will always fall back on our need for someone to let us know this it is ok to be who we are; that someone being God.

The main lesson for the evening was to gain further understanding of just how much God loves us, how we are perfect in His eyes, and how He created each of us (faults and all) with a special purpose in mind. We went back to Greek/Roman times and looked at how those societies defined themselves by the way they looked and if anyone didn’t live up to the expectations set by the masses, then they were shunned. The Romans took this idea to the extreme and physically removed people from the society. Babies were taken to special places to be left to die or be taken in as slaves and prostitutes. These children were raised with the knowledge that not only would they never be free to live their own life, but they were also unwanted by their society, and mores specifically, they were unwanted by their own parents. They were orphans with no hope.

It was these same orphans who were among the first Christians when Paul set out to do what Jesus commanded the apostles to do. And when Paul later wrote to these people in Ephesians, he told them about God’s love for them.

Ephesians 1:3-6 (NLT)

3 All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.4 Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.6 So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son

It must have been exciting to be a new believer in that time; to go from being oppressed and walked all over to learning who you truly are. Perhaps it didn’t change their standing in society, but it gave them home for an eternity with their true father. In our time, these verses let us know that we don’t have to look a certain way, act a certain way, or dress a certain way to be accepted. God made us and we are His masterpiece. God made us to be just the way we are. And, God will not give us anything that we cannot handle.

The group talked about how high school can be similar to Rome; how society (school) puts heavy importance on dressing a certain way, having the right haircut, the right brand of clothes, the right hat worn the right way, and so on. It is easy for people to get lost in this world and as Believers, we need to understand that we are not part of this world. We are aliens to this world and therefore, need not conform to it.

I tried to help them see the pain that other students are facing in their day to day lives. I pointed out that even in this group, we still have our walls up, and if we cannot show our true selves to each other, then think how thick the walls are of those students who are non-believers who don’t have a place such as youth group to learn to take down those walls.

I look forward to next week. I look forward to being a part of this experience. God has brought us all together for a purpose. He has shown He loves us and will continue to do so throughout the next 6 weeks. It will be an exciting adventure to find out what else He has in store for us. Please continue to pray for us. Pray that God will use me as a tool to do His work in these student’s lives. And pray that God will open their hearts and minds to receive what He has for them.