Stir up the Chocolate!!! (Part 1 of my reflections on Youth Councils)

So the weekend's over. All of the wonderful experiences and encouragement are semi left behind at the camp, the remembrances solely remaining in your mind. Now what? You keep climbing. You go back to work or school and you keep climbing. I liked the illustration the special guest TJ Foltz used in the saturday night meeting. You've gotta stir up the chocolate of the Spirit that has begun to settle down in the bottom of the milk glass. Although I think that sometimes the Spirit, like chocolate, starts settling the moment it's poured into the person. I think that is why Paul tells us to Pray without Ceasing, because prayer is the only way to continually try to live in the Spirit, stir it up, and keep it flowing out.

At lunch on Sunday, just before everyone left, we were all given three books. Thirty day devotional books. God is Near, Christ in Me, and The Spirit Moves. TJ asked us all to make a commitment on Saturday night, that we would stir the Spirit in us by spending just 5 minutes in the word of God and 5 minutes in prayer, every day for the next 30 (or 31) days. So I started it today during my lunch break. I figured I'd start with the God is Near to keep with my commitment. I really liked the first devotional in that book.

It asked you to go out and stand by a busy road and watch people and cars. I just happen to have finished eating my lunch in a mall food court, which is a nice place to go, and I happen to like to people watch. So thinking back, I try and imagine the stories and the destinations of some of the people I saw, and one just stuck out at me. It was a young (or at least she appeared that way) mother with a toddler - probably not older than two on the walkway over the ice rink in the Lloyd Center. She kept trying to get him in his stroller, but he was just content to waddle around the bannister and plop down on the ground. It seemed like he was content to stay and just have fun while she needed him to go somewhere. Maybe home, maybe the portrait place just a few steps away on that level. It was interesting to watch and it made me think back to the weekend. . . but I'll talk about that in another post.