Sorry I haven't posted anything in a while, I've been in a bit of a religious slump. I think I've been to church twice since Thanksgiving, which is unfortunate. But, on a brighter note, last weekend I got to work at the camp I work at over the summer. It's a church camp, and we have retreats during a few weekends during the year. My camp is up in the mountains right between two ski resorts, so it always gets a ton of snow during the winter, and we get to go snowshoeing and skiing and whatnot. It's pretty awesome. Cold, yes, but awesome anyway.
We always have themes during the retreats, and last weekend it was God's Whisper, and we did some activities that focused on getting away from all the noise and chaos of our everyday lives and trying to find God in all of the little things that we normally overlook. On Saturday, we all went snowshoeing or skiing, depending on what the campers had signed up for, and then played games and whatnot at night. Then, once it got dark, we watched a video about how much noise is in our daily lives, and how hard it is to avoid. In fact, one guy who works with movies (I don't remember what his official job title was) said that there are so many cars and whatnot around it takes something like 1,000 hours for him to record background nature noise for just 1 hour of movie. Of course, my first response was that there is no way that is true, but then I started thinking about how much time I listen to the radio or my ipod. Now that I'm home again, sometimes I still try to measure how long I can go without hearing a car, and I normally can't go much more than a few minutes.
After we finished watching the video, we went snowshoeing to this clearing that's a short walk from the lodge we had been hanging out in. We go to the clearing every winter, and we all spread out in it and lie in the snow for a few minutes. It's normally a great time to just try to find God away from the noise of the city and everything. However, this year it seemed like everyone really noticed how often they heard a car drive by, or heard them grooming the runs of the ski resorts by us. Even though we felt so secluded, we still had things tying us down to the lives we normally lead. Maybe that's part of the reason why we expect God to be so loud- our daily lives are filled with so much noise that it seems like he must have to yell to be heard above it all.
So, that's my job in a nutshell. Did I mention how great it is? I get paid to run around outside with kids all day, and occasionally go snowboarding. Plus, it always gets me thinking about the parts of God that I'm really drawn to. While most of my friends go to church to talk about God and all of the great things he's done, I tend to go snowboarding or hiking instead. I know it isn't a traditional method of worship, but the way I see it, would you rather talk about all the great things God has done, or go see it firsthand? Sometimes I think we get so swept up with our crazy chaotic lives and looking for the huge, exotic things God has done that we forget to look at the little things that he's done too. Sometimes we're waiting for God to scream at us in one huge apocalyptic event, but maybe he's always talking to us in little whispers and is just waiting for us to quiet down and listen. Maybe, with how loud our lives normally are, that's all he wants us to do- quiet down and listen. Maybe it's his way of seeing how much work we're really willing to put into the relationship. Why should we need to see God in one huge explosion, when he's whispering to us all the time?
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