Being Led Forth in Victory

"Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place." 2 Corinthians 2:14

Not Pain-free at Payne Free

This week has not been at all what I expected. It has been surprising, exciting, and challenging, all in ways I could never have anticipated. We just finished "Warfare Wednesday", as Wednesdays have been traditionally known at BUMP, but for us it seemed our "Warfare" day happened on Tuesday. There have been many great things happening this week, but there have been lots of challenges as well, forgetting stuff and having to make time costly extra trips, not once but twice and getting off to a rocky start with our Bible Lesson time all converged into a climax of difficulty on Tuesday.

My crew had been the most nervous about our role in the skits, but we figured that the Bible lesson time was solid and that we had it under control. After all, there was no set to make, no script to memorize, it's just telling a Bible story and talking about it. No big deal, right? We had been praying all along, but I am certain there was a level of "we've got this" on our part.  Perhaps we had forgotten that without God going on before us, "leading us in triumph", all our words would have no impact and figured that we somehow didn't need him. On Tuesday we returned from our 2nd day of VBS defeated and feeling a bit like we didn't want to do this anymore.

Time to Get Serious

We returned to our dorms and I let my crew go off and work off steam with a few of the other teams in an epic game of Live Action Mafia, while I sat and talked with God reflecting, praying, reading and confessing the areas where we had been trying to do things on our own strength.  We asked for wisdom and creativity on how to interact with the kids to get better results. I had to take time to remember that I could trust my team and that we were all their for the kids. I committed to letting my group do their thing while I really settled in and focused on really just loving on those I saw around me. I sent out a half dozen texts to my friends that I know I can count on to drop everything and pray, and I sent out a message to the parents of my group to add a few things to my prayer list.

I met Wednesday with anxiety, not sure what to expect or how hard it would be. It was amazing! The group that was the most challenging for us on Tuesday night was the most fun on Wednesday night. Only God could orchestrate that. But things also went more smoothly, the kids were more engaged and getting more out of the lesson.

Complacency

It never ceases to amaze me just how often a re-emergence of self-reliance can happen after success. Ending Wednesday on a high note makes it super easy to think we've got this thing going. I am reminded how it should instead serve to remind me of the necessity of constantly covering this endeavor in prayer, about how helpless we are without it, and how one of the most valuable things I can teach  is the power of prayer for those who believe.