Overcoming the Fear of Silence

Final full day of the trip today. We've checked out from the Dream Center and we're hanging out at our hotel this final night in Newport Beach. We fly out tomorrow morning and head home. I can't wait to see my family.

After checking out of the DC around 10am this morning we headed down here for a day of rest and reflection as we try to process the lessons we learned on this trip. We'll have one final meeting tonight where I'm going to read the students some of these blogs I've written during this trip, and use that as a springboard into a discipleship challenge that applies to our return.

What is it worth if we don't internalize it? What are the value of the experiences if we don't allow them to integrate into every compartment of our lives? If we aren't filled with compassion and broken for the lost of our city, is the sacrifice we offered up in this city worth much? I guess this shows my perspective on this trip. We need to change. I believe we all need to change, and I pray that this change was advanced through our time on this trip. This team is so energetic and excited just to be alive, and that's awesome. But they're young. Their youth is seen in the fact that our culture's tricks still dupe them quite a bit. They possess the insecurities, fears, and hesitations of 15 and 16 year old kids. There's is the struggle to find authentic fellowship with God in the midst of a culture that says "He's not really real."

I've never been a fan of creating a Christian sub-culture. I beleive in protecting them from things they can't process yet, but insulating them in a shelter where they can't tell the difference between real and aritifical light is counter-productive. This trip has been great because we've been able to live with them and process the lies of culture and where they lead people who blindly follow them. I want more than anything for these students to return changed. I want them to begin to experience true redemption in their lives.

I want this to be real and practical and life-changing. I want their sense of humor to change. I want their insecurity to be turned into confidence in who Christ has created them to be. I want them to realize they don't need a "crush" or a relationship with another insecure teenager to validate their existence. I want them to die to the idolatry that is manifested in the world of unlimited texting, video games, pointless movies our culture thinks are great, and constant noise clouding their minds.

Today's teenager fears silence. They fear silence because alone--without the Ipod headphones, or the TV keeping them company, or the mindless chatter through texts or messages from friends--they see themselves. They see someone who wants to live authentically and above the noise and passionately connected to the image they were created to identify, but they see that they are too afraid to take that step. That's too much to handle. It's 25 to 1 every day they walk on that campus, and living beyond the noise may very well kill your social life. And if you listen to 30 seconds of any song they love or watch 2 minutes of any show or movie created for them by our culture, you understand that if people don't love and accept you--life is not worth living.

I pray that this trip, where we literally forced them to get beyond the noise, gave them a taste of what life is like with a soul that doesn't fear silence. I pray they go home with a taste of quietness in their souls, a taste that turns into a constant daily craving for the REAL. I pray that the hunger pains in their souls for God's word and His presence that are re-awakened on trips like this, continue to grow deeper and deeper into their daily routines. I pray that it changes them.

I am going home encouraged. They are young, but they are real. They still fear silence. But God has created space in them individually and as a family through this trip. God has grown His kingdom in their hearts. He has bonded us together in relationship. They trust and know how much I and my leaders love them, and these relationships are the foundation for current and future discipleship. I am encouraged because this trip was just another step on the journey God is taking us on. It's a grind. The daily work of pastorally nurturing and discipling young people, leaders, and their families is a hard road. But I know that we are all in it together. And for my part, I am more inspired to continue to work, study, preach, connect, build, disciple, and pray harder than ever to see God's kingdom explode in the lives of these young people.

I see something happening here...