GMT

Did you notice this year that you have been isolated from your faith community? How connected are you to faith in Jesus? Do you even remember what real community feels like?

Isolation was a real challenge this past year. For many of our young people, and even some of the adults, it has been months since they had been in a church or were part of a faith community. This past year has been hard on students and families. Between masks, quarantine, vaccines and questions about what it all means, many of us fell into isolation. Our faith walk was always meant to be done in community. For many of the students on this trip they had fallen away from faith and didn’t even notice

As I walked with students on this trip I was amazed at how many talked about how they had just gone through the motions of faith this past year. They watched worship, they maybe showed up once, but they were too focused on everything else going on. Life got in the way of their faith and its growth. It became so little a part of their life with others they didn’t realize they were missing that faith connection with others.

For many students on this trip realized they were missing real Christian community. For some it meant letting out emotions, pain and broken parts of their lives with others. For others is was sharing Christian community with others. This year really was a time for students to recognize what they were missing.

So how about you? How is your faith going? Are you just watching worship, or are you with other believers. Are you just sitting in the pew or are you actively trying to grow you faith. I believe that if we don’t maintain these relationships they die. I believe that in this time we can get so lost in the news, our world, and everything else, we know we are missing something but we aren’t even sure what we are missing until we happen to stumble upon it again. Today lets actively try to get back to it. Lets go to worship, get involved in a Bible study, find a Christian community to be involved in. This faith thing was not meant to be done in isolation but actively perusing our faith in Jesus together.

²³Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. ²⁴And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Hebrews 10:23-25 ESV

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Last week I was privileged to be on a group mission trip in Knoxville Tennessee. I love these trips. l love what they do for students and for me personally. One of my favorite parts of Group mission trips is what I call “The gym floor moment.” This year was no different and I would say we all need these gym floor moments. Too often we are so busy or preoccupied with life that we miss them.

So what is the gym floor moment? A gym floor moment is the moments where you sit on the floor and allow yourself to drown out the noise around you and see Jesus in your life. It doesn’t have to be a gym floor in fact the point isn’t the location, how you sit or even where it happens. It is merely a moment in faith where you try to drown out the noise of life. You see for me one of the most powerful moments in life are when we can slow down and allow Jesus into our lives. Often in our lives we are so busy, overwhelmed, and broken that we miss seeing Jesus. We miss seeing him walking along side us. I love the gym floor moment because it gives me an opportunity to speak Jesus in the lives of students or to receive Jesus myself. When we allow ourselves to be still we can have these moments.

So the question is are you sitting on the gym floor? Are you allowing yourself to see Jesus holding on to you? Are you too busy, broken, or overwhelmed that you have pushed him aside and missed it? Have you focused on everything else and missed Jesus in your life?

I was struck this week, as I took time to be in the word, that Jesus did this very thing. Jesus took time to listen to his Father. He often spent time in prayer resting so the Father could speak into him, So here is some advice for you. Take the time to slow down. Take the time to have the gym floor moment so you can hear Jesus. Take the time to slow down and let Jesus be real. He is always there we just need to slow down sit and see the real Jesus.

³⁴and Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.

³⁵Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. ³⁶Simon and his companions went to look for him,

Mark 1:34-36 (NIV)

youthguysteve

Trying to be a faithful disciple

Gym floor moments…Do you give yourself time to allow Jesus to be real.