Friday, October 17, 2008

Fresh Air!






After a couple of very busy weeks, Sara and I headed off last weekend to Vermont with our wonderful Navs family. I had been looking forward to the retreat since about July because Andrews Farm in VT is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. We always go up on "peak foliage weekend" and get to see the mountains surrounding the farm as if they were on fire. And the stars! They are amazing, I always forget about stars living in the city but they are phenomenal. Its hard to not find God in a place that is so so full of his beautiful creation. And so we did!

It was a great time of fellowship, getting to spend a lot of time with old friends and make some great new ones. We also got to run around and roll down hills which was a blast, shout outs to the shut out ultimate team and especially to the Mountain Kitties (our team mascot for football) mmmrrreeeooowww! It was also just a beautiful place to worship, as soon as we got there on the first night a couple of us went outside into the freezing cold air and Denny and Jim led us in a bunch of songs, it was so peaceful and as more and more people arrived the group grew pretty big. We were able to just dance around and sing out hearts out praising Jesus which is sometimes hard to do in a city where the man made noise and lights somehow seem to drown out God. Our fellowship also grew a lot in grace together and a lot of people took some really big steps in their relationships with Christ!

As Sara and I were reflecting on our own walks we each (individually) came to the same realization. In a world where the concept of grace barely exists I had somehow turned my relationship with Jesus into one of dependence on him towards one where I tried to earn His love and blessings through and endless list of service "for the kingdom" all of those acts are good on their own but I need to bring the Kingdom of God closer to my heart and just meet Him there and need Him there. Pray with us that we would really experience His grace and freedom in the coming weeks as we seek Him in new and different ways.

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