Spiritual Retreat

Today, the four people in my accountability group and I went on a "spiritual retreat" for our Spiritual Life and Community class. We had to meet for four hours straight and practice spiritual disciplines (prayer, worship, Bible reading, journaling and the like). I was not so thrilled about it, especially when our group decided to meet at 4am to watch the sunrise on the beach. Cool concept, but COLD and way early, especially since I'm fighting off a cold. Thankfully, we chickened out somewhat after we heard that the sun wouldn't rise till almost 7am and decided to wait until 6am to meet.
Unfortunately, I could not fall asleep last night and was really dreading waking up at 5:30. In fact, the only way I could get myself to fall asleep was to tell myself that I wouldn't go. I determined that I would sleep through it and apologize later (I'm a horrible, horrible person, I know, at least when I can't sleep). But thankfully, one of the girls in the group, Emma, is on my floor and she came into my room at 6 to get me. I was still in bed, but that was enough to convince me to get moving and get dressed. After bundling up in five shirts, three pairs of sweat pants, three pairs of socks, two hats, a scarf, gloves and a winter coat, I met the rest of the group outside.
After starting with prayer, we did a "Prayer walk" to the beach, meaning that as we walked, we prayed for our school and asked God to use us to make a huge impact on the city. It was really neat because there was hardly anyone outside and very few cars (which I had NEVER experienced before in the city). The cold air woke us up some and by the time we reached the beach we were warm enough to be comfortable for a little while. We laid out a blanket, sat down and watched the waves and the sky in silence. There were only a couple of other people out, so the only sounds were the waves crashing and the seagulls trying to stake their claim on us (they were quite convinced we had food and lurked close by, chasing each other off and doing cool little territorial calls).
It was amazing to simply sit and bask in God's glory! To see his beautiful creation and realize that the God who created everything chooses to love us, even though we so rarely appreciate Him, was convicting and overwhelming. As I sat there, I realized a little bit more how worthy God is of all our praise. We could spend every moment of our entire lives praising Him and it would still never be enough. He is worthy of all glory! Everything in this world exists for the sole purpose of bringing God glory! In those moments, as I sat and worshiped, I realized that I was more at peace than I had been for a long time. When I worship God, my soul seems to know that I am doing what I was created to do. All the stress falls away and I can just rest in His awesome presence! Everything else is so dull in comparison to Him! In those I moments I wonder how I can ever fail to trust Him and love Him! He is so good!
I don't know how long we sat there, but eventually we decided to sing some songs of worship. Derek had his guitar along, so he played and we sang. After a few songs though, Derek's fingers were purple and Sarah, who's from New Orleans, couldn't feel her feet anymore. Figuring that we wouldn't be able to praise God much if we were frozen, we decided to walk a few blocks to Starbucks and continue there.
Warming up with some coffee, hot chocolate, and breakfast, we began reading the gospel of John out loud in turns. We wanted to read the whole book, but wound up only getting halfway through. It was amazing! When you read Scripture out loud, and in big portions at a time, it comes alive in an incredible way! As we read we were laughing and talking and were so excited by the story of Jesus. He was so powerful and bold! His words became so real and you could almost hear the shouting of the crowds as they argued the radical, new Teacher. Though we initially laughed at the inability of the people to understand what Jesus made so obvious (that he was the Messiah), it also struck a cord in my heart. How many times have I sat pleading with God for a sign, or some miraculous voice from Heaven, so that I could know His will, when all the time He's placed the answer right in front of me? Too often I refuse to understand His commands because I do not want to obey. It was so humbling to see myself through God's eyes! What an incredibly patient God we serve!
We all wanted to continue reading, but we only had an hour left of our retreat and Derek had to be back for a concert at school. So, we spent a little time journaling, then got ready to leave. As we were gathering our things, a man (Robert from Australia, we learned) came to our table and began speaking to us about Scripture. He had so many passages memorized and pointed out a bunch of verses by Paul about living a holy life. He claimed that so many churches refuse to address the issue of holiness because they do not believe it's possible, yet Scripture makes it very clear that we CAN live holy lives! Not that we will never fail, but we are made holy by Christ's work on the cross. Even in our sin, we are holy before God. THAT is the power of redemption! How awesome is God?!?! Robert also reminded us not to become prideful in knowledge of the Bible, but to listen respectfully to teachers and accept that our beliefs may differ. As I learn more about the different distinctions of Christianity, and the different beliefs of my professors, it is becoming more and more important for me to remember this lesson.
On our walk back to school, we prayed for the needy in the city, kids in the inner city and the homeless. This didn't last quite as long as the prayer walk to the beach because Sarah and Caleb started running up and down the sidewalk to keep warm. :)
Once we got back to school, we went to the prayer chapel and stayed there for about another hour (although Derek had to leave after 30 minutes for the concert). There we sang worship songs and prayed. We thanked God for His blessings and pleaded for the ability to love Him more. We prayed for each person in the group, and simply talked with our Creator. He is so beautiful, merciful, patient and awesome! Too often I let the busyness of life distract me from spending time with God and I forget just how great He is! There is nothing better than to simply sit in the Father's lap and talk to Him and thank Him for being such a wonderful Papa!
I am more tired now than I have been all day, but my heart is completely calm. I have so much to do, and life is so crazy right now, but God loves me, so my heart is content. Thank you God, for this spiritual retreat that I dreaded so much. You truly are worthy of all glory and honor! Let us never forget that!