We ALL knew that Isaac was a master Sumo-Wrestler.  But did you know what he did in his free time??  Wow – he looks so graceful!

Sign up this week to go skiing with Isaac by emailing Christian.  Cost is $49 for ski rental (or board rental) and lift ticket for under 18 years old.  $59 for over 18.  We are going to Blue Mountain.  There is also a really cool Tube Slide – that’s $23.  If you have your own skis or board, the lift ticket alone is $32.

We’ll leave early Saturday morning and ski until we’re too tired!  You must sign up by Friday!!

At youth group on Thursday we talked about compromise being the “sin of choice” for Christians.  The motivation behind compromise is often our desire to be as much like the world without doing anything we’d feel REALLY bad about.  

It struck me afterwards that compromise has its roots in our need to be accepted.  On some level we are insecure in our choice to live as Christians, and so we adopt worldly behaviors to be more accepted and feel better about ourselves.

Secondly, I think compromise may also come from some of us being fed up with “Christians” who really mess things up.  We are so tired of “Christians” who don’t practice what they preach, that we feel the need to distance ourselves from them (which is good).  However, I fear that in distancing ourselves from them (ie, not wanting to be proud, judgmental, crazy, Bible-thumpers, etc) we sometimes also begin to distance ourselves from Jesus.

You see, Jesus had this uncanny ability to be respected and loved by the world, without EVER adopting their lifestyle. He somehow struck the perfect balance of being TOTALLY OTHER (Holy, Separate, Perfect) and yet TOTALLY UNITED with the men and women around him.  Its really amazing I think—and a challenge for all of us.  

Any thoughts?

At Older Teen Kinship tonight  (after a rousing game of “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader”—”I know one thing – its not the MAYANS!”) we listened to Erwin McManus and the second part of the Wide Awake series.

I really appreciated his talk because he talked about some people in the Bible who introduced things into the Earth.  I like that idea.  I love the idea, as Christians, of being able to participate in the aspect of God’s nature that is Creator.  I hope that in my life I can create some things—introduce goodness, love, service, faith, adventure, ideas—into the Earth that were never there before.  I hope my life is catalytic to others as they attempt to live genuine expressions of who God has created them to be.

The thing that stands in the way is often FEAR.  He talked about how we get comfortable in the “norms” of our lives, and we miss the chances to dare to dream, to live outside our boxes.  I think its easy for me to define my life by what I already know, rather than open my heart to new possibilities or challenges that God may have for me.  I want to live above fear, and in step with the Creator who wants to create through me.

So the family feud game was really fun.  Lots of laughs.  For those of you who weren’t there, it got kind of crazy at the end.  The questions seemed to become completely random.  Like – name something you’d count down from ten to one . .  .SURGERY!  Or name an animal you’d see in a zoo – there’s like a thousand animals in a zoo!  My favorite though was, name someone famous – dead or alive . .  .SANTA CLAUS!  WHAT??

I’m thinking of another ice-breaker game for this Thursday that should be really fun as well.  We played it at the Young Marrieds Kinship Group last week and it was awesome.