Have you ever read the dictionary definition of the word balance? If not, here it is: 

"the state of having your weight spread equally so that you do not fall" or "a state in which different things occur in equal or proper amounts or have an equal or proper amount of importance." 

Something that has been on my heart for many years now is the importance of solitude and community. I believe that the Lord calls us to find a balance between these two things. When we look at the life of Jesus, he modeled just this. There were times that Jesus went off and was alone and other times when we see him in community with his disciples. 

Look back at the definition of balance, spreading ourselves equally so that we do not fall! We need community to support and encourage one another and to bring glory to the Lord together (see Hebrews 10:24-25). On the other hand, we need solitude time with the Lord to rest and dwell in His presence (see Psalm 62:5-6). Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated it this way: " Let him who cannot be alone beware of community.  Let him who is not in community beware of being alone… Each by itself has profound pitfalls and perils.  One who wants fellowship without solitude plunges into the void of words and feelings, and one who seeks solitude without fellowship perishes in the abyss of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair…Blessed is he who is alone in the strength of the fellowship and blessed is he who keeps the fellowship in the strength of aloneness.  But the strength of aloneness and the strength of the fellowship is solely the strength of the Word of God, which is addressed to the individual in the fellowship." 

And I cannot help but notice that there are so many areas of our lives that center around finding a balance. I was talking with a friend and we were discussing that exercising and making healthy eating choices is glorifying to the Lord. However, when we start to make an idol out of exercising and striving for the "perfect" body that we see in magazines (even though there is no such thing as a perfect body), then we fall. A discussion even came up yesterday with another friend about the balance of worship music. Have you ever noticed this at a church on a Sunday morning? There is usually time for both upbeat and slower songs, old and new songs, and so forth and so forth. 

What are some other areas of our life that it is important to have balance in? Is there an area that is off balance right now and you need to take a step back to re-spread the weight a little bit? 

Last Sunday in Awake, we continued our Big L series.  We talked about some of the swords that get in our way of having a clear view of God. Often, it is easy to pick up these swords and do it our way. However, each time we pick up a sword we are saying that we do not fully trust the Lord's way. We looked at Jesus when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane right before he was about to be taken by the soldiers and then die one of the most brutal deaths. Jesus was not the most excited about what he knew what was about to happen. In fact, he was quite anguished. The example that we receive from Jesus though is that He did not pick up His sword and run away, He did the complete opposite. He put down His sword and with outstretched arms said, "Father, not my will but Yours be done." 

Here are some of the swords that we discussed that are easy to pick up: worry, pride, peer pressure, the "world's standards," media, not reading the Bible, and so on and so on. 

Are there swords in your life? Are you willing to lay them down and say, "Father, not my will but Yours be done." 

You may be asking, what is this "Family Room" event that we have on the last Sunday of every month? The vision for Family Room is a night of worship and fellowship while finding rest in the presence of the Lord. We are called to rest in the Lord and this can be done in both solitude and community (there is an important balance of both). Our time of worship takes place in someone's home, in the family room. There's something about being "home" that I think guides us to the resting posture. When we get to come together in community then, all at the same time, it is lovely. Andrew Root states it this way: 

"When we rest together, we see one another, hear one another, discover what kind of help we need from one another, and learn to do all things in joy and gladness... I believe such an experience will open our eyes to God's indwelling presence." 

Two weeks ago we gathered for our first Family Room. It was beautiful. Our favorite song currently as a community is "Set a Fire." It is a joy to engage in the lyrics of this song together. 

"There's no place I would rather be
  There's no place I would rather be 
  There's no place I would rather be 
  Than here in Your love, here in Your love 

   Set a Fire down in my soul 
   That I can't contain, that I can't control 
   I want more of you God 
   I want more of you God." 

Join us for our next Family Room on Sunday, July 27th at 6:30pm. See the church bulletin or contact Kirsten Slider for the address. 

On Wednesday evening we began a new study in the book of Acts. We soon became engaged in some deep and neat discussions. As the evening started to come to an end we began to reflect on thankfulness. Students have noticed that their peers are trying to find happiness in how much they have, yet are not thankful and thus are not happy. What would are attitudes be like and our lives reflect if we started to count our gifts from the Lord and stated our thankfulness. So we came up with a challenge for this week that includes two parts: 

1. For the next week, we are going to write down five things everyday from throughout that day that we are thankful for. This can include large and small things, but we want to pay close attention to the small things that we would not normally acknowledge.

2. We are going to ask another person to join us in this challenge and ask them to pass it on. 

It's pretty simple, but boy are we excited to join together next week and talk about the gifts from the Lord. Will you join us? 

This week in Awake we started a new series called "The Big L." For the next few weeks we will be exploring our call to be laborers in the kingdom. In Matthew 9:37-38 Jesus said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

The Lord has called all of us as ordinary people to share His love in ordinary places. When we are fully loving the Lord with all of our hearts, our love will do nothing less but spill out onto those around us. You see- "The Big L"-love God and love others just as He has commanded us in Matthew 22:37-38. I'll leave you with these words from a dear leader and role model of mine:

"The greatest gift you will ever give the world is your intimacy with God."

Ponder on that this week.

As I have recently stepped into the position as the Youth Director I have been doing some reflecting on the name of our youth ministry, Awake. I have gone back and forth deciding if we should keep this name and after a lot of prayer and reflecting I believe that we are supposed to continue diving into the theme of Awakening. 

I've been looking a the story of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25. There have been times when I have read this story and thought to myself, "I want to be one of the wise who had oil in their lamp." As I read it again though, I cannot help but think that I would want to be the watchman who cried, "Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him." I do not want to be the wise or the foolish sleeping, I want to be AWAKE, always ready, for as the Lord says at the end of the story, "watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour." 

And while it is not actually physically possible to always be awake, we can always be AWAKE to the presence of the Lord. When we are AWAKE to the presence of the Lord not only will we be able to give Him glory, but we will shine forth His light to bring AWAKENING to the rest of the world. 

Take a listen to this song that we sung in church a couple of weeks ago: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_J9BI6AFO0