“I’m dead, therefore I live”
The Word speaks a lot about dying to ourselves. It’s a theme that has been strong on my heart for several months, and when I met in September with Julian, my co-planner for this past weekend’s youth camp, I found that I wasn’t the only one with the theme of “dying” being alive in my spirit. We settled on the above tag-line for the youth event.
For me, the planning and preparation for this event required dying to my own desires and perspectives and being willing to adapt to a different set of cultural expectations in order for it to succeed. I feel comfortable planning events at home, but this is a different world and it was very stretching for me. I was grateful for Eylich, a youth leader here in Monteria, who helped me work out a lot of the details.
But why die? Why be willing to die to myself? I’ve seen three motives for dying to myself. All three are legitimate. I’ll tell you more about the three motives on a different occasion, but for now I want to tell you that it is worth it. The challenges of planning, the uncomfortable-ness, the dying to my own desires… seeing the fruit of the event, I see its worth.
For those who generously gave to make this event possible, I want you to know that it was worth it! Because of God’s provision through you, not one student was left behind because of financial reasons. Because of His provision, we were able to generously bless both our guest speaker and our hosts at the place where we stayed. Thank you!