That'll Cost You 15 Intimacy Points

I just got back from a great weekend at Youth For Christ Metro-Pitt's Student Leader Retreat.

It's different than a lot of the other trips, because this one is not an outreach. These are the kids that have decided they really want a close relationship with God and desire to share the gospel with others. When you start with that desire the doors are open. Small group meetings, where you usually need to pull teeth to get responses that are even slightly deep, had a dynamic of trust. Kids shared some things that were very dear, very revealing, very hopeful, very painful, and all very honest with the others, themselves, and God.

The theme of the weekend was prayer. Certainly a hard topic to tackle in a way that isn't the cliche, "You should pray before every meal and in the morning and at night, and all the time, yea!" But to actually put purpose into it and form an intense desire of high schoolers to pray is just... daunting.

The best teaching on prayer was when we prayed. We started out the whole weekend praying for probably 30-60 minutes. The kids loved it! The weekend has shown me a lot about myself and my priorities. I would say that it's a need to pray more, but that's only the beginning.

I love worshiping together in joy. I still picture all 50 of us huddled up in a group, with the instrumentalists in the center playing "One Name Under Heaven." The excitement at the chorus, "God's gonna move this place, God's gonna move this place, God's gonna turn this world, Gonna turn it upside down" is what makes me feel alive. Times when worship is solemn, communal, intimate, and at the same time joyful, excited, sincere, and passionate I feel like we are at that moment in line with God. That experience is truly heaven.


I try to always include something to think about in these blogs. So here is something that I slightly played with in my head, but need to dedicate thought to...

The speaker said that some people seem to think the "currency" (an obvious metaphor) of God is faith. If we have so much faith we can get or be this or that. He said that the true currency is intimacy. The closer I am to God the more I can have in God. James', the speaker, illustration as that of him asking for money. His father is someone who doesn't give up money very easily in large amounts. He is a generous man who will give someone a few bucks if they ask it of him, but were to ask for $100 he'd probably have a problem with that. If James asked his father though, he would certainly give him the money because there is much more intimacy between them than his father and a stranger. Likewise, if James' mother asked for her husband to donate $500 to an orphanage in Africa that she believes in the cause of, he would certainly do it, because their relationship is even more intimate.

I think that thought is a good one. It certainly shows something big about how humanity works. Is that how God works? I hate that I just said "how God works," it sound demeaning, as if we could understand how God works. But does God follow the same reasoning or laws that we follow as humans in this regard?

Part of me is unsure, the other part feels like God is too far above that in benevolence. Like God would give intimacy at any level at any second if we desired. That may be the issue, our desire for it. What would the money of intimacy buy anyway? Ability to heal people, healing ourselves, spiritual feeling, prophesy, doing well with our skills, knowing right from wrong? Maybe all of those, maybe some, maybe none... but I'm thinking all or some.

What do you think? How does the notion resonate in your thought?

I'm very interested in some intelligent thought, which I have none to offer.