Getting in the Groove
21 09 2007
September 17 - 21 marks the first full week of “normal” routine here at CLBI. After kicking off the year with 3 days of orientation and a 8 day canoe/hiking trip, we have finally settled into a bit of a rythym this week, which has included: early morning breakfast, devotions, class sessions with Sheri Lovrod and Steve Klassen, Harambee, homework, work duties, late night conversations, library time, yearbook pictures, 7-11 runs, D-Group, choir rehearsals, immunization shots for the Second Years, basketball, volleyball, writing prayer letters, hanging-out in the Co-Ed Lounge, getting to know roomates, picking up garbage around mirror lake as a service project, preparing for LOL on September 28, making worship teams, playing guitar in the courtyard and so much more.
It has been a full and lively week, filled with new discoveries and anticipation as to what this year could hold. Classes started off with two very fine instructors. Teaching the first year students was Steve Klassen who is the Director of the Mark Centre, a retreat centre in Abbotsford BC. He taught “Living Discipleship”, which focussed on the synoptic gospels. Steve teaches with a great combination of intensity and humour, and he tells many stories from his journey of faith. Steve also has the entire gospel of Mark memorized, so he is able to dramatize and communicate stories from Mark very well. Sheri Lovrod who is the Residence Director at LCBI in Outlook, SK, taught the Second Year students “Cross Cultural Prep I”. Sheri’s deep heart for missions and her compassionate approach to ministry is beautiful to watch in action. She brings many faith building stories and a strong commitment to prayer as the primary work of missions, to her teaching sessions. After our first week of classes, we are grateful for such quality instructors!
Friday’s Harambee looked at the idea of preference. We had fun doing a random survey of what some of our different preferences were. Things like: Tim Hortons or Starbucks, Fiction or Non-Fiction, pink or orange, Hip-Hop or Country, Bad Breath or Bad Hair. As we pay attention to what our preference are (especially our preferences about deeper things) we can learn a lot about ourselves, specifically our hearts. Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Our preferences show what we value, what we esteem, what we give priority to, and what we cherish. Our preferences show the direction our hearts are heading.
So, the essence of worship is to prefer Christ over all things. And conversely, the essence of sin is to prefer anything before Christ. The path of discipleship is one where we learn to “Delight ourselves in the Lord” and thereby, learn to prefer Him not out of duty, but through delight!
CS Lewis wrote, “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition, when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
We asked the question, “How do you get a bone away from a dog? By giving it a steak.” The way to prefer Christ more, is by discovering a greater pleasure. We always give preference to what we believe to have the most value or worth. If we find ourselves prefering something before Christ, our first response can be a request for the Holy Spirit to show us how much greater the glory of Christ is (Eph. 1:18-20) and to lead us to find new delight in the Lord (Ps. 34:7). Perhaps much of the strength for “picking up our cross and denying ourselves” comes from learning to delight in the Lord. Perhaps the learning to prefer Christ comes from a history of being delighted and satisfied in Him, and coming to recognize the psalmists understanding - “You make known to me the path of life; you fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.” (Psalm 16:11)
We’re beginning to get in the groove - the rythym of class and community, and by God’s grace, learning to prefer Christ in all things.
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