This past weekend, I got the chance to go to my church's ACR Campus West retreat. This retreat was held at Parchment Valley Conference Center in Ripley, West Virginia. Initially, I did not want to go to this retreat because like most people, I love my relaxation time during the weekends. My body was wanting me to stay home. But the Spirit of the Lord was tugging at my heart to go to this retreat. Now that 96 hours have passed since I set foot in West Virginia, I came out a different man than I went in.
The purpose of the retreat was living our lives counter-culturally for the Lord. Living our lives counter-culturally for the Lord is doing what is pleasing to the Lord. In today's society, the whole world is focused on one thing, everyone living for themselves. The world and the people in it want to live their lives according to how they feel and how they want. Admittedly, I was one of these people on Friday. My future plans, my hopes, my thoughts, and my motivations were led by one thing, self-gratification.
There were also conflicts this weekend with my friends that came to a head this weekend that since coming back from West Virginia that has brought me peace. Conflicts, if not managed right, can continue to fester and build up until everything just explodes into one big crapstorm. My best friend Manny and I were having problems with each other before this retreat this weekend. I was not being a very good friend to my best friend. I was lying to him. I didn't trust him enough. I was bitter against him. Even though I was doing these things to him, Manny stood by me unconditionally this weekend.
On Friday night, there was a monstrously sized hill I had to climb to get to the cabin where I would sleep for the weekend. I started to get dizzy, weak and out of breath, halfway up the hill. I was having an asthma attack. Manny was walking behind me and was farther down the hill when this happened. When he saw that I was having an asthma attack, he ran up the hill to the room we were staying in to grab my inhaler. After taking puffs from my inhaler, I continued to go up the hill. Even though I told him that he could leave me and I would be fine, he never did. I honestly feel like this weekend, our friendship has become stronger.
This weekend, I learned so much about God and how to glorify Him in my life. I no longer want to live for myself anymore. I want to live for Jesus.
