Today started waaaay too early for just about all of our students! After being too excited and hyped up to get a good night's sleep, we all arrived at breakfast at 7am, not in any way awake, and in serious need of caffeine. As I write this post, many of our students are crashing, and I'm pretty sure we will sleep soundly tonight!
The theme of Day 2 has been "You Are King." Following yesterday’s discussion that wherever students are, God is right there with them - "You Are Here" - today's discussion turned toward authority. In the Daniel story, King Nebuchadnezzar tries to set himself up as the ultimate authority. He demands that Daniel and his friends become entirely subservient to him, even to the point of worshiping his idol. Yet even as King Nebuchadnezzar tries to usurp God's authority, God is shaping Daniel's life.
Mark Christian opened this morning with a question: "What do you do with a God who sends you to Babylon to be a slave?" In other words, how do we respond to God when he lets us experience trouble and hard times. Do we recognize God's ultimate authority as King and Creator, or do we try to usurp him? Brad Tate, our evening speaker, ended our night with this question: "Are we spending our lives trying to build our own kingdom, or are we trying to build the Kingdom of God in our life?" Recognizing and submitting to human authority does not come naturally to students. Submitting to God's will can at times be excruciating!
Aside from the topics we are wrestling with at MOVE, our day was also filled with a ton of fun. Almost all of our students spent some time in beautiful downtown Holland. We all made crowns out of newspaper, and our adult staff spoke words of affirmation to each student in our group. We played some card games and Frisbee. We ate a ton of food at Hope’s incredible cafeteria, and we ended the day together at Pizza Hut.
Please continue to pray for us as we look forward to tomorrow. God is good, and he is working on our hearts. Students are beginning to open up in our groups, and are becoming more comfortable sharing. Pray with me that they will come to know our God as the ultimate authority in their lives, because God is King!