A Night’s Story

Today at Roots (high school group), there was a lot of excitement in the air because the AIR actually WAS really nice! We started it off by playing kickball with a bat, but with kickball rules. Good times, good times. We saw many grass stains, slide marks, and take outs! I love how kids just go all out in games, not caring about their clothes or whatever – they just do whatever it takes to get on base! While that was entertaining for quite some time, then we headed in for the lesson. Oh how I wish you could all be a fly on our wall in our lessons! Some of the things that come out of these kids’ hearts is just so amazing. I sit there in my bean bag chair and think – wow – I can’t wait to see how God is going to use these kids in the future. Then we headed to our house. We had what seemed to be a bigger group than normal, which was surprising considering it was the last day of spring break and many of them had just gotten home within the past 24 hours. We all realized it was too nice to be inside, so we took out cornhole while some played football. As the evening progressed, we all got a little crazier and crazier. It ended up turning into a gymnastics fest. Imagine football players, basketball and tennis players, cheerleaders, and some who necessarily aren’t real athletic, trying to do all these fancy gymnastics moves. I think we laughed oh for about a hour and a half straight. What I loved is that we were just in our front yard, cars driving by slowly, wondering what in the world was going on at that house. I love just seeing our kids just be typical high schoolers, yet us being able to join in with them too. All of a sudden we realized it was 9 and that some had to head home. Often the guys will just sit and play video games against each other, where this time, the one who plays video games the most says,”Boy, this (meaning hanging out outside) was way better than playing video games!” MUSIC TO MY EARS! I had to take a phone call in the middle of all the fun and when I walked back outside, I just saw everyone in a circle just talking. If you remember back to your youth group days, youth group is made of various people who are all different, with different personalities, etc. Yup, they just all came together, putting aside their differences, sat down, and just had a good time. We had kids running into trees (not on purpose) trying to catch footballs. Kids climbing trees and kids trying to hit them with the football – yeah, not a good idea. Kids playing cornhole and chucking the bags at the board and actually getting it through the hold. Kids doing handstands and landing on top of the cornhole board, breaking it. Kids literally ripping the crotch of their pants after doing gymnastics moves. Kids showing off their flexibility, even though they have none. WHAT A GREAT NIGHT. I wish everyone had the opportunity to see what we witnessed tonight. So why do I sit here and tell you all this? Because life to me is about God and relationships. These kids have a passion to get to know God on a deeper level and build relationships with each other, regardless of their backgrounds, gifts, and personalities. I can learn from that. They don’t need “media” to make them have a good time. They make their own fun – they find joy in the simplest of things. They love to just hang out. It’s refreshing to see in a world full of constant texting, constant music, constant video games, constant “screen” time. But those kids were able to put that aside and just have a good time. How refreshing.