Sunday, June 26, our youth group at Hope Fellowship Church began our service with each of the teenagers sharing all that God had done for them the prior week at Super Summer.  It was beautiful. As I listened to my two teenagers and all of their friends, I was truly humbled.  I was also jealous in a good way; they all had over fifty hours of directed worship, prayer and study time.  It’s amazing how much God gives when honored with such time, devotion and intention.

I know fifty plus hours seems impossible.  Still, these teenagers and young adults absolutely love Super Summer.  They get on buses and live in college dorms for five days.  The girls are in one building and the boys in another.  They are separated by age groups, as well.    They are up before 8:00 a.m. and usually get to bed around midnight. The days are scheduled to make the most of every hour.   Picture teenagers all across a college campus, sitting under trees and on benches, in quiet corners.  They are not on their smart phones.  They are not talking to other teenagers.   Each is sitting by themselves with their Bible open in front of them, by choice!     Imagine them meeting in small  “Family” groups several times a day to talk about all the things they rarely have time to talk about in their normal day to day lives. The only gossip is about how to know their friend, Jesus, a little bit better.   Dare to imagine all of them at evening worship together, hands raised and hearts open.  If you have remotely imagined it, perhaps it humbles you, as well.

Our pastor shortened his normal message to encourage each of us to really think about our home and imagine a “God Room.”   When would we schedule time to go be in that room and remove all distractions? Would we say as we walked by, “oh, gee, I can’t wait to get in here later?” or “I’m sorry, let me finish XYZ and I will be right back?”  I am paraphrasing him, as he is far more eloquent than I am!  As human beings in a very connected world, we allow entirely too many things to distract us from being who we are truly called to be.  We are surely just as distracted as most teenagers.

We are all invited every day, every hour, to His Word.  We are encouraged to love him and strive to love Him better every day.  Like any relationship, it requires time and energy. He surely deserves more time and more energy on my part.  If someone I loved dearly spoke a language foreign to me, I would invest time in learning something new in their language every day.  I would show them love by learning their language, their customs, nuances and probably learn to prepare their favorite meals.  Well, I believe God’s language of love is written in The Bible.  I learn more about Him and Jesus every time I open mine. I also believe The Bible, God and Jesus are the bridge to the only Kingdom deserving of all my time.

Bottom line, we all have a “God Room” in the palm of our hands. Instead of fourteen journals in messy penmanship, I will share some of “MYGODROOM” visits here.  I have lots of messy journal entries to type up in the coming week.  For now, I will share that He has had his mighty hand on everything this week.   I am overwhelmed how many times he “squeezed my hand” in return to let me know He is present.