Men's Retreat 2012 Day 3

Woke up, took a shower, packed up, and went down to breakfast.  No new snowfall  this morning on my car, but a decent layer of ice had frozen the towel to the windshield.  So I decided to walk rather than wait for the car to thaw out.

This breakfast was amazing.  Lots of great options at the main entrée bar, but an omelette station was set up as well.  I put back two heaping plates full.  I should have gone for a second omelette, too.

I sat with Adrian, one of the college-age guys, at breakfast.  While we were talking Nate C. came up and asked Adrian to pop his back, so I asked him to pop mine too.  I was lamenting having to go pay my chiropractor to unlock me again after I’d just seen him Thursday night.  I think it was a combination of the extensive driving and a softer bed than I’m used to.  I love that cracking sound.  Adrian probably got six or seven vertebrae on me.

Instead of group devotions, Sundays are individual devotions because some years, a lot of people leave Saturday night, so some groups can be significantly dwindled.  This one was on Psalm 73, where the author is in anguish over the perceived success of the wicked, but then comes around to remember God sovereignty, and that following Him is worth more than any earthly temporal success.

We started the morning session with worship, and then invited our weekend host Sarah up to talk about the developments with Hume.  They’ve opened up an east coast location to reach kids on that coast as well.  Overall, I think it’s a great idea, but too much expansion in a non-profit always concerns me.  I was excited to see the video on it and get some information that the first run of it had gone well.

Justin then wrapped up Job with God finally chiming in.  A convicting question this morning was What if God’s answer to my personal plea for relief in some circumstance would mess up the universe?  This message made me think of the movie Bruce Almighty.  While crass, it had some very insightful points.  When Bruce lassos the moon for his girlfriend, it creates a tidal wave overseas.

 

Another point Justin hit was how God doubled the replacement of everything lost, except for Job’s children.  Doubling the original lost children would have been crass in making them seem replaceable.  And at the same time, there was no restoration of lives lost.  God didn’t come back and say, “Just kidding!”  The lost was real and difficult.

We took communion as a group and spent some time in prayer before being dismissed.  We loaded up the car, ate lunch, and then took off the chains.  The roads within Hume were thawing out, so we decided to start sans chains and put them back on when needed.  We only hit two mild patches of ice, and I was going slow enough that we held our traction and arrived safely back at my house.

Another great retreat.