We’re a little over five months away from our next Fuge experience with the Journey students, but we are having to get into Fuge mode now in order to make decisions about who’s going to go, which camp option is best for each student, and which leaders and chaperons are planning to attend. One of our students spoke up during Awaken this week to share with the rest of the group how valuable Fuge is and has been to her, and she ended her time of sharing with three simple yet profoundly true words: “You should change.” Time to offer a little context and to qualify our student here. We were talking about the value of Fuge Camps and the primary reason that we go is to encourage growth in our faith walks for all involved, and if we go with that as our objective and handle ourselves as such while we’re there, we should be able to see change in our lives as a result. This came from a young lady who followed Christ’s example obediently by being baptized when she returned from her first trip to Fuge two summers ago, and this past summer at Fuge she got in front of hundreds of others students to give her testimony to Christ’s work in her life. And I don’t know what was going on internally for her when processing this, but I do know that she got up on that stage while our group as a whole was experiencing the fresh onset of pain for our hometown as we had learned of the attacks here at home in Chattanooga on July 16th. She didn’t let it hold her back and prevent the Spirit from speaking through her that night. My friends, when this girl said, “you should change,” she knew what she was talking about.

To follow up to Mark’s post last week about taking a leap in 2016, I would encourage you to think about his opening statement where he asked, “where will you be on this day in 2017?” When you are at a place, and you look back to some other point in your life (whether it’s a year ago, before you had kids, when you were in high school, whatever), what does the in between look like? More importantly, what differences between those two points in time can you identify? MOST importantly, are you closer to the Lord now than you were then? Do you see a more definitive imprint of Christ on your life as a result of experiences you had between those two points?

Lots of questions, but asking and answering them are the best way to examine ourselves.

“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?” – 2 Corinthians 13:5

Give yourself the pretest. Ask yourself, in what ways do you think that change in your life would allow Christ’s work to be evident and to show fruit? Change is good, and it’s necessary.

Blessings,

David Henderson
Student Pastor