Missed a day...

don't know where this is, I just liked the picture...

And I was doing so well at the everyday posting...oh well...life happens. So, back to the posting grindstone. I got to teach the youth in Sunday School and evening Bible study today. We had some fun. I thought I'd share a bit of my lesson from this morning here tonight.

The title of the lesson was Grab a Booty. (nice title for a youth lesson don't you think) I started with a story that I read awhile back about a college environmental geology class. The professor took his students on a field trip to climb a mountain and observe some rock formations. Before they left, he had them gather in a clearing and gave them this instruction, "For the next several minutes I want you to go around this clearing and grab each others butts." The students started out fairly nervous, but as you can imagine were soon making jokes and having fun. Once everyone was participating well, the professor called the group back together and told them the reason for this strange exercise. He said "The trail we are about to take is extremely steep, slick, and narrow. You climb it mostly on your hands and knees. If the person in front of you were to slip, the first thing you would see is their butt. If you are uncomfortable or unwilling to grab their butt and catch them, they could hurt themselves and those behind you as they fall. In order to prevent this I wanted you to be comfortable grabbing each others' butts so that if the person in front of you slips you can grab them and push them up until they regain their footing."

I think that often we as the Church fail to "grab a butt" when we see people fall. Instead of catching them in their weakness (awkward moments) and pushing them up the mountain with us, we step aside and even point fingers in judgement about their inability to stay on the trail. This is wrong. 

So, I gave the youth three rules for Christian Booty Grabbing...

1. You must have a relationship...You've got to build a relationship of mutual love and trust with a person to truly be effective in admonition. No one wants to hear they are doing wrong, but it helps if you know the other person is telling you because they love you and want what's best for you.
2. You must be consistent...Your ability to effectively help someone up the mountain is greatly hindered when you do not live what you preach.
3. You must be willing to receive...As you help others up the path, you are bound slip occasionally. Are you will to let someone else grab your butt and give it a push? 

I realize that for the most part this lesson is about accountability. However the point that I wanted to get across even more than being accountable to each other is that we need to treat each other better in the church. I've seen it happen before. A person stumbles and has trouble getting back in right relationship with God and the Church (not all, obviously) gossips, judges, and condemns rather than reaching out in love. As Christians, the world "knows" us for what we are against as often or more often than for what we are for. Christ was for loving people into relationship with Himself and His Father...I think that's what we should be about. It has to start inside the walls...