This coming weekend is a three-day weekend for a lot of people, and it reminds me of an annual retreat our youth group participated in years ago (and probably still does). Every President’s Day weekend our youth group went to a nearby Christian conference center for a mini retreat. Many of the other churches from our denomination’s district brought their youth groups as well. It added some excitement to the mid-winter doldrums for a lot of our high-schoolers. It was always a very uplifting time that saw many kids dedicate or re-dedicate their lives to Christ.
One year during this retreat our youth leader, Allen, took part in an annual tradition for the retreat. He arranged to make pizza available for purchase, and our youth group would then meet together (just us in a smaller setting…no other church’s youth groups) for some deep discussions.
As you may be able to imagine, a large number of teenagers can go through quite a bit of pizza. Everyone was told ahead of time to bring some extra cash specifically for the purpose of buying however many slices of pizza they’d want. Allen announced that he’d get a slice count first, then collect the cash afterward. He went methodically through the roster he brought, keeping a record of how many slices each person wanted. Upon tallying all the orders, he asked “okay, last call, does anybody want to make any changes before we call in the order?” There may have been one or two changes to the orders, but it wasn’t long before he tallied up the final count.
As everybody started pulling out their cash, he announced a surprise. An anonymous member of our church was a big fan of the effect this retreat had on our youth group, and had volunteered to pick up the tab for the entire youth group’s pizza dinner. While buying pizza may not sound like much, it was a very real and practical way to love on the kids from our church attending the retreat that year. As jaws fell open, many of the boys, especially, tried to revise their orders higher, but Allen had seen it coming and purposely double checked before announcing the news.
This was a great way to demonstrate to teenagers the concept of having their debt forgiven. While this was an infinitely smaller debt to overcome than Christ’s redemption of our souls, it was an example that struck a chord and brought a tangible joy with it.
For those who have maybe heard of Jesus but might not be real familiar with Him, He serves as the bridge for us to cross an impossible gap. You’ve probably heard of Adam and Eve. For a time, Adam and Eve walked in sinless fellowship with the Lord. It wasn’t until they sinned (went against what they knew was right in God’s eyes) that death became woven into the human experience. Only someone without sin would be able to escape the lasting consequences of death, and only Jesus Christ has lived a sinless life. Since Christ was fully man, He wasn’t impervious to death, but since He was also fully God, He was impervious to staying dead. Since death has no power over the sinless, Christ was able to stare death in the eye and do as He wished. Although His sacrifice created a way to redeem us if we accept it, all of us are still destined to live with the consequences of our past sins. Everyone reading this will one day pass from this life into the next, but only those that have accepted Christ as their savior will spend the next life with Him in heaven.
I pray you’d experience a similar example of having your debt forgiven, and gain an increased appreciation for the gift Christ offers all of us. For those that have been Christ-followers for awhile now, please pray that those who are seeking truth would find it, and that God would move mightily in their lives, and in the lives of the teens gathering for the winter retreat this weekend.