Youth Winter Retreat Reflection (Part I)

As always, it was a blessing to attend the youth group winter retreat. This time it was a bit different being a leader instead of just an attendant. However the main focus was still all about spending time with the Lord and simply enjoying his presence.

Friday night, Pastor Tony's first message was about the God the Father. The message was based on Matthew 13:44-46, the "Parable of Hidden Treasure and the Pearl." The passage was on Matthew 13:44-46, the "Parable of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl."

Pastor Tony shared the gospel with us and taught that God is the good father. However, he did this by first portraying the false presentations of God.

God is not the

1. Absent father. People who portray God as the absent father have feelings of rejection & abandonment and naturally project this feeling to God. God feels distant & uninvolved in your life.
2. Passive father. A passive father is physically there but not very involved in your life. He doesn't engage in conversation with you. Children with passive fathers have hidden anger, difficulty in getting in touch with their emotions, and difficulty with relationship intimacy.
3. Performance oriented father. A performance oriented father has high standards that are not balanced with love. He points to your flaws and not to your strengths & successes. There is love and affirmation only when performed well. 
4. Authoritarian father. The authoritarian father is strict and lives by the rules. Obedience > relationship.
5. Abusive father. An abusive father seems very angry all the time and his children are constantly walking on egg shells. 

God is not absent, passive, performance-oriented, authoritarian, or abusive. He is the good father who unconditionally pours out love in concrete, tangible ways. He initiates a relationship with you.

Although my parents never demanded high performance from me, growing up, I always wanted to do things perfectly. However, as we all know, that's impossible. And this week, I was reminded that my worth is not determined by my performance. On Wednesday, I had organic chemistry lab and we were doing part one of the two week lab. While we were doing the experiment, I somehow pushed the watch glass and spilled all my precipitate (oh no!). Thank God we were working with solids! I scraped up what I could and continued with my experiment. At this moment I was just really reminded that my worth is not determined by my performance. I cannot base my worth in how I'm doing in school or in other aspects of life. My worth solely comes from God, my good father. And He loves me unconditionally! And he loves you unconditionally too!

...to be continued