Weather update and youth musings

I made it through Ernesto! Now that I've had a chance to talk to more locals, I've found out that tropical storm Ernesto brought more flooding than most hurricanes! I was under Ernesto-invoked house arrest due to some flooding up the street that the ol' Honda Civic couldn't traverse, but there was no damage to the house, yard, or anything. Coolest thing I saw as a result of the storm: high school kids riding a skim board in their flooded front yard!

Today was my first real teaching time with the youth at Duck UMC. What a blast! I had 21 kids, and I wasn't sure how excited they would be about discussion. After some brief introductions and just acting a little goofy, I managed to get them to talk about what sort of things we can expect from God as Christian disciples. In order to get some more info on the youth, I had them fill out a short questionairre including a section that asked them what they expected from God. I thought their answers were pretty good: "I expect God to help me lead a good life." "I expect God to help me at school." "I expect God to help me through this stage of life." And what do they think God expects from them?: "Prayer", "full commitment", "faith in him", "to come to church regularly".

You know, a few years ago, I would have scoffed at those responses believing they were canned Sunday school answers. But I really like the simplicity of it all. I expect God to help me in my daily life, too, and I expect that life will be enjoyable (if not because life is good, then, because I'm living life with God). I expect God will make a difference in the small stuff that doesn't seem to matter much in the larger scheme of things. And I expect that God just wants me to talk to him about it (prayer), to believe in him (faith), and to commit my full self to him. . . . My youth are already teaching me . . . as if I would expect anything different.