This weekend I went to a youth rally as a CHAPERONE! totally the first time for that. I really enjoyed it though-Watershed led worship and we had great lessons from some awesome speakers (Dusty Rush, Jeff Walling, Patrick Meade). Well, I know that youth rallies are directed at.....well youth! But I would be a huge liar if I said that I was just filling a necessary role for the church this weekend and that I wasn't more that an extra pair of eyes. Oh what a liar I'd be.
First off, I learned what it was to give-we took my car instead of the scarily broken church van
then, i learned what it was to give of yourself and to plan ahead so well for guests-we had an AMAZING hostess who opened her home to us and treated us to homemade goodies
I was reminded of how much fun adults get to have at a youth rally, saw the tired looks on the youth workers faces yet knew that their passion and willing spirits were not at all exhausted!

Now, the real lesson-the yucky, hard lesson I learned-or rather heard in a different way this weekend. We are God's bride. Easy right? No, have you read Hosea? She regularly left him for other men (in our case, other Gods) and in an effort to get her to focus only on him, Hosea took her out into the desert. He removed everything in her life that distracted her from him. That story is a parallel to our relationship with God.

God has me in a desert. He wants me to focus on Him. That hit me like when people get hit in that V8 commercial. I have been feeling so alone and asking God for someone to come along for me as a friend. I was asking God for someone else, I wasn't asking God for Him. For His help and my focus has NOT been on Him. Well, here goes, hopefully I'll make the most of my desert time. If God brought me here, he must be expecting me to follow Him out of it......