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The “TRUST FALL”
Do you know what a “Trust Fall” is?
A “trust fall” is when you stand in front of someone and fall back. You must trust that the person standing behind you will catch you before hitting the ground!
I never attempted this feat until Saturday when our Youth Group and I attended a Low/High Ropes Course in Quarryville, PA. A scary thing to do, Yes!
All the kids seemed to do it very easily and without hesitation. Hey, no problem, I can do that! Well….not so easy for me. How am I supposed to fall backward and trust that I will not fall to the ground?
So, it was my turn. All the kids were watching. I spent some time standing in front of Kirt- thinking very long; he’s not going to catch me and I am falling hard! Trust! I needed to trust Kirt. Here I go, just do it Cheryl, he has my back, he’s not going to let me fall…right?
This event was one of the many team-building activities of the morning schedule. We learned to build our communication skills, to listen to one another and to collaborate effectively. We gained a mutual respect for one another. We learned to trust one another, something we quickly appreciated when we attempted the ropes course later in the day.
Trust is powerful, sometimes giving up control and allowing someone or something to guide you. We strengthened our trust in God on Saturday, also. We learned He is who He says He is, and He will guide us. He is our peace, our peace when we doubt, our peace when we don’t understand and we can Trust Him.
He knows what He is doing!
I leaned back, let myself fall, I trusted, and Kirt caught me….
~Cheryl Cini
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
~Proverbs 3:5-6
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Lord, Teach Us To Pray
When my January/February edition of The Interpreter arrived, I quickly settled myself for lunch and a quick read. I enjoy this United Methodist publication and I most enjoy the publisher, Reverend Larry Hollon. His opening and closing letters are usually interesting and thought provoking; this particular edition focused on prayer.
Larry’s opening letter resonated with me and I have read it through many times. I want to share the letter with you, read it a couple of times; it’s something to think about! It’s also an introduction to the launch of a collaboration between The Interpreter and The Upper Room. Throughout the upcoming year, they will be offering resources for a project called “Teach Us to Pray, A Prayer-Filled Journey.”
The youth will soon embark on this prayer journey. Throughout this year I will be presenting the youth prayer and praying techniques and ideas, discussing anything that will help us grow, enrich us, and learn prayer. I will be drawing my resource materials from the www.umc.org/pray website that will be offered FREE as a subscriber! The March issue will look at “Praying through Scripture”.
To me, prayer is very complex. To simplify, prayer is communication with God. The complexity arises when one thinks of how we communicate, when we communicate, where and what we communicate! Undoubtly, I believe prayer draws us closer to God. John Wesley defined prayer as “lifting the heart to God.”
My challenge to you: Take time to pray, visit the website and take the prayer filled journey. Share your prayer experiences with our youth and share your experience with me.
Reverend Larry Hollon’s opening letter:
We do; we pray.
The plainspoken elder stood before a group of fidgeting teenage Native American youth at a community center in a suburb of Seattle. She was teaching them beading and telling stories as she taught. Their completed work would be given as gifts. She was also slipping values education into her remarks, but in a style so subtle it was unnoticeable to the youth.
“You should never work on a gift when you’re in a bad spirit,” she said, “because the spirit will enter the gift and it will not be a good gift. Instead, clear your mind of that bad spirit and think about the good that your gift will bring. “You know why?” she asked.
“Because your work is your prayer, and you want your prayers to lift you up, not bring you down.” I have often reflected on her idea that what we do is often prayer. When we dance, take a beautiful photograph, write an inspiring thought or complete an act that lifts us above ourselves and enhances others as well, we pray.
We can pray with our hands and feet as well as our thoughts and mind.
In seminary, I wrestled with how to define prayer. I recall a discussion in which prayer was described as lifting in conscious thought whatever lay beneath the surface and putting it into words so we could lay it before God.
This is a more abstract way to describe prayer than that of the grandmother. And, it’s more limiting. It limits prayer to words. Out of curiosity, I did a Google search for a definition of prayer and it returned 342 million results. It seems there are many ways to define prayer. The Scriptures contain many forms of prayer-from the celebratory psalms to the yielding cry of Jesus on the cross at the end of his earthly life.
Sometime our pain is too great for words. When we’ve lost someone and we’re deep in grief, or when we face some other profoundly dislocating and unsettling event or emotion, words can fail us. All we can do is utter a cry and throw ourselves before God.
But we can’t stay there. Of course, we can ask for strength, understanding or courage. We can rail at the unfairness of it all. But in due course, we must set out on the journey, but it can be a prayerful one. The teaching of the grandmother for these young people was that it is better to clear our minds of destructive thoughts and focus on how to rise above them than to allow those thought to hang around and drive us to abuse drugs or alcohol; to get free of them rather than to give in to them.
And I think prayer is not only our words, but also our acts. It is those moments when we bare ourselves to God, when we are so intensely focused that our work itself raises us to the sublime, the point at which we are most exposed, yet also most closely in communication with God.
It is heart and hands, word and spirit laid bare before God who, in ways that words alone cannot fully capture, fills our emptiness, cleanses our bad spirit and heals our brokenness.
~Reverend Larry Hollon is publisher of Interpreter and general secretary of the UM Communications.
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The “Thud-in-your-Gut” Feeling
As a parent and youth worker, I’ve experienced the “thud-in-your-gut” feeling. Sadly, kids in crisis can make you feel that way. The Connecticut tragedy was a major crisis for the young boy involved. Someone didn’t respond to their thud, my first reaction was to feel hurt for that young boy. Where was his support, his healing support, his social support? So, take time to listen, listen to your gut, help relieve pain, offer support to our teens, and remind them that Jesus helped heal many broken people.
Pain is a common feeling among teens today. We can all offer real healing moments to broken kids; we can relieve their darkest pains, and open their wounds.
Jesus chose the broken. He made time for them, never judged and offered his services. Remember the woman at the well? Jesus took a detour, entered enemy territory, noticed her pain and offered her counseling services. He accepted her!
When we see our kids in pain, we need to detour too, we need to stop, stop our world for the moment. When we stop we listen! While I may not be “trained” in counseling services, I do know and have experienced real crisis moments and intervened. I recognize it’s a part of youth work and a parent’s work too! I don’t always know exactly what to do or say, but I do know that I am blessed in that moment. I have listened to the “thud-in-my-gut”!
I’d like to offer some tips I have learned along my youth worker/parent journey:
1. Accept the young person’s crisis. Convey Christ-like acceptance.
2. Gather information and facts carefully. Don’t jump to conclusions.
3. Be Present. Give the person time, real time. Sit back and relax.
4. Make God’s presence known. Remind them that Jesus knows and understands their pain.
5. Do something, prepare an action plan. If you think the person is a danger, defer to a professional.
6. Offer social support, loving and practical support.
So, listen the “thud-in-your-gut” and you’ll soon be able to offer healing to your loved ones, (your young ones) and those around you.
“Bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ”
-Galatians 6:2
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