Jesus and a rich young man.

Doughnut and hangout time

Today was awesome! The sun was out, the weather was warm, and the sunrise on the drive into Ladera was incredible! Fridays are my favorite mornings of the week. I am always excited to hear about what the kids have been up to, see what is going to happen in the game we play, and then talk about Jesus and how much he loves them.

6 Stage obstacle course!

Grant planned out the game today, a 6 stage obstacle course that required each team to work together. It started with two kids partnered up and blindfolded. We separated them and they had to find each other just by sound, once they accomplished that, they tagged the next person who had to complete a kendama trick, he then tagged the next player who had to get a bean bag through the hole of a corn-hole board. After that, the next two people had to solve a riddle, then run and tag the next group that had to carry a leader to the next station where we ended things with a good ole fashioned foot race.

Blindfolded partner search

I honestly don't know who won, as usual, things got a little disorganized somewhere in the middle, but I know the kids all had smiles on their faces, and I heard a ton of laughter!

We can't get enough "corn-hole" around here

From the game we transitioned into the talk. I got to share about a time when Jesus totally flipped the common perception of people around. The story is found in Mark 10:17-31. 

I started this story by sharing about my first 50k trail race. On the day of the race, in the darkness before the race started I looked around and sized up the other people that would be running with me. I saw a good amount of people that looked super fit, and was certain that they would crush me. I also saw a handful of people that looked like they would be lucky just to finish. They didn't look like they were runners, and they certainly didn't look fit.

During the race, I started passing a good amount of the people I thought would beat me. As I passed they looked like they were hurting, and I started to get pretty confident. After 20 miles though, I started getting passed by some of the people I thought would be lucky just to survive the race. One in particular was a woman in her late 40's or early 50's. Right around mile 23 she blew right passed me looking super fresh. I tried so hard to stay with her, but I was in so much pain that I couldn't get my body to keep up. She ended up finishing about 45 minutes ahead of me!

6th grade guys small group

This story illustrates so much about life. I had no idea how much that woman had trained. I could only see what was on the outside. I couldn't see all the hours of preparation she had done, or the other ultra marathons that she had run. I just saw what I thought was a lady that would have a hard time just finishing, and I was WAY wrong.

In this story, a person comes up to Jesus and asks how he can inherit the kingdom of God. The author of Mark tells us that this man was rich, and he was an important person in the community. From the outside this guy looked like he had it all, he looked like a shoe in for the kingdom of God. 

Jesus tells him that in order to truly enter the kingdom, he needed to go back and sell everything he owned and give he money to the poor, then he wanted to man to come back and follow Jesus. It also tells us that Jesus looked at the man, and loved him.

In the story, this man turns around and walks away disappointed. He just didn't seem like he could do it. What Jesus asked was more than this person was ready to give.

Jesus then says something shocking. Jesus says it is hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom.

First I want to make sure to say that this story is not an attack on rich people, and Jesus is not asking that all his followers sell everything they have in order to follow him. Jesus had rich friends, one of the people that came to take Jesus' body off the cross was a rich person. 

What Jesus is saying is that in order to experience the kingdom, in order to experience the full life, Jesus needs to be the greatest desire of our heart. What goes on inside our hearts is far more telling about who we really are than what happens on the outside for others to see. This man may have thought that he had earned his way into the kingdom, he had followed the commandments, he was a "good person", he was looked up to in his community, and he was successful… but this story seems to show that he desired all those things more than Jesus. 

Jesus ends this time by saying, "but many who are first will be last, and the last first." Following God is a matter of the heart. We cannot earn our way into heaven, we cannot earn our way into God's love. Jesus tells us that in order to enter into true life, he must become the greatest desire of our heart, and we cannot fool him when it comes to that.

Its also important to remember that Jesus looked at this man and loved him. That's true of all of us as well. While I would like to think that Jesus is the greatest desire of my heart, I doubt that is actually true most of the time… and still, Jesus loves me. Jesus walks with me and as I walk with him, I will have opportunities to have him become more and more the center of my life, and he is patient and he is loving along the way.

The girls