Trust and Obey

On Sunday evening, the drama team had their first presentation of a scene. During the youth worship service, the seven of them presented a sketch I had written about the calling of the prophet Samuel. It was entitled “Your Servant” and looked at different ways Samuel, his parents, and the priests were obedient (or not) to what they perceived as God’s calling. The team did quite well for the first time on stage as a group – they dropped a line, got confused, and had to stop and start over once toward the beginning, but everyone recovered incredibly well. I was quite proud of them, and am still very much looking forward to working with them as the year progresses. Last night at Fusion (the cross-community youth programme in the church), we did a series of exercises about trusting one another. The kids took each other on a trust walk through various obstacles in the room, and then went on a night walk outside – ten teenagers, blindfolded, holding on to a long jumprope led by the pastor’s wife. It was rather an entertaining sight, especially when two of the other group leaders decided to pick branches and scare the kids with the leaves. The exercises were designed to be object lessons for trusting God. We can rarely see very far in front of us, but we trust that God knows what’s ahead and can direct us accordingly. God is there, not to prevent us from getting a few bumps on the head along the way, but to catch us when we fall, pick us up, and help get us back on the right track. It’s a message I think we all need to be reminded of from time to time. Thanks be to God. As a side note, the military parade and accompanying protest came off with very little violence last Sunday. In the week or so leading up to the march, both sides of the political spectrum made concessions to ensure a peaceful day. It’s a hopeful sign that maybe the political process can effectively work to resolve conflict here. Word of the Week: Dander. It roughly translates to “walk,” as one might go on a walk through the neighbourhood or to a friend’s house. “Walking” here has more the connotations of hiking – for example, last weekend I went on a walk through the highest mountains in Northern Ireland (the tallest being all of 2500 feet above sea level). The “walk” lasted about 3 hours, and involved climbing one of the shorter mountains and eating lunch at the top. Not usually what I think of when someone says, “I’m going for a walk” in the States.