For the last 13 days I have been all over the Great Plains. I love “the Heartland”. The band and I have developed some dear friendship there. This last weekend we got to spend four days with a group of our friends, leading worship, at the Salvation Army Youth Councils.
Last years event was held in a hotel in Kansas City. While the hotel was incredibly comfortable, this years event was held at a campground conference center in Salina, KS and provided a lot more opportunities for community and interaction.
One of my favorite events was the Low-Ropes Course. If you ever have the chance to participate in one you have to give it a try! It was so much fun! It’s essentially a collection of obstacles or puzzles that have to be solved in some physical way by the group as a whole. For instance, in one puzzle, my group of 10-12 was asked to step up on a big log lying on the ground. The log was about 20-30 feet long. After we were all standing on the log the instructor then told us that our challenge was to order ourselves from tallest to shortest in sequential order without stepping off the log. If even one person fell off the log we all had to start over.
I don’t know if you can imagine what that would look like or not. It was absolutely hysterical!! We were leap-frogging, crawling, jumping, and spinning all trying to get it worked out. We had girls that were 5 feet tall and guys that were 6’6”. I haven’t laughed so hard in a while.
When it was all done we talked things through and discussed what we had learned in the experience. Some of the observations were really great. I couldn’t help but thinking how desperately we, as the bride of Christ, are in need of some of these simple object lessons. Here are just a few of the things we learned.
1. Somebody has to be the leader. When everyone is directing traffic it’s anarchy.
2. Everyone approaches the situation with a different perspective. What seems natural to one person can make someone else very uncomfortable.
3. We must all play a part. If even one person refuses to contribute it doesn’t work.
4. We have to be willing to try new things, there is not one “right way” to do things. What worked for two smaller people to pass each other proved to be a train wreck when it came to the bigger guys.
5. We’re gonna have to get personal to make this happen. HA!
6. Once you were in place and the action moved away from you it almost became easier to fall off the beam because you weren’t as focused. Keep your head in the game.
7. Communication is key. Not only speaking properly but also making sure that everyone heard what you meant to say.
8. Trust one another. If we have all of the above in place and still lack trust, we will fail.
