Love the One You're With Retreat Highlights

This verse from I Corinthians was in my inbox today when I got home from retreat:

"Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." (I Corinthians 13:7, NLT)

This is exactly what we wanted to communicate to the women this weekend at the Love the One You're With retreat; I think we were successful...

Friday night...in the Psalms study room, women were awed and amazed that Christine's typed copy of a Psalm asked them to insert their own name everywhere it said me, my or I. In that moment the Word became a very personal message of hope and love to those women. Praise God! In the Confession/Assurance of Pardon room, tears rolled down cheeks as women came face to face with the brokenness each and every one of us live with because of sin and wept as they wrote those sins down, burned them in the fire and received the assurance of pardon that God forgives and his love is from everlasting to everlasting. In the Prayer Labyrinth room, women negotiated the labyrinth path, stopping at stations to reflect and pray, at first tentatively, then with a true pilgrim's heart. This station took much longer than anticipated because the women fully engaged in the moment, kneeling in prayer over the pool of water into which their burden stone had been released, heads bent over journals in which they poured out their hearts. "Do not be conformed to this world but transform your mind so that you can discern what is God's will, what is good and pleasing and perfect." (Romans 12:2) Amen!

Saturday morning...Christine removed fear and anxiety from our relationships with God by talking about the Favor Line and how God erased that with His love, His Son. God does not require that we measure up to a certain unattainable standard. He does hope and pray that we will be faithful, that we will seek Him out, that we will live reconciled to Him, but He does not remove His love when we falter and stumble, a message many needed to hear. Saturday morning also brough dyads and a time to get to know one other woman better on a deeper level. New friendships were formed amidst tears and laughter.

Saturday afternoon...Rachel helped ladies figure out where they were on the Jesus Relationship Continuum (and we tied it into Fireproof!). They heard about how crazy faith and crazy love are what are required to live a life worthy of the one to which God has called us. Inspired by the Shamgar Principle (are you curious? Judges 3;31), they brainstormed ways to deepen their love for Jesus during Lent so that on Easter morning they can wake up and say with unconditional passion, "I love you, Lord, and you alone!" Perspectives were forever changed as we went around a prayer circle naming one person and what s/he had done to show us love...then going around a second time replacing the person's name with the Name above all names, Jesus. Barely enough kleenex to go around...

There's so much more to share about crazy faith and crazy love, but that's a story for another day...