Security and Prince Charming

Hey!  So, the retreat at Beechpoint was fantastic.  I had an amazing time with the planet's most awesome youth group and youth pastors!  Human foosball was wagonloads of fun: mud, bruises, friendly-but-violent alter egos, bloody toes and all.  Card games (Mafia!  Dutch Blitz!) and insanity abounded.  The food provided by our hardworking hosts was homemade and quite yummy.  We did enforce our 2 AM bedtime, and I got prayer for my ear (which has been feeling better since.  It just couldn't stand up to God's awesomeness!), and we were actually all functional the next day despite the rain (and I'm still awake to post this!  Yay!  Though I won't be for much longer after I'm done here).

But the best part of the whole 24 hours was definitely God.  The worship—even if it was just nineteen sweaty people & nineteen patient angels packed into a room with a guitar—was amazingosity embodied.  Special thanks to Aaron Mueller, graduate of our youth group and killer dodgeball player, who came and gave two awesome messages.  My spiritual tummy is packed with lots of food for thought.  He talked about surrendering goals and desires to God, and giving our lives over to His "authorship".  God met me with a couple of things there, one that I'd been wrangling with for a while, and one issue I hadn't even realized was an issue.  It was good.  But there was one revelation He bowled me over with when we were having a soaking time that I'd like to share.  (This is the condensed version, because the transcription in my journal is very multifaceted and descriptive and emotionally messy and over a page long.)

I saw myself in this beautiful white dress, slow-dancing with a strong figure in a tuxedo that I couldn't quite see clearly, and I was hit with this overwhelming, powerful, actually tangible sense of security, far stronger than I have ever felt before.  Not just security in a physical sense, but emotionally (I knew I was unconditionally cherished and supported), emotionally in a different sense (I was completely confident in my identity; I felt and knew I looked totally gorgeous) and even monetarily/financially (my beau not only provided for all my needs, but lavished me with gifts like the expensive dress I was wearing).

Obviously, the first question that occurred to me was, "Who is this fantastically perfect amazing guy who makes me feel completely safe, completely loved, completely gorgeous, and completely confident all at once?  And who is also apparently quite rich and a wonderful dancer?"  And Jesus got around to the answer in a rather roundabout way, first deciding to correct a misconception I didn't know I had (of course).  He said,

"You see this picture as your future.  People, especially on the cusp of adulthood, constantly look to their future—their career, their education, their dream home, or (as in my case, apparently, whomever this may be) their future spouse—as their security.  But what you forget is that you are already My bride.  You are already in My arms, secure in My love, clothed in My beauty.  Dance with Me, rest in Me, seek everything you need in Me, and you will possess that security and confidence you so long for.  When you come to be fulfilled in Me, knowing and feeling how much I love you, I will begin to fill your life with blessings beyond even your dreams."

So, now I challenge you (Ooo, this feels ambitious for only my third blog post):  where are you seeking security and fulfillment besides Jesus?  He has everything—is everything—you need.  Seek Him first, and then you might start finding what you were looking for in other places too.  (So maybe somewhere down the road I'll have not only a fantastic Prince Jesus but a Prince Charming too ...one with a better haircut and a less-cardboard personality than the Disney version... then I'd be a really lucky princess!)