Gather
Teen Retreat 2025: Going into the Unknown
Does it seem to you that time is going by so fast? I can’t believe we’re arriving at the holiday season. Yet, we can only be in the moment in which we find ourselves. God is so wise to allow us to use our feet to help us meet our most basic needs. Even though we drive, fly, or multitask and accomplish so much sometimes with a click of a finger, we still need to take steps in order to wash our face, prepare our meals, and go to work. Let us savor our small, seemingly insignificant, steps because they are the mode by which we are able to keep in step with the Spirit.
The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up. Exodus 19:20
Sometimes I read verses like this and think of how quickly I can read it, but for Moses it took breathing, thinking, praying, and laborious stepping up to meet with God on behalf of the people. He ascended the mountain about eight times!
There are days when the six blocks uphill from the supermarket here in Quito, one of the highest cities on Earth, just seem like too much. Dramatically, I say to our daughter Kayla, “Save yourself and leave me here.” We chuckle because she makes strides that appear effortless, while I sometimes struggle to take tiny incremental steps and, after all this time, seem to still be acclimating to this hill. She pulls my arm, doesn’t let me go, and says, “Come on Mother. We’re almost home.”
Both she and I arrive home by each step that we have taken together. How different your walk can be from the person right next to you! How easily you might trod while the other feels pain and exhaustion. This season, let us remember to be gentle. To be slow and kind. To be aware that while the hill isn’t very high, only over 9,000 feet of elevation, we might need to pull someone along with us. That is, to share our strength, to gather a fellow traveler with us. The goal is Home with Christ, but we are not meant to be traveling alone. Those around us may need our support, we may need theirs. And pretty soon we will be gathered together and we will rest.
~Nancy
