At A Child’s Pace

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I still have a little competitiveness in me so when I hike up Elise’s Peak I push my aging legs in order to work up a sweat and beat or match my last time up the mountain. The only problem with this plan is I miss so much of the beauty which surrounds the rocky path.

The other day I took two of my neighbors who live right across from Oceans Retreat Center. Nathan is 10, and hiked the trail once before his class at school a few months ago. Josie his sister age 5, would be attempting the hike for the very first time.

They both bounded up to the trailhead with enthusiastic joy. However, the first section is some of the steepest elevation gains on the hike, so soon our pace rapidly slowed with frequent stops and water breaks. We stopped to look at little bugs crossing the trail, listened to the birds singing their morning songs, and looked back over the town below locating their house and the retreat center.

When little legs got tired we sat on rocks, shared some stories, and after awhile I would entice them to continue on with the goal of eating snacks on top of the mountain at my favorite spot.

When we reached our destination there was joy, relief, and a sense of accomplishment. I pointed out to them my prayer rock and told them why it had become a special place for me over the last years. “Uncle Tim, can I pray on your rock?” asked Nathan. This made me smile, how could I ever say no to that?

Nathan got on his knees, placed his hands on the rock and offered a heartfelt prayer. Josie followed her big brother and with child like faith talked to her Father God. I wanted to pull out my phone and take a picture to share with their mom and dad but it was such a holy moment. We ended our prayer time with Josie leading us in a song of thanks for our snacks, “God our Father, God our Father, we thank You, we thank You for the many blessings, for the many blessing, a-a-amen!”

Our trip down took just as long as the hike up. We stopped to watch the clouds floating by, smelled some wild flowers, skipped, jumped, slipped, cried a little, took off shoes to rub the blisters on our feet, and made it home with tired smiles of pride and a sense of accomplishment.

The next morning, while sipping my coffee, I thought about the journey with Nathan and Josie and I begin to write all the lessons learned on the adventure in my journal. One phrase that popped into my head and recorded was, “learn to live at a child’s pace.” Too often I have rushed up the mountains in life. I’ve missed the beauty of what God has placed all around me in both physically and spiritually.

As I was pondering the phrase and the experience I found myself singing part of a song which I used to listen to some years ago:

“May we never lose our wonder – Wide eyed and mystified,  may we be just like a child staring at the beauty of our King…”

The hike up Elsie’s Peak with Nathan and Josie reminded me to view the world like a child. To gaze on the beauty of King Jesus and to ponder His words about how to live in His Kingdom:

“At that time. the disciples came to Jesus saying, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, ‘Truly, I say to you unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  Mt. 18:1-4

Perhaps today is the day to slow down. Live life at a child’s pace. And encounter the beauty of the Lord!

 

Boldness is what I desire

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Written by Mike Verkaik

As I present this final blog post from our Kingdom Encounter, I am listening to a playlist the group created of the songs that were especially impactful to them during this trip. One song in particular stood out to me as I began to write. The song is Thank God I’m Free by Elevation Rhythm. The chorus contains these lyrics:

Where are those chains that once held me?

I’m free, I’m free

I’m free, I’m free

My sin is gone, how can it be?

I’m free, I’m free

I’m free, I’m free

And look at what the Lord has done

I’m never going back to the way I was

I’ll sing, I’ll dance ’cause I believe

I’m free, I’m free

Thank God, I’m free

Those lyrics truly defined the longing in the hearts of the students who came on this Kingdom Encounter. Beneath their seemingly put-together lives in Western Michigan were hidden fears. Like all of us, over time those secret fears had slowly wrapped crippling chains around their hearts, convincing them that acceptance by others was more valuable than listening and being obedient to God. Without realizing it, they had allowed the voices around them to become louder than God’s voice, causing them to lose sight of their true identity as beloved and accepted children of their Abba Father.

From my own life and experience, I know how easy it is to walk down this path. The world constantly shouts at us through images, social media, and the illusion of perfection that others seem to have achieved. Little by little, those messages wrap chains around our God-given uniqueness and individuality, whispering the lie that we must conform in order to belong. That is why it was so uplifting and refreshing to watch the Holy Spirit gently strip away those fears and worries, replacing them with vulnerability, boldness, and freedom.

Listen to Hudson’s testimony:

As the trip is ending, I’m reflecting a lot at how much I was able to hear the Lord speak to me and work in me for the first time. My theme on this trip very quickly became Boldness. The first day we were here, one of my prayer partners wrote me a letter that was all about how he prayed I would step out of my comfort zone, embrace the uncomfortableness and be bold in my faith. At that time on the first day reading those words were encouraging but being bold in my faith was not something I was good at and very rarely did.

Then, the first day at the care center we taught the kids a lesson in class about being bold and strong in Christ and not being ashamed of the word of God. Although we were teaching it to the kids, it also stuck with me as well. Then later that day at the Overflow church prayer service a man had a vision of me and told me how I’ve always had my head down, not praying out loud because I was embarrassed, and not wanting to talk about God. And when I heard someone telling me that from a person I had never met, and ALL of it was completely true, it was very very cool to encounter God speaking through someone else to speak to me for the first time. 

As the trip went on, Boldness just kept coming up and I could tell God wanted me to grow in that area of my life that I was very very bad at. I quickly got comfortable with sharing more about my faith, praying out loud and just stepping into the uncomfortableness by dancing with people I had never met at a church service. As I let go of being uncomfortable I was able to experience so much more of the joy of the Lord and was just able to allow God to take over and not care what others think of me.

Hudson’s journey is, in many ways, our journey. It is a journey of growing in trust, and through that trust, discovering the freedom we have in Jesus Christ. Like Hudson, we are invited to let go of comfort and control we so often cling to and surrender to find joy, peace, confidence and FREEDOM.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.     Ephesians 3:20-21

Our Father’s Power To Encourage

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Written by Mike Verkaik

For this reason, I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives it’s name.  Ephesians 3:14

There is something about the posture of kneeling that reorients our whole relationship with God, our Abba Father. It says, I am needy. I am reverent. I submit. Kneeling expresses longing, for restoration, for answers, for intimacy with a Father who sees and hears us even when we don’t feel it.

In the deepest part of us we all carry expectations and hopes for God. At the start of our encounter we asked each student to write those hopes in their prayer journals. Yes, those prayers can sound selfish at times, like lists of what we want, but they also expose our truest yearning: to be seen, known, and met by our Father.

Jesus invites that kind of honesty, and gives permission to lay needs before Him when he asked, “What do you want me to do for you?”. First to His disciples:

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.” “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked. They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”  Mark 10:35-37

But, also to a blind man longing to receive his sight:

Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” Mark 10:50-51

As students journey to South Africa many of them carry a simple hope; to be seen and to sense the Spirit’s presence with them. I’d like to share Emma’s account as she wrote about the encouragement she received from the power of God’s presence:

If I had to choose one word to describe today, I would choose powerful. Today the Holy Spirit moved through all the people in our group in indescribable ways.

At night we went to Overflow church. I think I can speak for everyone when I say this church service was more than impactful to our lives. Through this church service I could really feel the Holy Spirit working through me and could see him working in everyone else as well. After we sang a few songs and had intermittent prayer, Pastor Ryan invited our group to sit in front of their church community. He invited the church members forward to say a prayer or just speak over our members. I never would have expected for this to have the impact on us that it did. 

The members of the church had something so specific and special to say to each member of our group individually but also as a whole. It was amazing to see how the Holy Spirit could speak to us through these people. I think that every member of our group was crying at least one time tonight at the power of the Lord working through us in that moment. It is just so hard to imagine how these people could possibly know the things that are going on in our lives, and so specifically to each one of us. 

Personally I felt so touched by the Holy Spirit tonight and felt seen in a way I never have before by Christ. I am beyond thankful for the opportunity we had to meet Pastor Ryan and experience Christ’s love so deeply. Tonight I so strongly felt the Holy Spirit working through me. I could probably speak forever about how impactful tonight was for me and for my life but its still kind of processing. 

When we got back to the retreat center, me and a lot of the girls had an opportunity to all sit together and talk about the impact the Holy Spirit had on us that night. I think this gave us a really amazing opportunity to get to know each other on a much deeper level. I feel so close to these girls in the group and I felt so safe and comfortable being able to share my experience with the girls and hearing them share their experiences as well. Overall this night has been so beyond impactful on all of our lives and I feel so seen and loved by Jesus Christ right now and I am so thankful for the things we were able to experience today. What an amazing and powerful day. God is so good.

Mark Batterson in his book, Draw the Circle writes this, “What if Jesus asked you the same question: What do you want me to do for you?  Would you be able to spell out the promises, miracles and dreams God has put on your heart?” Kneel before the Father and let it be known.

The Freedom And Power To Love And Be Loved

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Written by Mike Verkaik

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,  Ephesians 3:17

Today’s journal entry is from Sophia, a sophomore.  As I reread her words, my heart rejoiced. They beautifully testify to our Father’s glorious riches being poured out on her. Listen to the evidence of the Holy Spirit’s power, giving her eyes to see and a heart to feel His love, and then, from that overflowing place, sharing His love with the children she met.

Today was a very busy day! We were able to go to the care center again and teach some different kids our lessons, and bless them by each of us praying individually for 3 of the kids, followed by giving the teachers a meal and praying for each of them. When I asked a boy if I could pray for him, he looked at me with the biggest smile I had seen, and he nodded so hard at the same time. I put my hand on his shoulder to pray for him, and when I started praying he grabbed my hand and I just felt the love that God has for that boy, and how much He loves everyone. When I opened my eyes after praying for him, he looked me in the eye and smiled even harder than he was before and he looked like he was going to cry. It was so amazing that we could be a blessing to these kids and be someone who can pray for them because this is not something they all get at home. 

After leaving the care center, we drove to a huge vineyard on the side of the mountain to have some time with God. We got a prompt for us to write ourselves a letter from our Abba Father about anything we felt he was telling us. We could walk to wherever we wanted to in the vineyard to have this personal time with God. In my time writing my letter, I felt so close to God, closer than I had this whole trip, and it truly felt like he was speaking to me. Something I felt that he was speaking to me was that my identity is found in Him only, not in my performance, in school or sports, or in whether I fit in or not, but only in Him because He loves me so much. If I put my identity into other things, I will never be enough, but in Him I am, and that is where I belong. 

Something I also felt like God was telling me in this time in the vineyard had a connection to my time at the care center. While playing with some of the kids, I was helping them go across the monkey bars and one of them told me he couldn’t do it anymore because his arms were tired. I told him that it was okay, he could let go because I was holding on to him and he didn’t have to be scared. He got a little nervous about that and didn’t want to let go because he didn’t know if he could trust me fully that I was holding him. I told him again that he didn’t have to worry. I said, “ I’ve got you, don’t worry”, and after that he let go of the bars. As I was holding him after he let go, he looked me in the eye then gave me the biggest hug. I felt like God told me that He was holding me. He said don’t worry, I’m holding on to you, you just need to trust me. 

I can speak for all of us when I say that between these two things in our day, we saw God in so many different ways. These children show us so much joy in how they live between their smiles and hugs, and while in the vineyard we all experienced his presence in different ways. – Sophia

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself”.     Galatians 5:13-14

The Power of His Presence

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Writen by Mike Verkaik

I pray that you being rooted and established in love, may have POWER, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long, and deep and high is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of ALL the fulness of God.    Eph. 3:17-19

This past spring I taught a New Testament Bible class on proximity to God and people. One requirement was to memorize seven verses from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Not wanting to miss out, I joined the class and chose Paul’s prayer including the verse above. Memorization isn’t the easiest for me, so I practiced by reciting the verses to Dawn while we ran errands and on our way back from bringing our son home. As I quoted it she had to continually remind me of two words I kept missing: POWER and ALL. It really became comical. I’d be in mid-sentence and she’d interject, “POWER,” then later, “ALL.” Being competitive, I didn’t always take the interruptions graciously, but through the failure of recollection God highlighted the depth of His presence in me, and engaged my heart and focused my prayers for the Kingdom Encounter we just finished leading in South Africa.

As I continued to memorize and reflect on those missing words, I was reminded again of how passionately our Father pursues intimacy with us. So much so that He is willing to equip us and pour out every attribute of Himself into our lives. This enlightened me to ponder again Paul’s joy in his weakness. It actually makes more sense in light of the truth that in our weakness God’s power becomes more active and noticeable.   (2 Cor. 12:9–10).

Over the coming weeks we’ll be sharing the evidence of His POWER and ALL the fullness of His presence through the words of the students who participated on the trip. We will highlight short testimonies of what they saw, how they were changed, and how God met them in weakness with His overwhelming strength.

This week is the reminder of the connectedness of His fullness in all of us. The connectedness that gives us eyes to see, ears to hear what was previously unknown.  On the first day of our encounter the students climbed up Elsie’s Peak to spend time alone with their Abba Father.  At the top they were challenged to journal the expectations and hopes they’d brought with them from God, read letters written by prayer partners, and dwell on John 14:15-27.

On our way down I asked a student how his time of journaling went. He said, “Mike, it was an amazing time of affirmation. God has already answered my desire. After I wrote my hopes, I read a letter from a student I don’t even know. As I read it was like he knew my heart and desires. Everything I journaled he sensed the Holy Spirit telling him to pray for while I was here. Details no one else could have known.” That moment beautifully illustrated our spiritual connectedness. How the same Holy Spirit lives in all believers, moves between us, and reveals and answers our deep longings. I was struck by the tenth grader’s courage and his willingness to obey what he sensed the Spirit saying.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.  Romans 5:5

Oh, how our Father desires to be heard by His children. May Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 be our prayer for one another as we seek more of His power and all of His fullness. Stay tuned for more student testimonies from our South Africa trip in the coming weeks.