The power of humbly submitting to your peers

It was Saturday evening; the second evening of a youth camp at a camp-site called Cedara, just outside Pietermaritzburg, South-Africa. The youth leaders and I were standing around the bon-fire with a few of the teenagers. From the darkness between the bungalows, we could hear the shouts and screams - the results of the Shaving Cream War. It was more than just shaving cream. Eggs, shoe polish, shaving cream, real cream, toothpaste -- if it could make a mess, it was a weapon.

At the beginning of the war there had been two groups, but mistaken targets have caused the desire for revenge to flare, and so it was now pretty much anyone against everyone. Alliances were made and destroyed in minutes. It seemed impossible to end this war, because there was no longer a count of when the revenge truly balanced out the initial attacks. It was now revenge for revenge for revenge. A bit like the Middle East.

The bon-fire was the "place of safety" for those who needed respite, or like myself and most of the other leaders, maybe feeling a bit old for this.

It felt as if God had nothing to say!

We tried to calm the war down, and get all the teenagers around the fire. I spoke a few words of what was on my heart, but really felt my heart empty. I had been spending time earlier, praying, asking God what He wanted to tell these youngsters, but I seemed to find nothing, and so I spoke a few words in general, encouraging them to holiness and a deeper Christian walk - but my words felt powerless.

Wesley led us in a few songs of Praise and Worship, which were great as always, but I couldn't help closing the meeting feeling somewhat as if God had not touched us.

Supper was almost ready. Hungry, and forgetting to be careful, I stepped out of the safety zone, and then it hit me. First a raw egg against the head, then a spray of shaving cream right from the front, forcing me to close my eyes - and then I felt it all come down - shoe polish in my hair, toothpaste being smeared in my ears! I could hear the victorious shouts.

Finally Ashton had been hit. The prime target! There was great celebration as the bell went for supper, and the wars ended.

But God wanted to speak to me!

As the teenagers lined up for dinner, Inba and Lovina called me aside. We normally waited for all the teens to eat first, before we would get our food.

"Ashton, can we talk to you?" Lovina and Inba had come from their bungalows, and it was only as I stepped into the light, that they realized what I looked like. They both burst out laughing, but quickly became more serious as we stepped away from the crowd to a quiet spot beyond earshot of the
others.

"Ashton, we have been praying, and we really believe God wants to do more." Without a moment of delay, I felt my self-defence mechanisms kicking in.

There are few things as threatening to a Christian leader as the implication that he has missed what God wants to be doing. That is, after all, your entire reason for existence - to hear from God and lead accordingly. I suppressed this, and listened. And how glad I was that I did. They went on to tell me what they believe God had told them, and we spent some time praying together. I searched my heart, asked God for wisdom, and I really felt that there was not more that God was going to do that evening. I knew that it was near impossible to calm these teenagers down now. The wars would continue into the early hours of the morning.

Listening to my people, prepared my heart for listening to God

But my heart had been set on alert. My ears were more open than before. And herein really lies the reason for my recounting this. If you are a Christian leader, and some of your people come to you and tell you that you're missing what God is doing, don't go into self-defence mode. Go into self-humbling mode. I learnt the lesson that day, and have found it so precious ever since.

We decided to skip dinner and breakfast, and called on the other leaders to do the same. We invited the teenagers that wanted to join us, to fast these two meals. We were asking God to do something special the next morning. I went to have a shower, spent some time worshipping and praying, and then went to bed.

The next morning, I rose early. The camp was now dead quiet. I went to the hall where we would meet later that morning, and started praying. I practiced some of the worship songs I would use, and prayed that God would move amongst the youngsters. I didn't feel God giving me much of
a message. It was really just an invitation to come to Him.

And there God met with me. It was as if He had been sitting in that hall, all night, just waiting for the day to break, for me to come there, and meet with Him.

Outside, I could hear the camp waking up. I heard the calls for breakfast. The leaders came into the hall one by one, joining me in prayer. After breakfast, some of them went outside, to quieten the teens down before letting them come inside. They sent them in, one by one, through the four doors.

Preparing the Teenagers to listen

I started playing a worship song, and the teenagers started coming in - one at a time through each door, quiet, separated from the pressure of their peers. They seemed to feel God's presence too, because they just remained quiet, and quietly joined in the worship songs that I was playing and
singing. As the numbers increased, the worship became louder, and it felt as if God's presence became stronger and stronger.

Youngsters started weeping. I saw one boy, who had been as hard as stone -- the ultimate cool kid - lying on his face, shaking with sobs.

If it had not been for Lovina and Inba coming to speak to me that evening, I might have just gotten up the next morning and had another normal meeting. Some praise and worship, preach a little - and that's it. Maybe God would have moved, but I seriously doubt that we would have had the impact that God had on those teenagers, that morning.

A Lesson Learnt

God really touched us that morning, and I learnt a lesson. As a leader, it's so easy to be all insecure and over-sensitive about doing the right things, that you can end up doing the wrong things. Listen to your people, even when it threatens, for you never know who God is going to use, to prepare your heart for what He wants to do.

Don't take responsibility before God's timing is right

Ex:2:12: And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was
no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.

Moses seems to have already been carrying the burden in his heart for his
people, but he did not know what to do with it, or how to channel it. So,
he messed up and tried to hide the mess.

Be careful! Don't try to take responsibility for things that are not yet
your responsibility, simply because you already have the burden for it.

The importance of a leader, focusing on people

One of my girls in youth was very downcast tonight, and I sort of quickly spoke to her, but I was actually focusing on getting things done for the coffee bar. 

 

Afterwards I realized the importance of not having to worry about the humdrum of keeping things running.  If my focus was on being available to minister to my youth, I would have been much more effective tonight.

 

Extract from Journal 26 September 1999