By Zachary Carroll
I write this today to you all on the glorious day of Monday. So be prepared for the fact that this sounds like it was written on a Monday.
This past week I have been reflecting on the Emerge Retreat for young adults in the PacNWC. I looked through photos, went through my weird notebook trying to make sense of it, and generally scoured my terrible memory about what all happened. Three things stuck out particularly for me.
The first is the message and the music. Pastor Genesis, our worship leader, absolutely killed it. She let the Spirit guide her and it was felt and received strongly. Our speaker, Pastor Michael, brought a message of connecting to God, others, and justice. It was powerful and moving. I’m generally a huge skeptic. Messages and worship sessions like this fall into one of three categories for me. Deep and mature and real, overly preachy and emotionally manipulative, or just plain bland. This fell firmly into the first category. Probably a part of that had to do with references to Moana. Silly stuff like that helps ground it. For me personally, I was overwhelmed with emotion. I wasn’t quite prepared to be challenged in that way. It was exactly what I needed; judging from conversations of others, it was also what they needed. I feel that often in retreats I hear the same 4-5 messages. To hear one that was actually challenging and meaningful meant a great deal to me.
The second thing that really stuck was my interactions with other young adult believers (this is the weirdest age demographic). Hanging out with other groups than the one I came with helped me to better see what God was doing with our generation (especially in our region). I hung out drawing with a group from Ballard one evening, and seeing the sass and love inter-played with one another was incredibly encouraging. Hearing and experiencing people’s stories whilst coloring in owls was a true joy.
The final piece that was memorable was simply my experience with the environment. Cascades Camp and Conference Center is, as always, filled with rest and beauty; combined with the retreat itself, I got to experience a moment of peace in my otherwise hectic and crazy life. A particular moment was around a campfire late at night. The opportunity to hear laughter and stories as we listened to the fire crackle in the backwoods of Brightwood Station was serenity incarnate.
My reflections feel very distant from my current 1000 mile per hour life, but when I think of Emerge, these are the takeaways that mean so much to me. Other people might get something else, but this is what I got. This is probably going to read like a Mack truck drifting around a corner, but it’s my heart on it. Grace and Peace to you who managed to make it this far.