Our purpose in putting on Reality Check Weekend every year is not to provide a mountain-top spiritual experience for our young adults (grades 6-12). In fact, we intentionally try to avoid the kind of student ministry that plays on emotional highs and a few big spiritual moments. Following Christ is about everyday life, and everyday life isn’t always new and exciting. We want to teach our students to follow Christ when times are good and when times are bad and at every point in between. So when we plan Reality Check Weekend, we plan in such a way that the event serves to prepare students to follow Christ in the grind of life. Reality Check Weekend is simply a weekend of intense intentional discipleship. Now that it’s over it’s time to get busy living out what we learned.
What did we learn during Reality Check Weekend 2013? We learned that there is a war going on. We learned that there is a spiritual enemy in the world who wants to oppose God and destroy his followers. We talked about some of the strategies he uses to take us down. But we also learned about a Savior who has already won the war for us through his life, death, and resurrection. The only way to avoid destruction is to take refuge in this Savior. He is our Captain who has defeated our enemy. And yet, even as we rejoice in a battle already won, we recognize the call to follow our Savior by fighting. “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). We must fight with aggression, relying on the power of God and knowing that the outcome has already been decided. We fight a war that we know we will win.
This is not a call only for our students. This is the calling we share as followers of Christ in this present evil age. Will you partner with us in fighting the enemies of God as we cling to the gospel and witness to the truth about Christ’s saving power? Will you live in such a way that declares to the principalities and powers that their time is short? Will you show the world that the victory is won by embracing trials with joy and hope? Reality Check Weekend is over. Now it’s time to live it. This is war.
