I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to continue my time with my friends from RUF at Summer Conference in Laguna Beach this summer. The hours spent playing volleyball, the hilarious conversations during our meals, the unwise decision to swim out to the second sandbar, and the numerous trips to Publix are just a few memories that I am so thankful to have made. However, beyond having such a great time with such fun people, the conference offered an environment for me to focus on my own faith and see some major misconceptions that are in need of correction.
The Joy of Summer Conference Seminars
Leading one of my seminars was Campus Minister Ben Coppedge from UGA. We dove head first into the idea of sanctification, learning to “love the God who sanctifies his people” instead of obsessing over the doctrine. While there were no confusingly abstract diagrams drawn on a whiteboard, Ben confidently and eloquently walked us through this mind boggling reality of sanctification, explaining that God’s sovereignty reaches even to our deepest sin struggles. Even more than that, He is a God who wants to walk with us through this turbulent life and reveal to us His greatness. It is so easy for me to fall victim to a mindset of helplessness when thinking about sanctification; but, Ben showed us how Jesus saved us to restore our relationship with Him and that sanctification is Jesus then showing us how to live in this new restored life. I am so thankful that this teaching does not end at SUCO and that I know that my community of RUF members and staff at my college are all willing to hold me accountable to living into this new life, because that is what it looks like to live in a healthy community.
I also attended Peter Lyon’s two day seminar on spiritual disciplines with the expectation to be lectured on a dry, but necessary facet of what it means to be a Christian. However, I was blown away by the way that Peter completely stole my attention. He focused on three main disciplines: meditation, fasting, and joy & celebration. The joy and celebration is what had the most profound impact on my time at and after the conference. I went into this week thinking that I would have a fun and exciting time and then detached from that would be my time to grow my faith through the seminars and large/small groups. However, as Christians that is not how we are called to live our lives. In everything we do we should have a posture of praise, the keyword there is “everything.” Even when we were all just chilling out at the beach we were glorifying God. Joy and celebration is such an integral part of growing our relationship with God, and this summer conference really helped show that to me. As I continue to move forward, I will retain this mindset and find ways to find God in everything that is good… knowing that He is with me and sovereign through every part of my life. I am so so thankful for RUF for creating such a healthy and exciting place to allow all of us to draw nearer to God, and I am looking forward to the years to come.