Youth are navigating some serious spiritual terrain today! The impacts of the pandemic are only making it more challenging. My post, Urgent Need for Discipling Leadership, talks about some alarming data that has emerged from quantitative and qualitative research done on the State of Youth and Religion. Read that post now if you have not to get some context.
Impacts of the Pandemic Call for a Return to Jesus
Has the pandemic disoriented you in any way? Have you experienced disappointment, loneliness, isolation, or loss of hope at all? Most likely, yes. And so have our young people– at record levels. In fact, the US Surgeons General has issued an advisory for widespread mental health challenges in children, adolescents, and young adults. The only way to move through this difficult time in history is to stay rooted in Jesus.
One aspect of Full Spectrum Youth Ministry is rest and retreat (Blue Zone). As Christ-followers and as leaders, it is imperative that you nurture your relationship with God. Jesus himself retreated to the wilderness to pray and spend time in relationship with the Father and with his disciples. Perhaps some of the greatest actions we can take for you youth right now is to retreat on our own and to retreat with them.
Here are 5 reasons why a wilderness experience is needed to combat the psychological, social, and spiritual impacts that we have all faced over the course of this pandemic:
1. Wilderness is therapeutic.
The disillusionment that has happened on so many levels warrants trustworthy counseling. We all need extra doses of grace as well as truth because we are being inundated by polarizing opinions. The wilderness has been an instrument God has used throughout history to bring people back to reality…back to what is true.
RELATED POST: Wilderness is a Trustworthy Counselor (Matthew 6:19-21)
2. Time in the wilderness helps us grow in humility.
Wilderness time reminds us how small we are and how dependent we are on Jesus. Not having a rhythm of retreat sometimes causes us to take life too seriously, to lose touch with God’s sovereignty in every aspect of our life. When we are surrounded too much by the man-made, we can become fearful and see life through the lens of human experience whereas time outdoors bolsters our faith. As we are surrounded by silence and the God-made, we are reminded of our place, our reliance on him, and his character traits demonstrated in his design of Creation.
3. You can find the presence of God in the wilderness.
The wilderness has always been one of God’s spiritual gymnasiums for strengthening the heart, by quieting our soul into deeper God-trust. It inspires your soul by mirroring a higher standard for which you were created. When you are gazing at the pristine beauty of the untrammeled wilderness, when you are sitting around a meal where there is nowhere else to go, your soul begins to taste a higher quality of life.
RELATED POST: 3 Things People Yearn for that Can be Found in Wilderness Experiences
4. The beauty of God’s creation was made for our good.
Christians have a unique worldview regarding creation because creation was an act of God’s love. Because we love God, we should naturally love his creation and want to be a good steward of it. In a similar way that Sabbath was made for man, and not vice versa… I believe beauty was created to help mankind experience the awe and wonder of a personal relationship with God, our creator. It is not an obligation to enjoy beauty, but it is a treasure and opportunity available to all. G.K. Chesterton possibly said it the best:
“It is the happy man who does the useless things; the sick man is not strong enough to be idle.”
5. Connection with others can be healing. The Wilderness Fosters those Connections.
Youth are reporting record high levels of loneliness. Wilderness experiences have been understood for centuries as a type of “temporary community” that exemplifies what a true biblical community should look and feel like 24-7 back in the valley of life in the city. Temporary community is formed through wilderness adventure, as we live and eat together, help one other, work together, and accomplish things together that we could not do alone. In the wilderness, we naturally become vulnerable and known at a level that is not normal in the world.
RELATED POST: How You Can Experience True Family in Temporary Community
Get Ready Now
- Open your calendar and block off time to retreat on your own and later with young people.
- Bring a Bible, pen, and journal. Seek Him and listen to what he has to say to you. Let your soul be filled.
- Prayerfully consider who you need to take out with you on your next retreat.
