Oh Deer!

One evening, years ago, in the Oak Knoll area of Austin, I was taking a bike ride. I had helped get my 3 preschoolers to bed and needed some exercise and solitude for a few moments. It was in the last minutes of dusk that I took a quick pedal in an effort to sweat a little and let the cooling air peel off a layer or two of the day’s tensions from a demanding day of ministry. After a few moments pedaling and praying, I heard a strange sound behind me, like hooves on the black top. I turned around to see not one, but three young bucks with ample, but not huge, racks running behind me. I had heard about bike riders being knocked off their bikes by deer crossing the road, but I had never heard of deer chasing a bike down the street. I got a little nervous knowing how fast deer were capable of running (25-30 mph). I wondered if they would overtake and unseat me. I don’t know if these three saw me on my bike in the dimly lit street as a rival, or maybe they were just spooked and I happened to be in the path of their escape route.  For whatever reason, it felt like several minutes that these deer followed me, though it probably was not more than several seconds. Even when I made a turn to a side street in an effort to get out of their way, the deer still followed me. Finally, the three bucks made a sudden turn through someone’s side yard and then, as quickly as they had appeared, they were gone. For several weird moments these young bucks had been running half speed, about 10 yards behind me. I felt nervous, but invigorated and grateful to have had this curious brush with nature in Texas suburbia. I came home and excitedly told my ATX hippodrome bicycle vs.hoofed ruminant varmint odyssey to my understandably skeptical wife. 

Deer are mentioned several places in God’s Word, but my mind was drawn to the words of the Psalmist who says, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1–2) While I sought some moments with God while pedaling, panting, and praying, it felt like God had allowed me to experience something so special, that I had to at least consider the fact that He had seen and heard me and was glad to be with me in those moments of solitude. Granted, it was no burning bush like Moses had experienced, but I still ponder that experience all these years later with thankfulness of getting to meet with Him in a unique way. 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all! 

Stories from Student Camp!*

 It was time for my first student camp as a middle schooler. The long drive to the infamous white sands of Panama City Beach seemed to take forever. Some slept, some sang, some made up limericks, and some pranked. Some high school couples paired up and didn’t “leave room for the Holy Spirit between them,”... there was a lot of smoochie face going on when the adults were not around. Thankfully the bus had facilities, because one creative prankster had carefully rewrapped Feen-A-Mint laxative gum and placed it in Double-Mint wrappers, which he generously gave out to anyone who “would like a piece of gum.” Fortunately, there were no known “accidents” in anyone’s breeches on the way there.   When we arrived we were divided into boys and girls cabins and the cabins were divided into other rooms of 6 to 8 people. In order to keep the smallish rooms livable, the leaders had made a competition for the cleanest room. At the end of the assembly of Worship and Bible Study each night the leaders would announce the winning room and they got free ice cream. Our room never won that competition for some reason, but we sure enjoyed our time together at camp. By the third night or so, it was obvious we would not be winning that award, so we thought we would have some fun with those who came to inspect the rooms while we went to the assembly. We had filled a small trash can full of water and put it over the door and we all exited out the other door. We could hardly contain ourselves when one of the parent leaders came to the worship assembly soaked from head to toe. She was smiling, but just barely. The guys from our room had extra clean up duty for the remainder of the camp. I’m thankful for the loving adults who made sure we stayed safe, had fun, and learned how to live like God’s children. This group of students would learn and grow over the next 4 years by being discipled by some caring adults and take a life-changing mission trip to New England. We had hours of Worship and Bible Study together, mission and ministry opportunities to learn how we are supposed to act when we belong to Jesus. We also grieved together over the failure of one of the pastors who led students in ministry and learned the pain of what happens when we forget Whose we are and how to act. 

It takes a community of believers to raise up the next generation of kids who belong to and act like Jesus as adults. The Wisest Man ever says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Proverbs 22:6) Students need lots of loving direction from Jesus' followers who are more mature than them, who help them understand what is okay and what is not okay. Otherwise, they grow up with a twisted reality of how to act, each of them doing whatever seems right in their own eyes, forgetting that their identity is in Christ.  That youth group ended up producing four pastors, a couple of missionaries, two minister’s spouses, several deacons and Sunday School teachers. Pray for parents of students, student ministers, student leaders, and students that there will always be a generation of teens learning how to love God and love others like Jesus does. 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!