Practice Helps--A devotion written for a youth outing next Tuesday---

Do you know what a gutter ball is?

Did any of you have a gutter ball or two today or have you ever had a gutter ball? (Let some of them share their gutter ball experiences)

What if you were asked to bowl a game trying to get gutter balls only? Would that feel strange to you?

It would feel strange wouldn’t it because the goal of bowling is to get strikes, to knock down all of the pins with one ball. The more pins we knock down with a ball the better our score. The idea is to have the highest score on our team, right?

I bet many of you had good scores today, maybe bowled a higher score than you did the last time you went bowling. Bowling is a game that takes practice. We want to do better than getting gutter balls, so we have to work at it.

Our walk with Christ is like bowling a good game. We have to practice, spend time with God, in order to grow in our life with Christ. Can you think of ways we can practice our life with Christ? (read Bible, pray, go to church, Christian Ed., Bible school, go to youth group, share with others)

In the book of Colossians it talks about living and growing with Christ.

Read Colossians 2:6-7; 3:1-4;12-17

Can you list some of the things those verses say we should do?

Being a Christian takes practice, just like bowling well takes practice. I hope that each of you will take time each day to spend time with God by reading your Bibles and praying and that you will come to church and Christian Ed. as much as you can so you can continue to learn how to grow as a Christian.

Prayer

I was at Camp Koronis this summer for “Summer Buffet of Fun.” One of the highlights of the week for me was going out to the archery range and getting to do some target shooting. I haven’t done that since high school. I wasn’t going to shoot at all, but another of the adult staff convinced me to do it. I am so glad that he did. I actually did quite well. And, if you have seen me lately you know I had one little incident with the bowstring that gave me quite a bruise, but more on that in a bit.

Some of the instruction we had for archery can be applied to our Christian life. Our instructor talked about the three C’s. We were to concentrate, be consistent and have confidence. I think that can also be applied to us as we grow in Christ. We have to concentrate. We must focus on Christ and keep our focus on growing in Christ. Most of us have something we love to do or a sport we participate in often. In order to do well with that activity we have to give it our all, put time into it and make it our focus while we are doing it. The same thing applies to our Christian life. We need to make sure we are giving prime time to practice it. We need to looking at ways we can practice that faith, grow in that faith and then give it our all. May I even suggest that just like we schedule our gym time or craft class or sports practices we should schedule in our planners or on our calendars times for our spiritual practices?

We are to be consistent. In archery we were to be very conscious of where we pulled our hand to on our face, how we stood, where we sighted in. We were to try to do that exactly the same each time. If we did, we would have good shots each time. And, I can say that I was pretty consistent once I had taken one round of arrows to figure out my sight and stance. I had two bull’s-eyes each round and most of the other arrows were on the target as well. My bruise came at the end of the day when I wasn’t being consistent. I stiffened my left arm (a no-no in archery) and the string got me and my arrow didn’t get on the target. I didn’t do what I had done all of the other times. I changed something I didn’t mean to change and it had real consequences. In our Christian lives we are asked to be consistent. To not feel we have mastered a practice and then stop or read the Bible and say we are done or do one class and say we have it figured out. We are to keep working on it all of our lives. We need to be pursuing Christ all of the time, trying to do things that help us grow. Yes, we will mess up and there are consequences to that, but just like that one bad shot hasn’t turned me off from wanting to shoot more (though I think I will wait for a while), same goes for our Christian lives. God’s grace is sufficient for us. God loves us all of the time and all God wants is for us to keep working on being consistent, checking our schedule, making sure we are spending time practicing our faith.

The last C is confidence. If we step up to the line to shoot and are not confident we will do well, we probably won’t do well. I knew what to do, had support from others that I was doing well, and it showed in the results of my shots. I grew in my confidence with each round of arrows. In our walk with Christ we must be confident. And I believe that sense of confidence is not gained by just a personal walk with Christ. It comes from being with other Christians, sharing our lives with each other, gathering for accountability, for fellowship, for support. We will be more confident as we gain knowledge, understanding what it means to be a Christian, developing our spiritual practices, living out the means of grace. At Park Church we offer many ways to grow in confidence-Bible studies, youth groups, Christian Education for everyone, circles, men’s group, new small groups, service opportunities. I encourage you to find one or more ways that you can be involved in those opportunities. Please make sure to put your three C’s to work this school year and see where that leads you.

Though today looks sunny and it is warm this pic is a reminder of what is to come. This was on Mille Lacs lake on a fishing launch, not quite the same as a fall-like day, but the same temp and wind. It is hard to believe that by next week it will be in the 50's and summer will be gone.

It was a long, hot summer. Not my idea of an ideal summer. If it could be about 78 degrees with a bit of a breeze everyday I would be happy. The only good thing about those 90+ days was the chance to float around in the water at the cabin and relax.

I look forward to the leaves changing color, the nights becoming cooler, the sky being bright blue and the days of less humidity. I anticipate with joy the waiting for the first snowfall and getting to rake up leaves and do some mulching to prepare the grass for winter.

Nothing exciting about it all, just a natural change in seasons.