Recently I gave led a workshop on Modern Day Catholics for the CFC-YFL National Conference. It was a great workshop with a bunch of awesome and inspiring young people.
The entire week before giving that workshop, I was on a little family vacation in Arizona. My family - my wife and 3 boys, my mom and dad, and my brother, his wife, and his kiddo were all on this trip through the desert. Our ultimate destination was the Grand Canyon, a place I have been a few times with friends, but never with my family.
I remember driving through the Grand Canyon with a couple of my missionary buddies years ago when we were on a cross-country road trip that began in New Jersey and ended in Los Angeles. In every state capitol we passed, we stopped and prayed for a renewal of God's spirit to enter into the place we had passed. I remember standing at 4 Corners, the place where four states meet and praying there with my friends. It was truly a powerful experience. Stopping in the Grand Canyon with these great friends of mine and being in awe of God's power and beauty was a definite highlight.
On this trip my family decided to stay in Sedona, AZ and make that home base for the Canyon. Sedona is an amazing place, a town nestled into the Red Rocks of Arizona. It was beautiful, inspiring, and unbelievable hot. Like 115 degrees of heat. I felt like anything over 100 just felt hot, especially to a Northwest guy like myself, so it didn't really bother me. We took in the sights, tried to hike a little bit, and swam in the pool a lot.
In one of our adventures in Sedona, we went to this chapel built into the rocks called Chapel of the Holy Cross. It is an awesome structure, a tiny chapel built into the rocks. While it is a Catholic Chapel, on the day we visited there were people of all stripes and creeds visiting the Holy place It was obvious that this beautiful church spoke to our basic human desire for the Holy. I was inspired (and also very sweaty).
A few days later I was back home in a nice cool 95 degree Pacific Northwest day, about to lead a workshop for the YFL. Their conference was at the same campsite I first heard the word of God spoken to me as a teenager. It was the place where I went to my first retreat in my life, where I listened to people my age speak passionately about God, and where I began my faith journey.
As I stepped into the conference hall, I looked at the logo of the conference and what did I see? A drawing of the Chapel of the Holy Cross from Sedona, AZ as the backdrop of the event.
Chills.
God has brought me hundreds of miles away to encounter Him in the beauty of the desert. God brought me to that conference to encounter him the beauty of his children.
You know what I spoke to those energetic and charismatic young people about? Sharing their faith with joy. Because years and years ago, in that same holy ground, young people shared their joy and conviction with me.
Often times in the Gospels Jesus says "those who have eyes to see will see." God wants to give us the eyes to see him today. Maybe we'll travel with our families hundreds of miles away. Maybe we'll drive across the country with our friends. Or maybe we'll be in the comfort of our own home and communities, but God is definitely at work right here and right now.
If we have the eyes to see, we are going to experience something wonderful.
Let us be renewed in our joy - the joy of our first hearing of the Gospel, and the joy of being able to proclaim that message today with our lives.
