Be yourself

Our final chapel of Spiritual Emphasis Week 2019 began with Madeleine, of student praise team Ignite, reminding students “of how blessed we are as a school.” She encouraged students to enjoy the presence of God and the presence of each other. “Don’t worry about anything else. Focus on God and what he has done for you and can do for you,” she said. The praise team led in worship with “Glorious Day” and “Love Like This.”

Spiritual Life Director Gordon Park shared Matthew West’s song, “Hello My Name Is” and recapped the messages Mike Gordon had shared this week, based on the biblical story of Jacob. 

We each need to know our unique identity and be content with it. Wanting to have what someone else has or wanting to be like someone else leads to discontentment, Park reminded students. When we pay attention to the dreams and desires God has placed within us, we will experience true peace and contentment. God has already given us all we need to be the person God created us to be, Park said.

Turning to the continuation of Jacob’s story, found in Genesis 32:24-29, Park described Jacob’s encounter with the presence of God in a dream. Jacob was by himself, which is what we also must be willing to do in order to “get into the throne room of God.” After wrestling with God, Jacob asked for God’s blessing. What is different in Jacob’s life now is that he is no longer trying to be someone else, Park said. Instead of pretending he is Esau, his brother, which he did in order to gain his father’s blessing, Jacob is now willing to own his unique identity, Park said.

Like Jacob, we can also try to be someone else, to wander away from who we really are, and end up getting involved with things we shouldn’t.

“God says you be you,” Park told students. “God already knows who you are, but do you know who you are?”

Park said it’s important to reflect on our identity as people who are redeemed by God. He invited students to think of a number between 1 and 7 and then to consider how a corresponding biblical identity statement was something God wanted them to know about themselves right now.

1.      I am free forever from sin’s power. Romans 6:14

2.      I am a light in the darkness. Matthew 5:14

3.      I am hidden with Christ in God. Psalm 32:7

4.      I am kept by the power of God. 1 Peter 1:5

5.      I am secure in Christ. John 10: 28-29

6.      I am more than a conqueror. Romans 8:37

7.      I am sheltered under God’s wing. Psalm 91:4

“Ask yourself, why is that true of me today?” Park said. “All of these statements are true of you, but why that one today?”

God has placed a dream inside of you and when you own your identity in Christ, accepting who Jesus is and what he has accomplished for you, you will be able to find your way. There may be times when you struggle, but those struggles are also part of God’s claim on your life.

“Thank God for who you are and then go after your dreams. Your dreams and potential are enormous,” Park said. “Never think that your past mistakes could have forfeited God’s love for you. Who you are is you God created you to be, stop trying to be someone else.”

The praise team closed out the final chapel with “Who You Say I Am,” “Lay Me Down,” “You Make Me Brave,” and “We Are Free.”

Own it. Live it.

We all experience awkwardness – those moments when something happens to us or something we say or do causes us to feel uncomfortable or embarrassed.

Mike Gordon, the chapel speaker for Smithville Christian High School’s annual Spiritual Emphasis Week, said when he was in Grade 6 and assigned a role for a skit in a school assembly, he totally missed his cue.

He found himself on stage, loudly delivering his lines, at completely the wrong time. Later, when he was a new student enrolled at Bible college, he was told by some other students that he was equally out of step, that he didn’t belong.

 “If someone had told me then, ‘Mike, you are going to be on the stage quite a lot,’ I would have said ‘no, no, no, no, no.’ ”

Fast forward to today, when he is a sought-after speaker, travelling and preaching and spending much of his working life on stage – often in front of thousands of people.

Gordon said he found his calling by accepting his uniqueness and the plan God made for him. “Deep inside of me, God placed a desire in me,” and it was only when he stopped trying to be like the other seminarians and theology students that he was able to thrive in his unique ministry.

But simply recognizing his gifts didn’t mean he was suddenly a successful speaker. Gordon said he had to work hard to prepare himself.

The Biblical story of Jacob has a similar pattern. Jacob tricked his brother and deceived his father in order to get what he thought he wanted. He gained it, but then had to flee for his life. In a dream, God revealed to Jacob the purpose and plan for his life: “that his descendants would be like the dust of the earth that can’t be counted. They will spread out to the west and to the east. They will spread out to the north and to the south. All nations on earth will be blessed because of you and your children after you.” (Genesis 28:14). In order to achieve that plan, of being a father to many descendants, the culture of Jacob’s time and place required that he work to earn his wife. So that’s what he did.

“The turning point for Jacob was when he started tying into the plans God had for him,” Gordon said.

“What’s your dream?” Gordon asked students. “What’s your desire? When you look deep down inside yourself, what has God put in your heart? What desires has God put there?”

Many people find that a difficult question to answer, he said.

Gordon said students at Smithville Christian High School, who are part of the post-millennial generation, can struggle with a question like that. “It is said that this generation is apathetic, that it has lost the ability to dream.”

That could be due to the pressure of social media, and being inundated with the accomplishments and successes of others. “We become scared to dream, because it is safer not to dream than it is to put yourself out there and follow the desires God has put on your heart.”

Gordon said no matter how old you are or what stage of life you are at, there are three questions you can ask yourself that can help you answer the bigger question of what is God’s plan for your life.

What is your passion?

What are your talents?

What are your motivations?

Gordon invited students to ask and answer these questions with the people sitting around them, and to keep asking and answering these questions all their lives.

Gordon said he is confident that if we can tap into our passions, talents, and motivations, we will find ourselves lining up with the desires God has placed in us, and we will experience deep peace and contentment.

“Stop looking at what everyone else is doing and focus on what God has planned for you,” he said. Then take the necessary steps and do the necessary work to get there.

“Own it. Live it.”

Student praise team “Amplified” led in worship with “One Way,” “Reckless Love,” “Touch the Sky,” and “Happy Day.”

Discussion questions

·        What are you passionate about?

·        What are you good at?

·        When you see what’s happening around you, what motivates you to make a difference in the world?

·        How do those three things connect with our uniqueness and God’s plan for our lives?

·        How can your dreams glorify God?

The final chapel of Spiritual Emphasis Week starts at 12:30 on Friday. All are welcome!

What makes you feel discontent?

Smithville Christian’s Spiritual Emphasis Week speaker Mike Gordon said he got married last year, but when he was younger, he had a few dating mishaps.

“I don’t know if this has happened to you but I have had some awkward dating moments,” he said. Like the time he accidentally smacked the most popular girl in his biology class, or the time he tried to impress Sarah, “who played the drums.”

Gordon learned that Sarah was an avid snowboarder, so he decided the best way to get her attention would be to be interested in snowboarding too. He read about snowboarding, talked about snowboarding, and pretended “I was super duper into snowboarding.” All seemed to be going fine until the day Sarah and some friends invited Gordon to join them on a day trip to a resort in Quebec.

“Sometimes love makes you do stupid things,” he said, explaining the $1,100 he spent on new boots, bindings, and a snowboard so he could join the trip and “fake I know how to snowboard. How hard could it be?”

Gordon said he started his first descent down the mountain, falling every 15 feet until he landed hard and suffered a concussion. He walked the rest of the way down the hill.

“I thought the only way she might like me is me being someone different, but the whole time, I knew it wasn’t me.”

Looking back, Gordon said the problem was “I wasn’t content. I thought what I brought to the table was not good enough for her to like me.”

Gordon said it happens to all of us. If someone else is better at sports, if you want a job you’re not quite qualified for, if you get a lower mark than a classmate, if someone you like is not that into you, if your parents set high expectations, if you get teased, if your sibling is a prodigy, if you get rejected by a college or university, or you don’t get enough Instagram likes, it’s easy to feel discontented with who you are.

We find ourselves thinking that the only way we will benefit, or gain something, or succeed “is to be someone different, to act like someone else, to put on a mask," he said. "With the culture we live in, it is very, very easy to go down that road. We can go from content to discontent because of a little number [of likes] under a picture.”

Gordon said the Biblical story of Jacob describes a similar scenario. In Genesis 25:27 we learn Jacob was content with his life. But a short while later in the story, he is bargaining with his older twin, Esau, to gain his brother’s birthright.

What happened in Jacob’s life to make him go from contentment to discontent? Gordon asked. In Jacob’s culture, he would have known all his life that the older brother was in line to gain the birthright and the larger share of the family inheritance, but something made him go “Hunh, it seems like my brother is getting a better deal.

“That’s the start for many of us – we see someone else and we want what they have.”

Jacob’s story continues with Jacob and his mother conspiring to trick Jacob’s father into giving him the blessing. “He went out of his way to be someone else so he could get a better deal,” Gordon said. “But he is no different than us.”

Gordon said the secret to real peace and contentment is to “stop trying to be like everyone else.

“God made you to be you.”

Student praise team Unbound led in worship with “Yes I Will,” “Stand In Your Love,” “God’s Not Dead,” and “Scandal of Grace.”

Mike Gordon continues his exploration of our identity at chapel on Thursday, which starts at 9:30 a.m. All are welcome.

Questions for discussion:

What made you go from being content with being different to becoming discontent with who you are? 

Was there a time in your life where you could relate with Jacob trying to be like Esau to gain something ‘more?' (Explain)

Why do we try to be like someone else to ‘gain’ more in life?

What’s the benefit of gaining the whole world if we lose ourselves in the process?

What are some practical ways to help us stop being like everyone else?

Are you content with who you are?

Smithville Christian’s Spiritual Emphasis Week speaker Mike Gordon said he travels a lot for his work as a ministry leader, pastor, and author, and for him, the most difficult part about travelling is crossing borders.

“I love travelling,” Gordon told students during Tuesday’s Spiritual Emphasis Week chapel, “but the hardest part is going through customs. You have to answer all those questions, and I can get really confused.”

Once, when he was travelling to California for work, Gordon decided to economize on airfare and fly from Michigan, so he made the crossing into the USA at Detroit. At the US border, he got sent over to secondary inspection, and had to “answer some questions.”  

He produced his passport as identification, and, after consulting a database, the border guard asked Gordon if he had ever been arrested in Quebec. When Gordon assured him he hadn’t, the border guard asked if Gordon had a driver’s license. He then asked if Gordon had a health card. “I put everything on the table to prove I wasn’t someone else,” Gordon said. “Never try to cross a border and try to be someone else. At a border, it is a good thing you are different.”

Yet in our daily lives, we often try not to be different. “We want to look and be like everyone else,” Gordon said. “In the culture we live in, we forget sometimes” that being unique is good.

Turning to the Biblical story of Jacob, Gordon read from Genesis 25:23-27 – the account of Jacob’s birth.

 “The Lord said to [Rebekah],

'Two nations are in your womb,

    and two peoples from within you will be separated;

one people will be stronger than the other,

    and the older will serve the younger.'

“When the time came for her to give birth, there were twin boys in her womb. The first to come out was red, and his whole body was like a hairy garment; so they named him Esau. After this, his brother came out, with his hand grasping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob.

“The boys grew up, and Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open country, while Jacob was content to stay at home among the tents.”

Gordon said the passage suggests that God had a different plan for Jacob than for his twin brother Esau, that Jacob looked physically different from his twin, and that as the twins grew up, it was clear Jacob’s personality was different.

Yet the passage says that Jacob was “content,” Gordon said. Despite the fact he looked different, had a different personality, and had a different life path, “he was completely satisfied with who he was and what he had.”

Gordon asked students if they feel the same way.

“Here is my question for you this morning: Are you content with who you are? Are you satisfied with how God has made you unique and different from every other person on the planet?”

Gordon shared three tips for contentment: accept yourself, focus on the good, and be thankful.

Learn how to accept the cards you have been given, Gordon said. Focus on the good in yourself and stop focusing on what social media shows you is good about others. Many people think they need to be awesome to be somebody, but the truth is you are unique and awesome just the way you are. Finally, thank God for designing you the way you are.

Just as the border guard eventually told Gordon “You’re good, you can go,” God has the same message for you, Gordon said.

“You’re good.”

If Jesus thought you were good enough to die for, “I hope you can truly accept who you are.”

A student praise team led in worship with  "Glorious Day," "Love Like This," and "We Are The Free."

In small groups after lunch, students discussed the following questions:

1. Why do you feel God made everyone different?

2. Do you believe God has a different plan for everyone’s life? Why or why not?

3. What are three things that make you different than everyone else?

4. How can you be content with being unique and different in a culture that pressures us to be, look and act like everyone else?

Spiritual Emphasis Week continues for the rest of the week with chapels at 9 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, and at 12:30 on Friday. All are welcome.

Who are you?

Mike Gordon said when he was a teenager, he accidentally signed up for a mission trip to Mexico.

As the speaker for Smithville Christian High School’s annual Spiritual Emphasis Week, Gordon kicked off the first chapel of the week by explaining that he didn’t grow up in a Christian family. After his parents’ marriage broke up and he got kicked out of his house because of conflict with his mother’s new boyfriend, he “did a lot of stupid, stupid stuff.” He got involved in crime and got arrested. “It was quite easy to follow the culture,” he explained. But he ended up joining a basketball ministry that was based in his Toronto high school and it was people from that group who planned the trip to Mexico. Gordon said he decided to go because Canada is cold and he’d heard Mexico was warm.

“But when I was down there, I gave my life to Christ,” Gordon told students during Monday morning’s chapel. “I finally began to understand who I was created to be.”

After becoming a youth pastor and ministry leader, Gordon said he was home alone, getting ready to lead a youth retreat, when he discovered someone had broken into his house. Confronting the intruder where he had hidden in a bedroom closet, Gordon was shocked when the burglar turned on him and demanded to know “Who are you?”

“What!?!” Gordon said he replied. “You are in MY house!”

But the intruder claimed Gordon was in his buddy’s house, and repeatedly demanded that Gordon answer the question: Who are you? Gordon wondered if he could use his driver’s licence to prove his identity – and his ownership of the house.

Gordon said the intruder finally left, but the question he posed is a fundamental one for all of us. Who are you?

“If I asked you the same question, is the answer an easy one, or is it a lot more complicated?” Gordon asked the students. Do you get your identity from the people around you, from society’s expectations, from social media?

Gordon read Genesis 32:22-27, which tells the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel. At the end of the story, when Jacob asks for a blessing, the angel asks: “What is your name?” Gordon said in the culture of that time and place, asking someone’s name was like asking for their identity. Who are you? For Jacob, the answer was not simple either.

Gordon said the theme of Spiritual Emphasis Week 2019 is on our identity. “I believe when you discover who Christ is, you discover who you are.”

Student praise team Amplified led in worship with “Happy Day,” “Come to the Altar,” and “One Way Jesus.”

After lunch, students met in small groups facilitated by Grade 12 student leaders to discuss:

1.      Who are you? Share two or three things about yourself that you want other people to know.

2.      Why has the question ‘Who are you?’ become so complicated?

3.      How does today’s culture complicate the answer to this question?

4.      Is what you shared in the first question really who you are? Or is that just how you want others to see you?

Spiritual Emphasis Week continues with chapel at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, featuring Mike Gordon and student-led worship. Friday’s chapel is at 12:30. All are welcome.

Here are a few more photos of the praise team. We are so blessed by their leadership.

What to do when things go wrong

We are in a hard space at Smithville Christian High School, missing a student who did not go home from school on Friday night, and who, as of Monday morning, has still not been located. 

So we started the week with a chapel on Monday morning, gathering as a student body to be informed, to give and receive comfort, and to pray. We miss Ben and want to know he is safe. We can't wait for his return. Our student services department and a counsellor are present, ready to help students who are feeling this loss and struggling with this situation. Students are reminded that if anyone has any information or thinks they have an idea that might help us find Ben, they should call the police. This is not because Ben is in trouble, but because the police have a communications network that can help in a situation like this.

 

 

Students and teachers shared words of wisdom, encouragement and supplication.

Mr. Will Lammers said when we find ourselves on a difficult journey, we can take comfort in knowing that God is in charge.  He read from Psalm 121. 

“1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—

    from where will my help come?

2 My help comes from the Lord,

    who made heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot be moved;

    he who keeps you will not slumber.

4 He who keeps Israel

    will neither slumber nor sleep. 

5 The Lord is your keeper;

    the Lord is your shade at your right hand.

6 The sun shall not strike you by day,

    nor the moon by night. 

7 The Lord will keep you from all evil;

    he will keep your life.

8 The Lord will keep

    your going out and your coming in

    from this time on and forevermore.” – Psalm 121: 1-8

Mr. Scott Antonides said when we face big problems they can seem overwhelming, especially when we don’t know how to fix them or how to help. He said he and his family are praying Romans 8.

“Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God.” – Romans 8: 26-28

Patrick reminded fellow students that our hope is in Christ.

“The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,

    a stronghold in times of trouble.” – Psalm 9:9

He said God is working for our good, and Ben’s too.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11 

Patrick reminded us God cares for us when we are in trouble.
“God will never forget the needy;

    the hope of the afflicted will never perish.”— Psalm 9:18

Kendall reminded students how powerful prayer is in a situation like this, and that God is with us and doesn’t want us to be afraid.

“So do not fear, for I am with you;

    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you;

    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10

“The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” – Deuteronomy 31:8

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” – John 14:27 

Nikole said the situation feels big and out of our control, but our prayers matter.

“Where two or three are gathered in God’s name, God is with us,” she said. In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes that God works all things for the good of those who love him, and even though this situation is scary, we can trust that God will use it for good. “Ben is wanted, he is loved, we want him back,” she said.  

We listened to a video of “Oh Come to the Altar” by Elevation Worship.

Mr. Gord Park invited us to pray in small groups with the people around us, reminding us that our focus at this time is Ben. We prayed for protection for Ben, and for his family, for Ben to have wisdom, and for Ben to feel God’s loving presence. 

Mr. Park ended with a closing prayer, reminding us “that God is on the job right now.”

 

God of infinite chances

The cause of almost all of the sin and trouble in our lives is selfishness, Smithville Christian students were told at this week’s chapel.

Grade 11 student Patrick, who was this week’s speaker, told students that a recent experience in his life “changed the way I view everything.”

Putting ourselves before others is the reason why we bully, he said. “To make ourselves feel better by putting someone else down.”

 It’s the reason for failing to share, for jealousy, for lying, for boasting.

“It’s all rooted in the idea of me,” he said. “That I am the best. That I am better than you. That I don’t care about you.” Selfishness is regularly reflected back to us in the media, in the modern messaging of “you be you,” or “anything you want, go get it.”

But Christians realize that there is something bigger than ourselves, a Creator who blessed us to be a blessing to others, he said.

Patrick said he tries to be a good guy, to think about things before he does them, “to be a right person.”

But he found it wasn’t working.

“In fact, I am sort of a fake.”

Dropping a nickel on the floor and picking it up, Patrick said finding a coin and pocketing it seems like an inconsequential thing. But in his own life, the Holy Spirit made it clear to him that there are things we can take for granted that can actually be destructive to others – and ourselves.

Patrick said he recently found himself “in a deep, dark hole, and I probably wasn’t going to get out.” He tried to pretend everything was fine, but “there were other people I was hurting.”

Instead of being a Christian, he found himself a hypocrite. “What am I doing? How did I get here? How am I living this big, fat lie? This is not what God called me to do.”

Once he realized how destructive his selfishness was, Patrick said he turned to God, picking up his Bible and immersing himself in the life and ministry of Jesus.

“Jesus is the true example of how not to be selfish,” Patrick said. Truthfully, it’s an example that we can’t match, but is what we should look to master, he said. It might help to think of the fruits of the Spirit, Patrick said, breaking into the children’s song – which earned him hearty applause from the students.

Patrick said his parents also reminded him that God is the God of infinite chances, that everyone who is in Christ is a new creation. “It’s never too late to turn back,” he said. “What you did before doesn’t matter. Apologize, and don’t dwell on the past.”

Turning to God changed everything, Patrick said. Allowing the Holy Spirit to flow through him brought joy, true happiness, and true self-worth. “You will feel it,” he promised. “Remember your identity as a Christian, and pursue God.”

By turning away from self and focusing on God, you encounter love, Patrick said, the kind of love that helps you love everyone as God has loved you.

“You are a much better version of yourself when you love,” he said. “The world is a much better place when we love.”

Members of student praise team, Renewed Roots, led in worship with Glorious Day, One Thing Remains (Your Love Never Fails), and Holy Spirit.

Fresh snow and a fresh semester

What does a blanket of freshly fallen snow mean to you? A pristine landscape that should be left untouched or an invitation to leave your footprints?

At the opening chapel of the new semester, spiritual life director Gord Park said he sees both. The white snow is a symbol of the fresh start that God offers us every day in the forgiveness of our sins (Psalm 51:7), and it’s also an invitation to leave our mark (Isaiah 20:21).

A fresh snowfall is a metaphor for a new semester, Park said. “You get to lay down new tracks.”

And just as the tracks in his backyard – made by squirrels, a dog, and neighbour taking a shortcut – are evidence of life that Park said he might not otherwise see, we can decide to leave tracks that are evidence of the life that is in us.

The footprints in our lives are Christ’s, and we can live as Christ sees us, “whiter than snow,” Park said. This semester, in the way you smile at each other, befriend each other, and care for each other, “you get to lay down tracks of the life that is in you.”