God is your rescuer

Spiritual Emphasis Week 2021 focused on the Smithville Christian High School’s spiritual life theme for the year: How Great is Our God.

In the fifth and final chapel of the week, spiritual life director Gord Park recapped the ideas shared so far:

• The greatness of God is seen in the grandeur and complexity of creation.
• God loves you with a wild, lavish, and excessive love.
• God gives you the gifts of community and deep friendship.
• God is always with you.

Finally, said Mr. Park, God is your rescuer – helping you whether you recognize it at the time or not.

Mr. Park shared a story about a teenage summer job he had once in a remote community in the BC interior. One day, during some time off, he and some friends were hanging out by a river, when Park decided to climb a nearby cliff. He made it to within a few feet of the summit when he ran out of handholds to go up and he couldn’t retrace his route back down.

As he clung to the cliff and wondered what to do, his arms and legs began to shake with fatigue. Below him was a rocky riverbed and certain death. Above him, he spied a root, just out of reach. Just as he was contemplating lunging towards the root, a friend’s face appeared over the edge of the cliff above him. Reaching out a hand, the friend pulled him to safety, and to the realization that the “root” was a loose branch that would have plunged him to the rocks below.

Park shared other anecdotes about times when he was led to step out and be a leader in situations where he least expected it, but looking back, he now sees that God’s hand was at work.

Students may not be willing or able to see it now, but God is working in your life, and wants you to put your trust in him, Park said.

In so many cases, random happenings or chance encounters mean “more than you know in the moment,” while you may also inadvertently reach out to grasp a root or some other thing that doesn’t help, or worse, actually puts you in danger.

“We each have to decide, where am I going to put my trust? In my grades? In my friends? In a girlfriend or boyfriend? In my talents or skills?” Park said. “Can I put my trust in my own strength?”

God wants to show you what he has created you to be. “Look for those moments,” Park said.

Members of student praise team Ablaze led in worship with “This is Amazing Grace,” “Our God,” and “Just Be Held.”

Today’s small group discussion questions were prepared by students in Grade 12.

1. Do you pour milk in before your cereal, or cereal before milk?
2. Where have you felt God reaching down towards you?
3. What do you put your trust in?
4. What do you want to put your trust in?
5. What is one step you can make to further your commitment with God?