Dear in the headlights

Met with a group of students last night for a little bible study time. Typically we study a bit and following this we "pray and praise", which is a time when we stand in a circle and offer up our prayer requests and praises for the good things going on in our lives. Usually the requests involve friends, parents, tests and things other than themselves. So, I stopped them and asked them not to offer prayers about others but share what is going on with them. The room went silent, one studetns actually said "AWKWARD". Earlier in the day at a meeting of adults the same question was asked and the room became just as quite and awkward. I could be wrong here but I know that most of the students and adults wrestle with something other than, "Be with me and my mom" or "me a and my wife are doing good" or "be with my son's girlfriend", "I've got a big test", "my high school football team is in the playoffs". It's not that these are unimportant because they are important but most stuggle with so much more. Anger, lust, lying, sin, relationships, cheating and others that I can't think of right now. What struck me was that as people in relationship with each other that come together week after week (church), most of us simply share the simple, the surface stuff and leave. Leave with the other stuff, sometimes what is the most important stuff, resting inside us waiting to be battled all alone once again. I don't think this is what God ever intended. I don't think it's good to be alone especially when it comes to our insides but most of us are, most of us choose to daily carry our burdens alone. I have been involved with many churches, big, small, one way to believe and another way to belive. Believer sensitive, seeker sensitive and even unsensitive and all of them seem to be a holding station for people carrying around more than they ever should, more that God ever intended. I hope that one day when I ask, "whats really going on with you", we don't clam up, get quite and scared thinking, "if these people only knew". Well, let us know. Let us help carry the burden or find others to help carry the burden, let's do everything in our power to make sure we you never have to deal with whats on the inside alone again.