Retreats

Posted by Adam Fix on March 2, 2009

I have a love/hate relationship with retreats.  More love than hate.  They are a lot of work to plan, take a lot of energy (physical and spiritual) to direct, and leave me feeling fatigued for several days after I get back.  And those are just the weekend kind, where it’s about 48 hours total.

I just got back from a retreat and I am feeling like I usually do: tired, distracted, and wondering whether or not all that just happened.  It did.  However, I am also at another place the Lord typically allows me to be: satisfied.  I am satisfied in Him, I am satisfied in what He did this last weekend, and I am satisfied that it was worth all the time, effort, planning, and loss of sleep.

For me, like all of you, retreats mean time away from my family, time away from church, and time away from the regular duties of ministry, but they are worth it.  The lives that are changed, the messages that God sinks deep inside a person, and the way people come back different make all of that worth it.  There is something about getting a group away for even a few days that God uses to do mighty things for His sake.  If you are not big on taking retreats and don’t prefer the grind that they represent, I would challenge you to change your thinking.  Find someone to speak from the Bible, organize a few times to talk, interact, and challenge one another, and pray hard that God rocks the lives of those who He calls to be there.  You won’t regret it.

I’m tired (maybe so tired that much of this didn’t make any sense), but I’m satisfied.