Evendays

Last weekend the Geneva church had their annual retreat here in Lausanne. Extra special because son 2 came up from Marseilles, making the family complete. The theme was “Living life here while heading towards heaven”. My almost-only regret is that the Lausanne church didn’t take full advantage of the weekend of teaching, sharing and fellowship, though we did cancel our Sunday morning meeting to worship with the retreat group.

Traditionally, after every lesson, we have small group discussions, often with questions that the lesson giver has written up. Of all traditions, except maybe for circumcision and “going forward”, this one is my least favorite. I mean, if we’ve just sat through a 30 minute lesson, why, during the small group, do we have to pretend that we were listening attentively? I have sat in on discussion groups that were reacting to my intensely interesting and inspired 30 minute lesson only to realize that not a one of the listeners got it. Not one. Very humbling.

My group struggled valiantly through the questions. While waiting for the next meeting to begin, A., a member of said discussion group, came to me – a huge smile on her face – and commented: You know, that group showed me how amazing God is to bring together people who are so vastly different. Don’t you see it?

Yes. Now I see it. Thanks to the small group discussion.