Receive First. Give Second.

Last weekend I (Eric) had the opportunity to take 49 of our high school students & adult leaders on our annual fall retreat.  For the past 5 years we have been going to a great camp named Timber-Lee Christian Center in East Troy, WI.  The camp itself is beautiful, with a number of different activities and things for us to do while we are there. 

But what makes this retreat different from most retreats I plan for our students, is that this is designed specifically as a service retreat, where we serve the camp by giving a full day (Saturday) to work projects or jobs that the camp staff have determined for us to do.  A bit odd or unusual for students to get excited about?  Well, if size is any indication, this was our largest fall retreat yet.  In the past, we've helped Timber-Lee clear brush, demolish summer cabin interiors, rip up carpet, paint luggage carts, split wood, rake leaves, and move bunk beds and mattresses, just to name a few.  One year we even helped cater an amazing mother-daughter banquet they were hosting, and had a blast dressing up as waiters and waitresses.

This year was no exception, as they had us working in a few different areas of camp.  We helped them split wood, rake leaves, clean fenceline, and clear some large areas of land that became overgrown with invasive species and brush that crowed out some of the natural prairie landscape.  The bonus of being a part of the brush clearing project was being able to build the largest pile of brush and then watch it go up in flames.  I only wished someone would have remembered to bring the hot dogs and marshmallows to roast!

Our Saturday work projects and service was put in the context of helping our students see the need and value of serving others as a way of expressing Christ's love to others.  On Friday night, I challenged our students to think about the idea of love more deeply.  As much as the world tells us about love (and our need for it), it has no ability - or authority - to give us the power to love.  The power and ability to love can only come from Someone who is love - Jesus Christ himself.

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." - 1 John 4:9-10

"We love because he first loved us." - 1 John 4:19

In order to love, we need to first understand that God himself is the source of love.  He defines love - by the actions he’s taken.  And he proved it by sending his son on the cross for us as a sacrifice.

It's a principle that author Max Lucado calls:  Receive first.  Give second.

When we have chosen to receive and live in God’s love - through a relationship with Christ - then we have the ability to draw from that love and express it to others, which God calls us to do.

Receive first.  Give second.

Sounds like a simple concept, doesn't it?  But yet how hard it is to put into practice!  The encouraging news is that because Christ lives in us, we have been given the ability and power through Christ to live out this love on a daily basis.

And this past weekend our students demonstrated this love to the camp and to one another through their actions.  It was a great weekend of fun, hard work, little sleep (hey, it is a retreat, after all), and great food.  But in the end, it was all about living out the calling to love others, because Christ loved us.

I'm proud of our students and adult leaders for their willingness to sacrifice a weekend and serve others in this way.  My prayer is that this principle of "receive first, give second" will continue to take root and lead to lives that have personally received the love of Christ and are committed to give that love to others in tangible, practical ways.

(click here if you can't view the video above)