5 Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for a man to humble himself?
Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed
and for lying on sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD ?
6 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
I begin to immediately think of the 30 hour famine that my youth group did every year. We tried for so long to talk the youth group into serving in a soup kitchen. There was always a problem because only the older kids could serve food. The younger kids would get to paint or clean or something. I'm still disapointed that we never served the poor. We did the 30 hour famine every year. We raised a lot of money ... it was actually our biggest event on the youth group calendar. I don't have a huge problem with World Vision, but I am starting to see a problem with the fact that the only concept of fasting we have is one of denying ourselves of food.
We raised a good bit of money. (More than 15% of it going to administrative fees!) We didn't actually help any poor people. We never invited the poor in to help us "break our fast." We missed the point on fasting. Yeah, our youth group missed the point on a lot of things. We missed the point on a continual basis. We never had enough fun to keep youth interested and we never offered a gospel other than the "get out of Hell free pass." We didn't change lives.
We missed the point on fasting, we missed the point on salvation, and we missed the point of youth ministry. I disagree with almost every youth ministry idea that Pastor Craig ever had.
Pastor Craig had a heart attack this morning. He loves the kids in youth group. He has some flaws when it comes to youth ministry - but he isn't nearly as flawed when it comes to loving kids. He hasn't changed all the lives of all the kids. He has impacted a goodly number of kids, though. I'm not going to be bitter about it anymore. I realize that we don't agree on everything - but we do agree on the idea of loving people.
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