JBC Report

All right. I told you that I'd give a review of the JBC Spring Retreat when I got back in the office today, but before I do, I need to give a little background to lead up to the trip. We originally had 12 students signed up to go and slowly that number dwindled to 2! Some had late plans come up over Spring Break, one had miscalculated when his SB started, others had sport or job commitments, and the final kicker, we got bit by the flu bug! I had it on Tuesday but recovered, and then two other families had it for the day leading up to our departure and couldn't make the trip. So, on Thursday morning, Austin, Michael, my Laura, and I headed to Tennessee on a beautiful sunny day for the Spring Retreat. "Smooth sailing" describes the first 3/4 of the trip until we got into TN when we met almost 2 hours of road construction traffic. The craziest part of this was where the traffic was down to two lanes due to the south bound two lanes not being there! A sink hole had formed under I-75 and eventually 3/4 of the road slid down the mountain! Talk about a bump in the road. Anyhoo, we got to campus and hung out there most of the evening. We left for the mountains the next morning amid forcasts of rain (like 99% chance of rain.) We made it to the mountains where we went rock hopping and drove to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in TN, and only got wet at the top! The rest of the daylight hours were great. The Retreat started with a cookout and the Preacher Grand Prix wagon race. Pete Isenberg spoke on "Holy Smoke", out of Isaiah 6. His three sermons centered on three statements out of the first part of the chapter: "The king is dead" (What's on the throne of your life?), "Woe is me!" (Realizing our sin & surrendering), and "Who will go?" (Accepting God's call on our lives). All great stuff. The drive home was about as eventful as the drive down with some added scenery in an attempt to avoid the road construction. We got home late but safe and I'm already looking forward to the next time I get to go down. If you get a chance, ask Michael or Austin what they thought of the trip. Their opinion is more valuable than mine. But you had to read this to find that out!

Proverbs 4:9 says, "She will set a garland of grace on your head and present you with a crown of splendor". This section of the chapter begins with a father telling his son to get wisdom and this is one of the results. It is a profitable thing to have and desirable to gain. Garlands and crowns are obvious signs of honor (think Julius Caesar and Queen Elizabeth) and the spiritual rewards of wisdom can be compared to this. It isn't hard to see that the benefits from gaining wisdom can be physical in nature as well, in the form of promitions or even managing money better. These things shouldn't necessarily be the goal, but can still be an expected by-product. The getting of wisdom is ulitmately for God's glory, to live more like Jesus in this world in which wisdom is seriously lacking. But in this world, one with wisdom will stand out like a person wearing a crown.

Later...