When I think about just giving up, I will think about these youth. I will think about my years of training in non-violent resistance to evil. I will remember that we can't know when the tide is about to turn, when evil leaders will be washed away to sea.
I think about the similar formative experiences of my youth (by which I mean pre-college). I went to a Lutheran youth gathering in Purdue in the early 80's. I went to several national gatherings for adults and families that explored issues of development in other nations--were they called Mission events? I remember long drives across the nation's cornfields. I remember coming home and buying the albums that others had brought for us to listen to on their cassette tapes.
Most important, I remember the power of seeing us all assembled, of realizing that my small Southern church experiences were not the only ways to be Lutheran in a world of non-Lutherans. I remember the jolt of realizing that we could be a serious force for good, not just in our individual communities, but in the larger world too.
This year's gathering has all sorts of interesting elements, to judge from the posts made by my pastor friends who are there. I've seen the gathering singing Journey's "Don't Stop Believing"--shivers! I'm seeing pictures from an interactive Worship booth, where the youth can wear vestments and learn about the elements of worship. I've seen the supplies needed for the service projects--huge stacks in the days before the gathering, and then the groups on their way to serve. I've seen the speakers and the musicians.
I hope that they will come back from this mountain top experience transformed. And I hope that they are nurtured in that transformation when they return. I hope they seek out retreat experiences in the future to rekindle these flames as they flicker. I hope that they help us all in the work that God has called us to do.
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