I’m not one who is big on change. I struggle with go-with-the-flow type plans and find sudden changes uncomfortable at best. So as God would have it, I found myself on a Canada Youth planning team that had to work through some major changes in leadership and structure.
The funny and wonderful thing about change is that it has a way of bringing people closer together. What seemed at first to be a random assortment of individuals soon became a tightly knit family.
Since joining the team several years ago, my life has also undergone many monumental changes—the most significant being my move from Vancouver to Saskatoon.
For me, this meant finding a new house, a new church, a new job, a new life. Terrifying though it was, one of the things that helped me through it was the knowledge that I had my CY family supporting me from across the country. This family would not have grown so close had we not been fused together by the challenges we faced.
When reflecting on the past couple of years, I find it surprising (although I shouldn’t) how things worked out. It’s as if someone knew that I would soon face one of the largest challenges of my life and—since I would have to leave my local church family behind—I would need a larger church family to hold me up. It’s as if someone knew that, when things changed for the conference, I would learn valuable lessons like “let go and let God” so that I could later apply those lessons to my life when everything changed for me.
So for the third time, Canada Youth has helped me grow in my faith and left a lasting impression on my life.
My earlier times at Canada Youth inspired me to reach out further and deeper into the church—to use my faith more actively and not wait for it to hit me in the face on a Sunday morning. I participated in Youth in Mission trips to Guyana and Nicaragua. I attended General Assembly as a young adult representative. I was driven to seek out new ways to grow and expand in my faith. I came to understand and experience the word faith as a verb, not just as a noun.
For me, this process has been a long, tiring, sometimes painful, but inspiring and beautiful reminder of how God doesn’t always give you what you think you want, but instead will always give you what you need.
More reflections from Canada Youth 2012
