Last night we were talking about prayer and about asking God for help. I shared the story of a friend of mine who was building a fence with his dad. He came to a spot where a large boulder was in the ground, and had to be removed. After tying and trying with everything he had, he finally gave up. His dad asked him, “Did you use everything you could?” Frustrated my friend said, “Yes, I tried everything.” To which his dad replied, “Did you ask me?”
Once the youth left for their small group discussion I took a table and placed a cross on it. I placed it on the stage and scattered smooth river rocks around on the floor under the table. I lit some candles, and put a worship song list looping in the background.
When the youth came in I had them sit down. I’m not a strict cell phone person, but I did ask them to give me 5 minutes with no distractions. They were not to talk, text, or anything, just sit and be still.
Once that time was up I explained that we all had rocks in our lives. We all had things we could not remove on our own, that we needed to ask God for help with. I then instructed them to come forward and take a rock, go sit back down and pray. They were to pray and ask God to help them with whatever it was they were struggling with.
After a few minutes they came back and laid that rock at the foot of the cross.
It was, by far, one of the most powerful moments we have experienced as a group.