Keep the Fire Hot

From Dennis Engbrecht, VP of Student Development at Bethel College....

I just finished reading from the SALT Blog about how each of you was impacted through an intentional effort to focus on God and hear His voice. I have to tell you that I am so moved by the authentic comments that reveal the clear “fingerprint of God” pressed upon the hearts SALT attendees. Wow! The Lord is pouring out His Spirit on our student-athletes in a very unusual way! This is an answer to prayer!

I want to challenge you personally to bring back to campus that which you experienced on the SALT retreat. In my own experience I have sometimes allowed the insights and blessings of a retreat or camp experience to remain precisely where I encountered God: at the retreat site and lost in my memory. By not processing what God says to us in these moments, applying these rich insights to our lives subsequent to the retreat experience, and failing to prioritize the actions we need to take as a result of hearing from God, we often lose the full impact of experiencing an awesome encounter with God. So what does it entail to avoid missing out on all the awesome insights and experiences of the SALT Retreat?

1. First, Process: What happened at the SALT Retreat? What made it such an incredible experience? How can I continue what God did in my life there and then, here and now? What was God saying to me at the SALT retreat? By asking and answering these questions, we process the entire experience and it becomes a part of our long term growth in the Lord.
2. Second, Apply: How do I apply what I learned at the SALT Retreat? What actions do I need to take as a result of what I learned, from what I sensed God saying to me? How will the SALT experience help my teammates who did not attend the SALT Retreat? An encounter with God always needs to produce an application of His truth. John Wesley called this “the Fruit of Repentance.” Without fruit, or in other words without the evidence, there really wasn’t a genuine encounter with God. So what do I need to do as a result of what I experienced at the SALT Retreat?
3. Finally, Prioritize: Often experiences like what you have just encountered produce several insights and a lot of follow-up application for each of us. That is when we become overwhelmed with everything we have learned from the Lord during a retreat like the one you attended. When we are overwhelmed, the tendency is to simply move on without any action at all because we don’t know where to start. Thus, I encourage you to sit down with pen and paper (if you already haven’t done so) and prioritize the action steps you need to take. For example, your priority list might look something like this:

• I need personal accountability with someone I trust for an area of my life where I really struggle. I commit to find that person within the next week.
• I have a timid witness. I commit to seek God’s direction to the persons with whom He wants me to share my faith, and I will share this person’s name with my accountability partner so that I can be held responsible for following through.
• My prayer life is so sporadic and weak. I commit to begin each day with a quiet time of solitude listening and talking to the Lord.

These are just examples of prioritizing. You will need to determine what the Lord was saying to you at SALT and then determine which responses merit the most urgent action.

I am so encouraged by what you and your fellow SALT colleagues have both experienced and shared via blogs. My prayer is that we will see the “fruit of the SALT” this fall when all students return to campus.

Keep the fire hot!

Dennis