Teen Trends
The new NFL season is now underway, and it certainly didn't disappoint. The Chiefs eeked out a win against the Browns, the Buccaneers started their season with a win against the Cowboys, and Trevor Lawrence had some great plays with a semi-rocky start throwing three interceptions, which couldn't help the Jaguars overcome the Texans. There's something valuable in learning to respect the intense level of play for professional athletes while remembering even the best have room to continue to grow and have to learn how to pick themselves back up mentally after tough days.
Song of the Week
Defiant Joy (EP) by Church of the City. Here is their Youtube channel to check out all of the five songs. Chris McClarney features in a couple of the songs as well. Some of the songs include Speak the Name, Send Me, and Speak to the Mountains.
Game of the Week
What's Behind Me? is similar to Jimmy Fallon. This game is versatile and builds tension as the whole audience or a select few players try to guess as others explain and help them guess what's behind them on the screen.
Sermon Illustration
Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink, sex, and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
C.S. Lewis
"The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little." Thomas Merton
Much like someone who might "settle for the bare minimum" in a relationship where someone is not actively engaged, we may be settling for just enough joy to get through the day instead of living in all He has for you today.
Encouraging Thought
As a third-century ma was anticipating death, he penned these last words to a friend: "It's a bad world, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people are the Christians - and I am one of them.
Remember there's a simple beauty in Christ as we sit before Him when we can be still. Be encouraged and feel free to change your day's schedule by shifting the space or pace if you need to connect with Him anew today.
(Today in the Word, June, 1988, p.18)
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The vision of the Student Leader Weekly is to empower high schoolers (alongside adult leadership) with practical ministry ideas.