Erinnicole's Prayer: Pillar's "Frontline"

It's not like I'm walking alone
Into the valley of shadow of death

Even being in a Catholic school, I often feel so alone in my faith. I love being places like life teen and retreats, especially huge ones like Stuebenville Conference because I know I'm not alone. I have a bunch of people who truly just get it. When I am there, I become selfish, though. I don't want to leave because I love belonging and being understood. But I know that the whole point of being a tool of God's hand is to let Him use me for people that don't know Him. But it so much easier to help people who already get it - to just remind them! I, like pretty much everyone, just don't deal with rejection well and rarely do I find people that fully embrace Jesus on the first try. More often, people don't give faith a try at all. But this kind of thing, this song, reminds me that I am not doing this alone. There are a lot of Christians out there and they understand and the real idea is for all of us to come together and save the world as one. I don't know where I got this idea that it is me versus the world, but I never honestly considered until just this moment that this idea I have is so the opposite of what God meant when He gave me fellow believers. He wasn't really saying, "take notes"...more-or-less, He was saying, "ALL of you, help Me out!" I feel like I truly am understanding something for the first time.

you forgot what this is for

I guess I couldn't really forget if I never really understood...but my prayer is that I remember. This is for Him.

Marie's Prayer: Pillar's "Frontline"

'cause it's only begun

I love this line because, as a writer, I begin things all the time. I'm constantly finding new ways to start things. But it's really hard for me to finish them. I must've started at least twenty stories and have only finished one. That's something I need to work on. I need to finish things I start and not give up on them. As you may have noticed I'm not the best at posting every day and this really struck me. I am going to try really super hard from now on to keep up and finish what I start. Because not everything is easy at first, but it's only the beginning.

Chris' prayer: Pillar's "Frontline"

When it's over, we can say, "Well done"
But not yet, 'cause it's only begun

I must confess. I do not understand the question "Are you saved?" I have been asked numerous times in my life if I'm saved, and I really don't know how to answer that question. I know what the asker wants to hear, and I know what he or she is actually asking me, but I still don't know how to answer the question.

For me, salvation seems to be something more of a work in progress. I can accept Jesus Christ into my life one day, only to deny Him the next. And I have. The question "Are you saved?" seems to imply to me the end of the journey. Rob Beckley sings here that it is anything but. Instead, it is the beginning of the spiritual journey, one that will include many battles, many successes, and many failures. Hopefully, one day, I'll be able to hear Christ tell me, "Well done."


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Catie's prayer: Pillar's "Frontline"

We've got to lead the way!
We've got to lead the way!

Leading. I think leading is one of those things people either love doing or hate doing. When it comes to faith it can be very difficult to be a leader just because it's hard when everyone is looking to you to see where to go, what they need to be doing, etc. The thing is, if we aren't the ones to step up to lead the way, who is? We can't expect that someone else will just lead so we can just sit back and not do anything. If we want change, we have to be the ones to change it. No one is going to do it for us. We have to be willing to step up, even when we are on the frontlines, even if we're scared. With God on our side we don't have to be afraid to be on the frontlines because he is always with us. What more could we ask for from our God?

Megan's prayer: Pillar's "Frontline"

In yesterday’s gospel, we saw Jesus going out and gathering some of his apostles. He drew them away from their boats, away from their families, to come and follow him. Jesus didn’t just want people to passively sit there and watch him… he wanted people to get up, to follow him, to spread the Good News. He wanted people to actively live for him, not just be bystanders.

Today’s song seems to convey a similar feeling to me.

We live our lives on the frontlines

Just as Jesus wanted active followers in his time, God is calling us to do the same now. We cannot just sit around, hoping others find Christ, we need to be out there sharing his love and leading others to him.

At last night’s lifenight, we only had a dozen teens show up, which is far from being considered a “great” turnout. This is not the first time we have seen numbers low, and in fact we have talked about ways to bring more teens in, but so far it has all seemed to be talk. Maybe something like today’s song will serve as a much needed reminder: we have to live our lives on the frontlines… we have to actively go out and find teens to come share in the lifenights, and not just hope that by some miracle they start showing up more often.