INTENSE DAY 3: CITIZEN OF HEAVEN

Years ago I went on a family holiday and we all fell out on the 3rd day. My aunty Gill told me that by the third day of anything people are tired and get on each others nerves. She said the SAS train their people to cope with the extra stress on the third day of an intensive mission. I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s stayed in my head for about 15 years.

With this in mind we approached INTENSE DAY 3 head on.

We started the session with some ice breaker games to get people talking about their perfect Saturday, their perfect date, their perfect job, that sort of thing. You know, coz heaven is to be in the presence of God and that is perfection, nice easy link that.

Then we played a game of my own invention, which is best described as a marriage of crab football and tag with an injection of aggression. I call it:

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE.

Every body started with two ‘lives’ (2 stickers, one on each knee). They then adopted the position of the crab on their hands and knees. The object of the games was to rip stickers off other peoples knees and stick them to your own, whilst avoiding having your stickers ripped off. Once all your stickers are gone you are legally dead, and out of the game.
Everybody got stickered and crabbed up and hilarity (and some scenes of mild violence) ensued.

It was the ice breaker that split the critics;

“Could somebody tell me what that had to go with being a Citizen of Heaven?”
Sarah Shelly, the day’s speaker & Intense organiser

“I wish we had video taped that so we could show it to the churches and say ‘this is youth work’.”
Lizi Ingle, Free* Café & Intense organiser

Sarah Shelly gave a great talk on what it means to be a Citizen of Heaven. She used some striking photos to liken living as a Christian in the world to being in a departure lounge. She challenged us not to get too comfortable in this life as the Bible calls us ‘aliens’ and ‘strangers in a strange land’ because Heaven is our true home.

(Check out the next post to read the bible passages we looked at today.)

In small groups we talked about the practicalities of going about your every day life on Earth whilst being true to your identity as a Citizen of Heaven. In my group we talked about the times when it’s hardest to see yourself that way, particularly if you are the only Christian in your group of friends or your class.

We tried to come up with practical things that we could do to help us remember our true identity. Reading the Bible came top of the list, and meeting up with other Christians to support each other came pretty high too.

We finished up playing Cat & Mouse, a game which requires you to hold your arms out for a long time. Mine felt like they were coming off at the shoulders by the time we finished.