Meeting a veteran in the faith

Last weekend I was one of the speakers at the Youthworks Conference. This is a conference jointly put on by a number of the key Evangelical youth organisations and sees over 1000 youthworkers gather in Eastbourne each year for a weekend of worship, teaching, envisioning, challenging and encouragement. Heck, if you worked with young people throughout the year wouldn't you want a weekend that did that?!

I did the main session on Saturday morning, talking on Psalm 1 and our rootedness in God's Word. It's a fantastic passage to look at: so inspiring as it challenges us not to see the Bible as something boring and a duty, but something to delight in and spend our time immersing ourselves in it. If you want to hear my talk you can get it here.

The main impact of the weekend for me, though, was listening to and meeting Jim Wallis. Forgive a complete chliche, but you're just so aware that here is someone who has walked the walk. There's depth to him that, to me, was quite stunning. Listening to him speak, and chatting with him personally, I was genuinely humbled by him. I want to walk in his footsteps. Not that that means doing all that he does or even totally having the same heart, because I think our united heart for justice takes different emphases. But I want to commit my life to outworking God's justice in this world, on whatever path God has put me on. I don't want to stay silent about what I believe. I want my life to count, I want my life to change other people's lives, and I want to see this world and its inhabitants healed, restored, and set free into God's purposes.

Ruth Valerio, 29/11/2009