Dear God, I’m at a men’s retreat with my dad and brother-in-law (and about 50 other men), and I’m trying to be very present in it. I want to know if there is anything you have for me out of this weekend.

I took a bike ride yesterday when I first got here.

As I sat at the top of “Circle Bluff” for almost an hour and tried to be present in worshipping you, I felt the Holy Spirit telling me to, basically, clear my head of anything I think might be on the agenda for the week and just enter your presence. So that’s what I’m going to do.

The speaker this weekend is just going to talk about Philippians. I think he is going to give us an overview of all four chapters in four different sessions. I’m excited about just getting some Bible teaching. I hear sermons, but I don’t often just get straight Bible teaching from an educated expert. I think I’m going to enjoy that. As I think about it, I probably should have brought a pad and paper for notes. Maybe I’ll take this keyboard and my phone and sit in the back at a table and type up my thoughts as he speaks.

One thing I also found last night was that I spoke to some men who just seemed to need to talk. One lost his 99-year-old mother about three weeks ago. Another lost a father a couple of years ago who had lived with him for the last 14 years of his life. I felt like you were using me just to listen as I visited with both of them. So I hope I can be that for people too, including my dad and brother-in-law. And if there’s anything I need to share and there is someone out there you have provided to be your ears for me, help me to discerningly find them.

Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, help me to enter into your presence. Help me to be your hands and feet. Help me to worship you and then love others this weekend. And give me this weekend what you have for me so that I might be the man you need me to be in the world where you have planted me.

I pray all of this in your name,

Amen