Well, God showed up in a big way.
Last weekend, I was in Central Texas to reprise a set of talks for a youth retreat based on The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis, which I wrote about in last week's Grace Notes. I know that a number of you were praying specifically for a good weekend.
It's a role I had done for this church three times before - the first time was 20 years ago (before any of the students attending this year were born!). I have also done these talks in two or three other venues. I change and tweak it every time, but a lot of the material has remained the same, including the ending - although I've never been pleased with the ending.
This year, the youth pastor of the church in Austin asked if I wanted to work in a Wormwood character (read the book!), which we had never done before. I thought it was a good idea, but I didn't really do anything with the idea until the week of the retreat. So it was a completely new element added late. I wrote in the character to ask occasional questions to open up a few topics for further discussion.
The day before the retreat, I also wrote down a vague note that perhaps Wormwood should lead a rebellion against my character (Screwtape, in essence) after the last session Saturday night. No details, just that much of an idea. Another completely new element to the script, and possibly a whole new ending.
I had never met the guy (John) who would play Wormwood until 1/2 hour before the first talk. We went over some last minute questions, and just ran with it. John did a great job Friday night being the confused nephew and I had fun putting him down (as part of the character). Saturday morning's sessions also went well, with Wormwood beginning to ask better questions, but also starting to challenge Screwtape more.
That afternoon, we finally started to plan the actual rebellion, well after we're in this thing knee-deep. We talked to the other leaders and a couple of seniors so that they were ready to join in the rebellion. What we didn't know is how the youth would react. How many would join in? What would they say? Would those who had already been confused the first night by being on Screwtape's side break allegiance so soon after finally settling into the idea?
And still, the rebellion was not scripted - just sketched out rather roughly. It would turn out to be the most important moment of the entire weekend. (How could we have not had this ending all the other times I've presented this?)
At the end of the first Saturday evening session, Wormwood got a little mouthy, but cowered when Screwtape dressed him down. Then after the last session, his question was a direct challenge. Screwtape exploded on him (I ended up completely destroying one of the props throwing it to the ground in "anger"). With Wormwood licking his wounds, Screwtape then turned his attention to the youth. Suddenly, Wormwood finally tears off his emblem of belonging to Screwtape and stands up to him, armed with pertinent passages of Scripture, and begins the rebellion.
The entire group of youth instantly joined in the rebellion! It gave me chills! They were adding their own passages and cheering on Wormwood. The "plants" in the audience could barely be heard over the noise. Screwtape was infuriated by the rebellion, but increasingly weakened by every passage. I had some prat falls, turned over chairs, picked up a boom stand to crack Wormwood on the head, but fell short. It was bedlam! At the passage, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7), I fled out the door and the room erupted in cheers.
It was an incredible scene, only partly planned and very unscripted. It was added at the last minute, and no one person put it all together to be able to take credit. During group time, most, if not all, of the groups were connecting dots and drawing incredible conclusions. Although the planned, scripted talks generated good cabin time discussions, none of them were able to spark what happened that night.
The capper for me was that after all this happened, the youth pastor (Jeremiah) realized in the middle of the campfire talk that the two main takeaways that they had planned for the youth (being in Scripture and having accountability partners) were fully demonstrated in this unplanned rebellion scene. Screwtape was run out of the room by Scripture and by the collection of people banding together in support of one another against the enemy. Scripture, and the power of accountability partners.
Jeremiah thought we had planned to work in those two elements, and that he was so clever to have figured that out. When he drew those conclusions for the youth, it clicked for all of us that God had certainly showed up, putting together a beautiful, coordinated lesson that no one person planned.
Wow...
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