Retreat....

As I was sitting in church last Sunday, I was treated to the multi media, uh, powerpoint with music, presentation of the promotion of the latest women's retreat. Lots of photographs of well dressed, nice women, looking like they're having a great time. It's billed as a great time away, a time to be silly, not too draggy and spritual, a time to relax and make new friends.

I've been to several retreats. I must be retreat impaired. I meet and get to know many new people, but once we get back to the real world, I never see them more than two and half minutes at a time again. Must be me.

I was thinking of the message of the ads though. It is billed as a place to relax, have fun, etc. Not too heavy and spiritual. This is what confuses me. I mean, I need a place to be heavy and spiritual. I can be silly at home. I can relax at home. I can be myself at home. Why go to this retreat where the prevaling value is who can be more outrageous? Or the other value, who can cry at small group time?

The more I think about it, the more I really want to go to one of those silent retreats. The ones where you meet with a spritual director in the morning, really the only non-Jesus person you get to know during the weekend, and then spend the rest of the day in silence, listening. Maybe some worship time at night. To me, that seems more relaxing than the frenetic pace and competition of a Ladies, We're going to wild and crazy and you may even learn something retreat.

Of course, the speakers this year come from the house of the Grand Inquisitioner himself, which probably fuels my skepticism. Two women who wrote a book about family life, etc. So you retreat away from your family to learn how to run your family spiritually. Or the way God would want you to. I hesitate to use the word Scripturally , since there aren't many families in Scripture I'd want to emulate. I think the main problem I have with Focus on the Family is the word Family is capitalized and the The isn't. We should be focused on The Family, as in God's family, not just the little nu-cleer family that seems to be so worshipped. And the problem with that is, like anything else, you don't get to pick your family. You don't get to decide who is in God's family. He does. And if you don't agree, tough. Just like His work should be first, so should His family. Now sure, our little families are a part of it all. But not the end all, be all.

Executive summary. I'm not going to the silly retreat. I'm looking for a silent retreat. I'm sure the world would appreciate me not talking for a whole weekend.