I know the kids want to be there. And good things do happen, but it sure doesn't go the way I want it to go.
And as I thought about it all afterwards I thought about one of my favorite words -- fractal. I first learned of this word when reading it in a very popular novel.
The official definition of a fractal from The Free Dictionary is "A geometric pattern that is repeated at ever smaller scales to produce irregular shapes and surfaces that cannot be represented by classical geometry. Fractals are used especially in computer modeling of irregular patterns and structures in nature."
For us lay people it means that when looking close up something looks like a mess, but when you step back (sometimes a long way back) you can see the pattern.
A blogger named Michael says on his website, "I am reminded of how little we actually see of what God is up to in life. Often I see a dark mass in front of me, but if I could see everything, I would see that that dark mass is only a tiny black thread in a tremendous mosaic of color and form and meaning. God is a God of order. But He is also the God who knows the order in what we perceive as random, chaotic, hopeless."
So who knows -- the chaos we experience at our student Bible Group (which we call the Blunt Bible Club) might be some of the brightest spots in God's pattern of beauty He is creating.