Taking the Pressure

Materials
Divide groups into teams and provide each team with 4 sheets of paper, scissors, several straws, some string, a couple rubber bands, 4 ice-cream sticks, 2 paper plates, a pencil, 4 styrofoam or paper cups, and some tape.

Activity
The group is given the task of creating a platform to hold a stack of books. The platform must use ALL materials and be at least 10cm tall. The group which builds the platform which can take the pressure of the greatest number of books wins. In case of a tie, the platform that is tallest will win.

Debrief
These platforms are like our lives. We all start with the same things, but the spiritual foundations we build will determine how much pressure our Christianity can take before we fall into temptation or spiritually collapse.

Added Illustration
No one saw it coming. Nobody could have ever predicted it. But during construction of the Quebec Bridge in 1907, something horrible happened. At five-thirty in the afternoon on August 29, a steelworker perched high above the water on the bridge heard a loud noise that sounded like the blast of a cannon exploding. At that very moment the largest section of the massive structure suddenly collapsed, sending 19,000 tons of steel crashing into the St. Lawrence River. Of the 86 men who were working on the bridge at the time, 75 were killed instantly.

Later, after an extensive investigation, it was learned that the fateful bridge was destined to collapse from the start. Investigators found serious flaws in the original design. As a result, it was built improperly, causing a terrible tragedy.

As awful as something like that is, even worse is the way some people’s lives collapse under the stress and strain of everyday life. Lives are destroyed today because they are built from faulty designs. There are fatal flaws in their lives which lead to devastating consequences.