God has a history of making order out of chaos. In the beginning, He formed all of creation out of a dark void. In the Psalms, He makes wars cease, and there is stillness and peace in Him. In the Gospels, Jesus calmed the wild seas when the disciples were caught and afraid for their lives in a storm. Jesus’ very mission on this earth was to bring the order of redemption out of the chaos of the fall.
Jesus also took breaks from chaos. “Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up and slipped out to a solitary place to pray.” After a day of preaching to the crowds, Jesus tells His disciples to go ahead of Him and goes up a mountain by Himself to pray. Jesus “frequently withdrew to the wilderness to pray.”
A retreat is a break from the norm, an act of withdrawing. This retreat leads teens out of chaos and distractions of daily life and into a relationship with God who can transform their chaos into something beautiful.