We Are One

There’s something slightly more difficult in my opinion in writing blogs about the last day of things, but to be honest the last day of camp had a very distinct ending, so this wasn’t so bad. So I just want to say thanks for bearing with me for the last 3 posts as I rambled about things.

So we are one, this blog is simply about togetherness about a city of temples together. About us as humans needing one another, that somehow as we dance, sing, pray, hope, cry and work together we gain something indescribable and so special.

This last blog was written on a hotel bed at about 2 am in my journal. In my left ear was the sound of acoustic guitars and teenagers singing into the night, and in my right was the ocean hitting the shore and as I sat there, I couldn’t help but think about the things that had happened that night.

Pastor Justin talked to us about how the bible says that the body is a temple, and if we are all temples that as we stand together, we make a city of sorts, a walking city. And boy could I hear it. Just an hour or so before, Lex, Ali, Brooke and I were upstairs singing some Jon Foreman as people passed by and occasionally joined us. We sang the song In My Arms the most, and it was so cool to look over at Brooke and hear her belt ‘ here my dear, this is where we shake the nightmare free’.

This is where we shake the nightmare free. This is where we as a city rise and become one. This is where we realize that

“Greater things have yet to come,

and greater things have still to be done in this city”

Some other really amazing things happened that night,

During worship as Chris Tomlin sang Mighty to Save, Ali, Lex, Robby, Shaina, Brooke, Melyse and I hugged each other and sang to the Savior of the Universe. Together we sang, and I truly felt my insecurities melt away, that that night, during that moment as we sang to the living breathing God, we were truly in communion with him and we were doing it together.

I guess it all comes back to my favorite bible verse 1 John 4:12 that says no one has ever seen God, but if we love one another we get a glimpse of him.

The final thing that night that really truly touched me was what my new friend Kira said to me. We were walking back from the bus, and she started talking to me of this vision she had of all of us praising God in heaven.  She told me that now what we were experiencing was but a glimpse of the awesomeness of being in the presence of the LORD.

I mean its just so crazy to think about, the concept of us being one community with one purpose. That we as small specks of sand come together and make a shore and that as we unite, the water, true life, the God of the universe comes to us all of us together and we get to spend eternity in communion with the giver of life and our peers.

I ended my journal entry saying this ‘ Its just crazy to think that the God that created the sea ,that I can hear smacking the shore, also saved me and holds a home for me in paradise. And to think all these things  are only a glimpse blows my mind…I pray that my attitude about spending time with God in worship, prayer or bible study turns into full enthusiasm and joy.’

I want to end this blog saying this,

‘I don’t want to lose the common ground, with the whole world upside down

I dont want to fight about it now when the world is burning out

So lets slow the evening down,

Slow it down, slow down.

Please slow down , down, down

the stars are coming out.

We are one.

We are one.

We are one tonight.

And were singing it out.

We Are One Tonight.

And were dreaming outloud.

And the world is scarred, but these scars will heal.

We are one tonight’

-Song excerpts are from God In the city by Blue Tree and We Are One Tonight by Switchfoot.

God Bless

Life

thats a bold name isnt it?

well I got it from a girl named Ashley Akinns. Her story was a very large part of camp. And it was centrally focused around the third night, which is what todays blog is about.

you can find her complete story here:

*I advise reading the email from Ashley to Louie Giglio before continuing on this blog*

so as you saw, ashley used the expression,

‘I am sorry this is kinda rambling but I just had to tell you that I now know about the Grace of God, and I have life for the first time in my 22 years.’

Man how crazy is what she said? How many of us can say something like that, i have life and really mean it?

Life, this fragile speck along the timeline of history, this entertaining masquerade, this matrix, this gritty and real place, actually isnt life at all. True life that is.

I mean, I know alot of times, when I hear the world life, I am tempted to refer to the rat race that I partake in everyday in a foolish attempt to validate myself, or the good times ive had, or whatever.

But heres the thing,

the thing that Ashley got.

Life is more than you are.

Life is huge, life is beautiful, life is imaginative, life is created, life is like a canvas, life is lovely, life is breathtaking, life is so many other things beyond the box we place it in in order to justify our sorrows. We say things like, life isnt fair, well thats life, or whatever. But in actually true life, real life at its core is eternal, everlasting, powerful, worshipful, beautiful.

Jesus said it himself, I have come that you can have life to the full( John 10:10)

And we have had glimpses of true life havent we?

In my journal I have a list of some of the greatest experiences of my life (very unupdated) well anyway, each and every single one of those experiences is overflowing with love and that to me is the essence of true life.

If its cool with you ill tell you two really quickly, one is a car ride i took with jeff down to the beach and the other was volunteering at a trailer park during centrifuge(sophomore year). One because, Jeff has a great way of truly cutting to the heart of the matter and loving on me a ridiculous amount. The other because, the people in that trailer park, the children we worked with and some of the other people on the m-fuge team with me, were some of the most loving people Ive ever met. By no exaggeration of the expression, it was like heaven. Those children ate up whatever attention and love you would give them, whether it was a high five or faking that they hit us in dodgeball, and then flipped it around on us in the most amazing way.

I say all this to say, sometimes in all of the noise, we forget that life, true life isnt something that just happens. True life is love, and love requires work.

So as you sit like me and gaze up at your ceiling wondering why the world spins the way it does, its really all about love,(Like that song from RENT).

And Ashley got that, the real question is. Do I?

Do you?

the way

‘I am the way, follow me and take my hand, and I am the truth embrace me and youll understand, and I am the life, and through me youll live again. For I am love, I am love, I am love.’ – deathbed  Relient K

the way. its what the early Christians were called back 2000 years ago.

So the way, that was the theme of camp this year and when I learned that, I was pumped about learning a whole bunch of stuff about early Christians or our way as Christians. But to be honest, I wasnt ready to embrace what the way truly meant at student life camp ‘08.

The way of Jesus: Jesus came down from up above, he scaled down from perfection, He sky dove without a parachute face first into this world, the world of broken hearts, scars, laughter, pain, misplaced value and wolves.

And here, Jesus made a path for us, unlike any other that previously existed. He forged us a way that can be used as a direct  conduit to God the father.

That is stuff I guess most people know. But what i wasnt ready for was this.

Jesus dying on the cross, isnt the amazing thing that happened.

The amazing thing rather was that while dying, he somehow took sin in its entirety onto himself.
And in doing that for the first time, he was separated from God. He cries out ‘ Eloi Eloi lema sabachthani’ which translates to, my God my God why have you forsaken me.

why? Because he loves us. He loved us, he will love us.

And to have a love that strong, it blows my mind, it shakes my very concept of the word love.

I mean, I know what it feels like to be separated from a father, your father. And to do that tells me that Jesus practiced what he preached.

The God of the universe, the star breather(creator of Canis Majoris, read one below this one), came down from perfect heaven. HEAVEN! AHLWSRUOWEAIURPW, crazy sick nasty sweet place with constant perfection, left his father and was later forsaken by him to set us right in the divine economy.

I dont know, but i think its safe to conclude that God knows all about love.

‘I am the way, follow me and take my hand, and I am the truth embrace me and youll understand, and I am the life, and through me youll live again. For I am love, I am love, I am love.’

Jesus’ way, the way. He scaled down for us.

humility, passion, love, kindness, righteousness, forgiveness, justice, should I go on? All were practiced by Jesus and ultimately he died for each of those ideals. And our way as people, should be to follow his way, and in our journey, find ourselves with both Jesus and the father.

That is the way.