My faith in collective humanity has been restored.
In one week, one group of people bagged over 480,000 meals and raised upwards of $109,000 dollars to support people in Thailand. The youth took time away from their afternoon options to put those meals together and saved money that could have been put toward t-shirts or cd's or Starbucks to give to those in need on Thursday night.
In a world so dry of hope, so empty some days of the love and compassion we're called to share, a week such as this is necessary sometimes to remind us what we're all capable of.
We are capable of radical change. We are capable of making a difference. It is possible.
We are capable of letting things go that have been eating at us -- things we can't face up to. We have the ability to start fresh.
But all of this comes in the collective idea that we find in Galatians that we are all one in Christ Jesus. It is the faith that we share that allows us to come together as one to do these things.
The Jesus we find in the Gospels is one of radical change, one who breaks down the boxes and the stereotypes and who teaches us how to love others. One who is a glorious model for the life we're all attempting to figure out. How beautiful the world would be if we all got even halfway there.
Imagine the world if we all cared. If we all acknowledged those in need and took action. Imagine the world then, where we all have what we need. It might look a little like the seven thousand Jesus followers that I spent last week with, where we packaged enough meals for 1,170 children who don't have food to eat to have a meal a day for a YEAR. Or, when called, put together an offering of $109,000 dollars to fund farmers and economies and ministries in Thailand.
Pray that we get there. That we get to the sort of sold out for Christ, let's help the least of us get to where we are because we can and should, I love you just because you're alive sort of world. How beautiful our lives together would be.
This past week has given me faith that we can get there. But, as we read in James, faith without action is dead, so it's my hope that if and when each person shares my faith that we can get out and make a difference.
Thank you for your prayers.
(More to come.)
In Him,
Colin
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Wednesday
...Wow.
I'm gonna need time to process that.
I'll write more tomorrow. Thanks for your prayers all!
In Him,
Colin
I'm gonna need time to process that.
I'll write more tomorrow. Thanks for your prayers all!
In Him,
Colin
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Tuesday Night Thoughts
If I didn't know myself before this trip, I most definitely am getting a brilliant chance to attempt to. Worship provides an unprecedented opportunity for introspection -- time to dive into who you are in Christ, who you want to be, where you want to go.
And at the same time, it gives you a direct insight into the things you want to leave behind. The things you can't face up to on your own. The issues that we think we can run away from.
I only hope that this is not simply a personal experience. That this is a collective thing. Something that we as believers this week can work through and push through together.
While many of my things are dreams I have yet to achieve or things that I want to do that I haven't yet been able to -- things I feel called to conquer and am still working toward -- a lot of these youth's issues are so much deeper than that.
The scars needing to be wiped away fade slowly and the wounds that need healing are deep. I cannot imagine dealing with some of the things that these some six thousand youth deal with daily.
I am impressed and awed by their strength and willingness. I'm struck by their honesty and hope.
I hope that you have the opportunity to be awe struck by the strength of the young people that fill our churches as I have.
On a related note, I also hope that you, at some point, have the opportunity to see 7,000 people doing the Macarena. I really had hoped it had died. No such luck.
Please pray that God continues to move in powerful ways here at CHIC. It's only Tuesday and we've already been wiped clean of so much, but there's so much more to uncover. Pray that we staff and counselors have the wisdom to open ourselves as mechanisms for God, that those wounds uncovered can be healed by God through us and that in turn, we can raise up the generation that I see coming to save the image of the Church. To bring it back to something so plain and simple that I think we forget sometimes. And this something is rather much more a someone.
Someone called Jesus.
In Him,
Colin
And at the same time, it gives you a direct insight into the things you want to leave behind. The things you can't face up to on your own. The issues that we think we can run away from.
I only hope that this is not simply a personal experience. That this is a collective thing. Something that we as believers this week can work through and push through together.
While many of my things are dreams I have yet to achieve or things that I want to do that I haven't yet been able to -- things I feel called to conquer and am still working toward -- a lot of these youth's issues are so much deeper than that.
The scars needing to be wiped away fade slowly and the wounds that need healing are deep. I cannot imagine dealing with some of the things that these some six thousand youth deal with daily.
I am impressed and awed by their strength and willingness. I'm struck by their honesty and hope.
I hope that you have the opportunity to be awe struck by the strength of the young people that fill our churches as I have.
On a related note, I also hope that you, at some point, have the opportunity to see 7,000 people doing the Macarena. I really had hoped it had died. No such luck.
Please pray that God continues to move in powerful ways here at CHIC. It's only Tuesday and we've already been wiped clean of so much, but there's so much more to uncover. Pray that we staff and counselors have the wisdom to open ourselves as mechanisms for God, that those wounds uncovered can be healed by God through us and that in turn, we can raise up the generation that I see coming to save the image of the Church. To bring it back to something so plain and simple that I think we forget sometimes. And this something is rather much more a someone.
Someone called Jesus.
In Him,
Colin
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Monday Evening
Hebrews 10:22-24: "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds."
I write to you all this evening heavy laden and yet, I am hopeful. Hopeful that these youth will make a drastic, life changing choice this week. Hopeful that, amidst the comfort that is attributed to freedom -- though that comfort is often our strongest chain -- we all can break free.
An interesting attribution, right? We are able to be comfortable because we are free, but it is that comfort that binds us. That binds us to our burdens, our sins, our habits. It binds us to our inability to see the necessity for change. To do more. To be like Jesus in all ways.
You see, if we are comfortable we're much less likely to be like Jesus. That's not to say that we cannot be like Jesus, it's simply to say it makes it a much harder step to take. Those things around us that make us comfortable are many of the things that we'd have to give up if we were to completely make the change that we would be making if we chose to completely and selflessly follow Christ. It's so simple, but it took these kids to break it down so succinctly. I'm sure there's more to it as well, i.e. our being human, etc.. But it's the comfort that keeps us from a lot.
Today was a good, yet challenging day. An arena full of over seven thousand people jumping and singing along with The David Crowder Band is definitely something that everyone should see, if not fully experience. Please know that we're enjoying ourselves.
I don't want any of you to think that because I write with burdens on my heart that any of that is a negative thing. These burdens are ones that I want and will continue to bear. They are my yearning for these youth to fully encounter Christ, each one of these six thousand or so, and especially our youth. They are my want for more of Christ for myself and for all of us. For us to encounter God on a daily basis in such a way that we cannot do anything but fall to our knees and pray that he will use us.
I see the possibilities. I see the start of huge things. I see so much potential in this generation that we are raising up. I want so badly for them to see it as well.
Please pray for us as we move forward this week. We will undoubtedly encounter more difficult things to talk and pray about. Pray that these youth will want more of Jesus -- more in the sense that they will want to make a radical life altering choice to truly follow Him. And most simply, more of Him in every way.
We are incapable of being separated from His love. I pray that we can all come to know that.
Romans 8:28-39: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
Colin
I write to you all this evening heavy laden and yet, I am hopeful. Hopeful that these youth will make a drastic, life changing choice this week. Hopeful that, amidst the comfort that is attributed to freedom -- though that comfort is often our strongest chain -- we all can break free.
An interesting attribution, right? We are able to be comfortable because we are free, but it is that comfort that binds us. That binds us to our burdens, our sins, our habits. It binds us to our inability to see the necessity for change. To do more. To be like Jesus in all ways.
You see, if we are comfortable we're much less likely to be like Jesus. That's not to say that we cannot be like Jesus, it's simply to say it makes it a much harder step to take. Those things around us that make us comfortable are many of the things that we'd have to give up if we were to completely make the change that we would be making if we chose to completely and selflessly follow Christ. It's so simple, but it took these kids to break it down so succinctly. I'm sure there's more to it as well, i.e. our being human, etc.. But it's the comfort that keeps us from a lot.
Today was a good, yet challenging day. An arena full of over seven thousand people jumping and singing along with The David Crowder Band is definitely something that everyone should see, if not fully experience. Please know that we're enjoying ourselves.
I don't want any of you to think that because I write with burdens on my heart that any of that is a negative thing. These burdens are ones that I want and will continue to bear. They are my yearning for these youth to fully encounter Christ, each one of these six thousand or so, and especially our youth. They are my want for more of Christ for myself and for all of us. For us to encounter God on a daily basis in such a way that we cannot do anything but fall to our knees and pray that he will use us.
I see the possibilities. I see the start of huge things. I see so much potential in this generation that we are raising up. I want so badly for them to see it as well.
Please pray for us as we move forward this week. We will undoubtedly encounter more difficult things to talk and pray about. Pray that these youth will want more of Jesus -- more in the sense that they will want to make a radical life altering choice to truly follow Him. And most simply, more of Him in every way.
We are incapable of being separated from His love. I pray that we can all come to know that.
Romans 8:28-39: "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
Colin
Monday, July 13, 2009
A Sunday Evening Prayer
I write to you this evening with the rain falling outside my recently opened window, eleven floors above the ground. Lights out is in 17 minutes and most of the lights in the residence halls across campus will probably not be extinguished just yet. Not because the students aren't tired, but simply because sometimes, excitement outweighs exhaustion.
21 hours and a slight hiccup (one of the groups wasn't where we expected them to be at 5am) after leaving Madison, we arrived in Knoxville to an already flourishing campus. The staff here is more than hospitable and I can already see the planning that the Covenant has put into this experience.
Yet, after Mainstage this evening, I hope to see so much more than an experience. I hope to see a change come from that experience. A change to follow a call. A change to commit. A change to simply do.
We brought six students down. They are six of six thousand (or so). Yet, each of these six thousand have an individual heart filled with possibilities. It is my prayer (and I believe it's also that of the planner's) that each of these students, not just ours, would not just experience this week, but that they would embrace it. That they would live it. That they would open their hearts to those possibilities that lie within them in Christ and see that sometimes, we have to let people help us get where God needs us to be.
Pray that we may make decisions before clarity comes -- that we all may follow the dream that God has set forth for us. That we may make the hard choices that bring us closer to Jesus. That we may all, CHIC goers and Christ followers, become undone.
In Him,
Colin
21 hours and a slight hiccup (one of the groups wasn't where we expected them to be at 5am) after leaving Madison, we arrived in Knoxville to an already flourishing campus. The staff here is more than hospitable and I can already see the planning that the Covenant has put into this experience.
Yet, after Mainstage this evening, I hope to see so much more than an experience. I hope to see a change come from that experience. A change to follow a call. A change to commit. A change to simply do.
We brought six students down. They are six of six thousand (or so). Yet, each of these six thousand have an individual heart filled with possibilities. It is my prayer (and I believe it's also that of the planner's) that each of these students, not just ours, would not just experience this week, but that they would embrace it. That they would live it. That they would open their hearts to those possibilities that lie within them in Christ and see that sometimes, we have to let people help us get where God needs us to be.
Pray that we may make decisions before clarity comes -- that we all may follow the dream that God has set forth for us. That we may make the hard choices that bring us closer to Jesus. That we may all, CHIC goers and Christ followers, become undone.
In Him,
Colin
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