Extravagant Love, Radical Hospitality

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality." - Romans 12:12-13

A Challenge to myself and others:
Love Extravagantly
Practice Hospitality
Live life with arms wide open

Although I moved to my little town 2 years ago (almost exactly to the day! wow!) I have hopped from church to church. Tried several, but never felt like I truly found a place to call home. For lots of reasons. I was always traveling on weekends, visiting friends or family, working... While there were 2 churches that I attended regularly, I never found "home."

I decided recently that the only way to do that is to truly protect certain times. I did that when I was in college. These times on Sundays were morning worship, and Connexion (the college service)....This time on Thursday is when my Bible Study meets....As a result of that commitment, I was connected...and my church was home. While I have protected my Sunday morning time for church, I haven't protected a location. Interesting distinction, I know....but one that I think truly matters.

I also had a hard time feeling like a part of the community different places. No idea how to connect in small groups or Bible Studies....I could literally walk in and out on Sundays and be a ghost if I wanted. While at times that may be appealing, I want more. I want to be surrounded by people who are going to push, challenge, and encourage me. I want to be involved in the life of the church.

Last week, I had a brave moment. I called a church that I had visited a few times to see how I can get involved in small groups and adult classes. (I have tried this off and on various places for a year now and have literally gotten nowhere.) I ended up on the phone with one of their staff members who, after about 15 to 20 minutes of talking, hearing what I was looking for, and where I was at in life just stopped and said, "My small group meets on Friday nights. We would love to have to join us. And hey, you know what? My wife and I love having people over to hang out, just for fellowship. We'd love to have you over for coffee sometime too."

WOW! seriously!?!?! Just like that. An open invitation. This person didn't know me and yet extended and invitation and practiced radical hospitality.

By the time I checked my email later that day, I had an email thanking me (seriously, thanking me....) for stepping out and calling, giving me directions to their house, and just a bit of information about some of the other people in the group so that I would, as he put it, "feel like family when I walked in."

So I took a risk (for me, a fairly quiet, shy, introverted person...at least until you get to know me) and went....to meet a bunch of strangers (who oddly enough, I discovered some connections with once I got there!) And you know what...it was 100% worth it. Everyone was welcoming, loving, and truly interested in my story. Can I just say that this was probably one of the most encouraging moments of definitely the past week, and even the past month.

So why do I challenge myself and others to that? Because it makes a difference to people. I know that I will remember this conversation and this moment for a long time to come.

"But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love." - 1 Corinthians 13:13 (Msg.)

Chucking the Cell Phone

Every couple of months I have a moment where I want to chuck my cell pone out the window of my car, throw it in a lake, run over it with my car....something that will make it stop ringing. This doesn't happen all the time...but sometimes. (I must have a fairly low threshold for this considering the fact that I am NOT that important of a person and things DON'T demand my attention every waking moment of the day.)

Today was one of those days. Just a desire to escape and be out of touch even if only for an hour or so. Cells phones are great, don't get me wrong. I love that I can just type a quick message to a friend and not too intrusively interrupt their day to ask a question, or people can send me a quick little one liner that makes me smile (I however, have what I call a phone phobia....that is I don't like calling people. I am just worried I am interrupting too much, or bothering them, or catching them when they don't really want to be polite, but feel a social responsibility to be polite and engage in a conversation that they don't really want to be engaged in. I'm currently working through this....) :)

Anyway....I found a great post about just that by a staff member at GCC. I've enjoyed reading books and posts by him and learning as much as I can because let's face it, I'm young, and I've got a lot to learn.

I'll say it again, I am NOT that important of a person....I don't twitter, I don't subscribe to hundreds of blogs or automatic notifications, yet I still crave silence.

I think that was one of the things I loved most about being in Nashville at the National Youth Worker's Convention. Yes, I was still doing some work stuff, and I was busy attending different sessions and seminars. But the great thing was that I could leave a session and just go walk around downtown, or go to the prayer chapel, or back to my hotel and just sit, in silence and actually process and digest what I had just heard. I didn't get a lot of phone calls because people knew I was out of the office, I didn't get a lot of emails, and I didn't even check email all that often. It's been awhile since I've done that...since I've really just stopped to listen and hear what I'm supposed to hear. And it was GREAT!

I need to carve out more time to do just that. Stay offline, turn off the phone, the tv, and even the music and just enjoy the silence.

Things I never thought I would need to know

One of the things I love about working at camp is all the different things I get to do. Seriously, it seems limitless at times the things I can learn and do if I just set my mind to it. And all of it ultimately goes toward the end goal of building a better program to reach more students.

Every once in awhile, I like to think about all the tools I have worked with and things I never thought I would need to know how to do, but am either learning or have learned, thanks to camp. It tends to be fairly entertaining. So here goes.

• Power tools. That's right...power tools. My first day as a summer staffer 5 years ago I spent 8 hours pressure washing a net... no joke. And then I learned how to use table saws, drills, blowers, soldering irons....the list goes on. I know this sounds fairly unimpressive, but to me...I think it's awesome that I have learned how to do some of these things.
• Cooking for several hundred people. Not that I do this on a regular basis, but in a pinch, it's my responsibility to know how to get it done (with help of course).
• Just about anything to do with toilets and drains....Not that I can always fix the problem, but I have discovered that it's good to have a basic knowledge of what might be wrong, and some common things to check for before calling in the big guns (aka the amazing facilities supervisor)
• All things paintball. That's right. In preparing to build new programs, I am learning about anything and everything relating to operating a successful paintball program. Crazy
  
• Climbing. Where to get equipment, how to run stuff, how to maintain a course. Yep. Love it.
• Basic AV (sound systems projectors). I by no means claim to be an expert, but I can set up and troubleshoot the basics.

The list goes on. It's just fun to me....to see all the things that I never thought I would need to know, but have had the chance to learn. And trust me when I say, I am by no means an expert in any of these areas (definitely not!) But I sure have had fun learning.

And it's just really funny to look at the progression of my life in general (classical dancer to ropes course operator at a summer camp, to setting up a paintball course...) It just makes me laugh sometimes. The people I used to dance with would probably never believe it.

But it's so fun. And I love seeing how God moves us to different places...where we never thought we'd be.

It makes me wonder what's coming tomorrow.... :)

Shoes

If anyone that reads this happens to be a guy, I'm guessing they stopped reading after the title. If not....yes this is about shoe shopping. And a frustration I have with it. Really nothing insightful tonight at all...

Shoe shopping is not easy, at least not for women, and definitely not for tall women. This is made even more difficult when you are trying to find nice shoes to wear with a dress. Because apparently they only make cute, fun shoes with 5 INCH HEELS. They are cute. And they are fun. The problem.... they make me 6'2" thank you very much.

I decided several years ago that I would never wear shoes that made me taller than 6 foot. Ha. Yea right. I've given up on that, at least when it comes to nice shoes.

So I'm getting over it. But it still drives me nuts. And to any other tall ladies that may read this...I feel your pain. My advice...wear what you want and have fun. Who cares!

:)

NYWC Session 2

David Crowder Band, Shane Claiborne, Andrew Marin, Tony Campolo

First let me just say that yesterday was the first time I have ever seen Crowder live. It was great! Such energy and passion for what he does...and he is absolutely hysterical. I think my favorite part was when he busted out the keytar and the modified guitar hero-esque guitar. A-Mazing.

Now, I have a confession to make. A lot of my staff, and just a lot of people that I know in general have read Irresistable Revolution and Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne. They've talked about it, praised it as a "must read" and seriously contemplated selling all their possessions, and living with the poor and homeless. I have been skeptical of anything that seems like a "fad" book. I was skeptical of books like Velvet Elvis and Blue Like Jazz when they first came out. I don't know, I'm sure there's good stuff, but I kind of like the classics.

After listening to him speak last night though, I had to get his book and see what this is all about...Because he said something that resonated with me 100%, that I have been trying to articulate for 5 years, but haven't really been able to.

He talked about growing up in church, having all the "right" answers, and holding all the "right" beliefs, and all the "right" political opinions. And then he came to a realization:

"When I am faced with a 14 year old girl, pregnant and unmarried, how can I be pro-life without being willing to come alongside this 14 year old girl and help her learn how to become a 14 year old mother?"

That's about as close to a direct quote as I could get....I wanted to stand up and say thank you for putting into words far better than I have ever been able to figure out how to, exactly what has always bothered me. I get frustrated (with this issue specifically for some reason) that we seem to condemn young women and girls who find themselves in this situation....regardless of the choice they make...Make the "Pro-life" decision to keep the baby, and be ostracized and condemned for being pregnant out of wedlock...Make the "Pro-choice" decision to have an abortion, and be ostracized and condemned for having an abortion. These girls are in a no win.

Unless we choose to come alongside them and walk with them into and along a path that doesn't seem to have clear-cut, easy decisions.

I had to go to his late-night talk back session to hear more, and I am glad I did. He talked more about the community he lives in and answered some of the questions I have wondered: How do you just do what you do? What about issues of safety? Do you ever feel like you have been taken advantage of?

It was good stuff. Challenging stuff. And I am still thinking about it. I feel like I have so much more to think about and process. But it's been great so far.

And by the way....I love this city.

NYWC Session 1

As ridiculous as it may seem, the thing that stood out to me the most from the first session at YS was Joe Castillo. Joe Castillo is a sand artist. I had no idea what that even meant when they introduced him, and to be honest, I was a little skeptical about what he was doing. But then I sat and watched him tell the story of the Prodigal Son through sand art. It was incredible. It left me in tears.

You can watch it here

Not everyone learns the same, or is affected by the same things. What if someone has come to church every Sunday in their life and still hasn't really gotten it? There has to be a way to reach them. What if we started using the arts in different, out of the box ways? What kind of change might take place if we stop doing what we've always done, take a risk, and try something new.

It was incredible.

NYWC Nashville

This week I am in Nashville for the National Youth Worker's Convention put on by Youth Specialties. It has been a great trip so far with the exception of me being sick since it started (I go between sounding like a man, to no voice, to incredibly squeaky....It's been entertaining.)

I am so thankful that right at the outset, the first thing Mark Oestreicher said in the first session was "make this event what you need it to be." Don't go to all the sessions and seminars. You will be ragged by the end if you do. It's hard going into something like this with that mindset, because I am the type of person who wants to get as much out of it as I can, so to me that means "hit as much as possible!!!"

But after the second session tonight, I feel like already in just the few hours worth of seminars and sessions, I have so much to process and think about that I'm close to overload. So tomorrow morning, I'm processing. No seminar, just processing. Maybe I'll spend some time in the prayer chapel too....

I'm excited. I'm fired up. And my mind is racing (despite the fact that it's 12:30 in Nashville meaning it's 1:30 back home. I definitely have more to say about the sessions, but it will have to wait. I am going to try to shut my brain off for awhile and sleep. More processed thoughts to come.