Philly Love, pt. 2

Sorry it took so long to get to this in. But there is quite a bit to say about the spiritual side of my Philadelphia trip. There was so much immaturity (as explained before), but there was a time for seriousness and God. Because, after all, what is – or should be – the most important thing?

The basic schedule for every day would go something like this: Wake up, be at breakfast at 7:15, be  at the worksite from about 8:20ish – 2:00, get something special (e.g. Italian water ice, snacks), wait until our turn for showers, ‘huddle’ with church group to talk about the day (our church split into two groups), free time, dinner, and then club. Although I’ve had things that have come close, club was something very different than my previous worship experiences. There was a rock band playing worship songs, and people just being more on the wild side for God. I like that – when people aren’t afraid to raise their hands, or do whatever they want. My church is more stoic, if you will – they just stand there. I’m not saying that they don’t mean what they sing, but I find it much more meaningful and freeing in a way when people raise their hands, so that you don’t really have to be restrained to keeping your arms at your side and every now and then clapping to a more upbeat song.

But club was a crazy (good) wild. They played one of my absolute favorite worship songs – 10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) by Matt Redman. I prefer it to a more acoustic guitar version ‘as written’, but it was interesting to hear it the rock way too. Back to the point… after the worship part, there would be a kind of pre-speaker, and then an actual speaker, who was different every night. The pre-speaker was one time a guy who tells stories as a profession, I think, who told us a story (shocking I know), to give you an idea. The speakers were amazing. The first night, the director, Ray (who I mentioned in the previous post), gave the talk. He discussed being ‘right’ – right with yourself, God, and others. Are you? Have you been? Are you moving in that direction? You need to be right with yourself first, however, to be right with anyone else. The next day, a guy came to talk about being ‘foolish for God’. Not the stupid foolish. But the non-conformist foolish. The kind of person who doesn’t care about what other people think, because they are too busy caring about being God’s child. So worship foolishly – be unrestrained, worship God how you want to because it’s Him. Be foolishly generous – the speaker gave a challenge: before you die, give it all away. Splurge on strangers. Instead of being scared of pan-handling homeless people, generously give. In order to change your life, God gave his life – can you give anything better? Be foolish with what we do with our lives – don’t follow what others think. But also remember that everyone is called to some kind of ministry, so find a way to do so, whatever path you go on. And remember: there will be different paths, but stay on the straight and narrow. The next night there was a kind of rapper guy who reminded me of this guy. His message was on justice and his main line was: “Shout the gospel even when no one shouts.” If you understand that Jesus died for your sins, your work will not be as difficult. Justice is about God, and God is about justice. Jesus came to serve the lonely, the needy, the lost – to serve justice. And if you understand God’ s love, you have to love him.

There were only three messages – the fourth night there was a barbecue and we had more of a church service, and the fifth night there was a come-to-God time. But I want to go back to the last message, the one about justice. Justice in this context basically means service and love – to everyone. In Ephesians 1:19-20, it says: “I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe in him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.” I think they should also add God’s love to God’s power, since it’s part of the reason he went down and back up again. If you recognize that, I think you will be more inclined to show God’s love to others, because you realized what he did for you. Like I said before – he gave his perfect son to die for all of us. We are so imperfect, and he did it for absolutely no reason. Think about that – is there any real point? We mess up every day, and if you run today through your mind, I’m sure there’s at least one point where you messed up. But Jesus came down anyways. And here’s the kicker: On that cross, as he was dying and suffering, he was thinking about you – and he thought that you were so worth it. I’m not trying to preach a sermon (although I think I just did!), but that’s kind of the reason why I love Jesus. Christianity is the only religion where the god comes down to become human, and dies for the people around him.

That week at Philadelphia was a week of discovering love – God’s love for me and for all of us. As I said in my previous post (A Swift Kick to the Butt, $1), why should we be slamming others for sinning differently than us? Or just being different than us in general? We should look at the world with God’s eyes. He gave so much for us – the least we can do is simply try to love him and his people the way he loved us. But I also found out that even when we mess up, we can think like Chicken Little: “Today is a new day!”

“God is love. He didn’t need us. But he wanted us. And that is the most amazing thing.” -Rick Warren

Philly Love, pt. 1

Yeah, I’ve been gone one week. So? A lot can happen in one week! I went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from Sunday until Friday on a mission trip. And although I have been on many a mission trip, this goes in the top two – can’t decide between this one, Philly, or 2010 in New Orleans.

This was AMAZING. Let me just say that. Because the most I could say would be an understatement. I have been to Philadelphia before – last year I had actually gone to Yeadon, PA, which is right outside of Philly, and we were close enough to get cheesesteaks in the city. But back to the point. We served with The Philadelphia Project (TPP), a project committed to bettering Philadelphia. We arrived Sunday in the late afternoon (late), after about a 4-hour car ride. We then went on a ‘prayer tour’, going around the city (not the main part but a slightly more suburban part), and being introduced in there, and stopping in praying in different places for the city.

We then went to dinner. It was actually delicious and homemade, considering the amount they had to make.  How to explain our first dinner – or any meal at all? So. much. energy. There were interns there that run on about four hours of sleep every night and somehow have the energy to be bouncing off the walls. My friends and I got to meet Will (names have been changed). My friend’s first reaction when she met him? She slapped him in the face! Will claims it was premeditated, and that she waited for about 2.5 seconds until she did. She asked him what his name was. “Will.” “Are you sure?” “Well, that’s what my mom told me…” I love my friends. He learned that I was a rising senior, and asked me what colleges I was looking at. I have two that are my top choices, and he told me that the director of TPP had graduated from one in 2009, and he was a rising senior in the other. I think I’m going to visit Will when I visit again this fall, among several other friends that also go to this college. Anyways, Will is extremely immature. However, he says that “I am so mature, I can afford to be immature.” He also states that “Jesus tells us to have faith like children. So why not just be children?” Well, it quickly became evident that Will was one of the many others who abided by this concept. “It’s a dog eat dog world out there!” was how he justified stealing people’s chairs. Michael would be singing (out of tune, mind you) to some random song. Alyssa would be screaming and high-fiveing kids were coming in.

Energy? Understatement.

Monday, the first full day, was also our first day on our worksite. We got there and it just so happened that Will was our worksite leader. We knew we were in for a some interesting times, to say the least. Our work consisted of several parts. We used a jackhammer and took out the front sidewalk of Mrs. Adams’ house, and then relaid concrete. We also took out cabinets in her kitchen, and almost finished laying a hardwood floor in an extension of her home. In addition to that, we sanded the ceiling of a bathroom (just a one-day job). The group that will replace us next week (or rather, the group that is currently working now) will be putting in the new cabinets, painting the bathroom, finish laying the hardwood down, and probably put a wall around the extension where the hardwood floor is, since there was no real one before.

It was really good work and I enjoyed it. But the thing I thought about was that it wasn’t all just doing good stuff. I have seen Facebook pictures of all these people going on missions trips, doing good things for different people. But are they really serving God? They’re not exactly what I’d call people with great character (not to be judgmental).  Every time I felt tired, didn’t really want to do it, or had to work through lunch – this was especially true when we were laying concrete, so it wouldn’t dry – I just thought, “We are showing God’s love to Mrs. Adams through our work.” I feel that we shouldn’t want to say, “I did a good thing by serving others”, but rather “I showed God’s love by serving others”.

There were some that were “here I am” rather than “there you are” people, but it we got a lot done even though we had some of those. “Here I am” means just doing the work that is asked of them, not really asking if they can do more to help. “There you are” people strive to see what the other person needs as well as meeting the needs of there own. Today, I encourage everyone reading this post to be a “there you are” person. If you fail, it’s okay. My work group would have gotten a lot more accomplished if we had more of those “there you are” types. So just try! I have my “Chicken Little Philosophy”. If you have ever seen or know the plot of the movie ‘Chicken Little’, Chicken Little is an extremely unpopular and small chicken who wants to live up to the world’s and his father’s dreams. Even though the odds are stacked high against him, he begins every day saying, “Today is a new day.” I’m going to mention more of my Chicken Little philosophy in my next post, but keep that in mind!

Next post: the more spiritual side of The Philadelphia Project.

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service to others.” -Mahatma Ghandi