Blind Spots

I would just like to say that I love watching trendy hipsters. I love everything about them. I gotta glean fashionable ideas somewhere, and weather its a do or a don't i'm learning I gotta love them.

That being said, I went to the hipster mega church explosion that is the Well last night. I had to work Sunday and just wanted to be fed somewhere. I normally don't like going there but last night was an exception. I've gone in the past to see what the big deal is about the new building, and the Pastor acts like a comedian and packs his sermons full of jokes about television that I don't understand, and unlike my own pastor his sermons have nothing to do with the greek translations or what was happening in Ephesus, and you can get the point. It's just a candid over coffee talk about God, which when told in relation to Jersey shore I just don't understand.

Last night was different though, last night a few main points just simply melted my face off.

The concept was simple, bad people corrupt good moral. His delivery was simple, don't hang out with knuckle heads, i.e. bad people.

That's it, that's what I learned. I sat there taking notes in my journal about how foolish I've been in many choices of my life, feeling really discouraged about the knuckleheads I've given so much value to. I felt like the absolute worst Christian in the world and I kept asking myself, who are you fooling, you're such a joke.

Thankfully I heard him through my writing, his next few lines were so, "You want to know if you're okay?"
Yes. Please, I'm freaking out.
"You'll know if you're okay when you're taking notes and realizing you're problems, and then turning to your friends and asking them if they see this problem in you, and whether they do or don't, asking them to pray for you."

He went on to talk about remembering 'old school theology' and responding to God appropriately, and living appropriately. He defined old school theology not as 'a John Piper idea but a Moses idea'. John Piper is an author who writes great pieces on God, and someone who I am currently reading and using to feel okay about my life choices. The fact that I should be looking to the original piece of literature, the Bible, to form my theology is an issue that I didn't' expect to be addressed that night.

After the sermon I promptly called my friends, who said they weren't busy and were looking for something to do because the cafe they were at closes soon. Upon my arrival they told me how they kept talking about what they would do at 8 because thats when the cafe closed and when I arrived, thankfully they were wrong in the cafes closing hour and we were able to sit and talk with each other and I could receive prayer for things that I've come to realize I have issues with.

I confessed to them my feelings toward the hipster mega church as well, and my good friend Carrie pointed out that the sermon wasn't there to condemn me as it was to point out my blind spots. That sometimes you can't see right away where issues of sin are sneaking in, and you need someone to come and show you them, no matter how simple the idea may be, no matter how basic the delivery or the lack of fancy greek definitions. Everyone has blind spots, and thankfully there are people who know exactly how to address them and get our attention at seeing them, no matter their delivery of the gospel.

Counting your gains against your losses

Tonight at the Rock's college group we had Senior appreciation night, where all of the seniors shared their bits of wisdom and insight that they've gained through their university experience.
I was speaking afterward with some girls, and one of our seniors brought up this concept of counting gains against losses. I've definitley looked at the pros and cons of a situation, but not very often do I look back and count my gains against my loses and base my future decisions accordingly. Of course I've made choices based on things that have happened to me, but to honestly look back and recount every aspect and try to move forward from there is to encompass much more than just a slight glance back. I'm talking about fully looking at every aspect of your life, and seeing where you gained things, and where things just fell apart, regardless of whose fault it was.

To look at every aspect meaning not just my schools scheduling choices, or how many units to carry. Which kinda has to do with how my grades are, which plays into how often do I hang out with people. My social life, who did I gain and who did I lose and how has it effected me. How is my family life, what have I gained and what have I lost. How is my walk with God, and how has it changed and what have I gained, and what have I lost. I got especially sad thinking about the friend part, because its never a good feeling to loose touch with friends. But a positive note was pointed out, that the friends that remained, were friends who continually built her up in Christ, and encouraged her so.

In my own life I can tell who has always been encouraging and who has loved me, and who has built me up and encouraged me. And then I can tell people who like me for other reasons that I feel like are a loss.

I really appreciated her invitation to count gains and losses against each other, and to look back and reflect. My time spent in the College group at the Rock has been full of so much growth! I've been a person who was sad all the time, to a person in a small group that changed my life, to that small group moving leaders and turning into a small church practically, to eventually being a small group leader myself.

The changes that I have made in my own life, and the gains I've taken on have been such a blessing. While at times over whelming, and showing me that there are still many areas of my life to work over I'm realizing that I'm shaping up to be something after all. It's most exciting to see, and it has been so exciting to be used to share what I've learned.

so far:
gains > losses