Last night was the third time that I have attended an event held by EPIC, a U of A student church, and every time I go, I come out of it feeling a bit more encouraged, refreshed and motivated to hang on to God just a bit tighter.
The event was held at an acreage just east of Sherwood Park, and the evening started off with a lamb roast. Julianna and I were running a bit late, and by the time we got there, the lamb had already been roasted, taken off the spit and carved. A few of the guys actually had been there earlier to either help out or just to witness the slaughter and preparation. Many people mentioned that they don’t think they could have eaten it had they first seen the lamb alive.
(On a side note, isn't it typical for people to love their meat, but they would rather not have to think about the process by which it arrived on their dinner plate? However, if the consumption of flesh is so normal, and an integral part of being an omnivorous human being, then why does thinking about how the meat got there gross people out? Could it be that there is a sort of underlying, persistence guilt associated with meat eating that each of us harbor? Nevertheless, people, including myself, will continue to try their darnest to compartmentalize the aspect of killing from the eating, until I guess they become vegetarian. But I digress.)
After supper, I had a great conversation with two girls that I had just met. Literally within minutes of meeting them, the three of us had squeezed onto a swinging wooden bench overlooking a small lake surrounded by a dense, lush border of wetland greenery; and carrying on as if we had known each other for years. The splendid conversation aside, every time that I find myself in the countryside, I am struck by the idyllic, enchanting ambience - especially its ability to quickly draw out and dash whatever worries or anxiety that happen to be enslaving my mind and spirit at the moment.
Anyways, I had about 7 years on these girls, both of whom had just finished 2nd year. But I marveled at their maturity, and passion for God and life. One girl had already traveled extensively and gone on several short term missions trips, but what really impressed me was when we were discussing her travels, she said she was really hesitant to make any statements about the people and cultures that she has encountered.
“How can I only spend one or two weeks in a place, and think that I understand their culture enough be able to make generalizations or have an opinion about how they live?” she said.
I was utterly impressed. It’s not often that I meet people who can humbly realize their own potential biases and ethnocentrism, and acknowledge that our western worldview, at least aspects of it, might not be the only right worldview out there.
Following the lovely girl talk session, I joined in on a few rounds of 2-on-2 Picko-ball, a fun hybrid version of tennis and ping pong, which I had only discovered for the first time! I found it orders of magnitudes more fun than tennis, ping pong or badminton combined - all of which I suck at. But perhaps, a part of fun was that no one was taking it seriously and that we had spent as much time goofin' off and taking jabs at each other as playing the game.
At around 9 o'clock, we wrapped up the games of Picko-Ball and beach volleyball, and gathered around a camp fire to listen to the brief sermon, given by Aaron, an intern from Taylor Seminary.
Keeping in mind what we had for dinner, it was very fitting that his talk would be about Jesus, as the Lamb of God. Of course I knew of the parallels between the Passover lamb in the Old Testament and Jesus. But his talk got me thinking about extending the parallels between the Jews’ subsequent exodus out Egypt and entry into the Promised Land, and our Christian walk. Yes, Jesus is our Passover lamb and because of his precious blood, God permits the punishment of death to passover us, but the story certainly does not end there. Just as the Jews had to leave their old life in Egypt and journey towards the Promised Land, we must also follow God out of our old ways and lives, in order to enter into our new life with Him. Just has the Jews’ disobedience, fearfulness and belligerence kept them in the desert for much, much longer that was intended, my own spiritual stagnancy, and neglectfulness of God can keep me from living life abundantly and being able to bask in His full glory.
Another good reminder came up during the sharing time, when one girl had spoken about the fear and uncertainty that she felt over making decisions about her future especially since her graduation. She really just said she wanted to surrender her desires. The concept of surrendering is nothing new nor earth shattering, but it still resonated with me. Surrendering is a fundamental part of being a follower of God. It is often at the back of my mind, but not something that I actively practice all the time. Truth be told, I have not been surrendering my desires over to God lately; if anything, I have been holding them captive. I have been fooling myself into thinking that God doesn’t know or care about them, nor does he know how to deal with them, and apparently I can do a much better job by obsessing and micromanaging them. How scary that if I’m not careful, surely these desires and plans are bound to become my idols, won't they?
Her words, though so simple, was a powerful prompt for me to re-orient myself and to make an intentionally effort to hand over my desires and plans to God everyday. I find great comfort in knowing that we do hear His voice and will for our lives through the simple truths spoken daily by the Godly people around us.
More importantly, I praise him for being infinitely gracious, and lovingly relentless in working to transform me to become the person that He wants me to be.
