Virginia is for lovers...

...and count me in love. Yup...although this isn't exactly new information for most of you guys out there that read my musings. However this weekend not only fortified my love of the state of Virginia, it expanded it greatly. 

For those who didn't know, I spent the weekend at Rockbridge hanging out with the Commonwealth Region for their Committee/Leader weekend. It was a really great time, and of course great fun to see a whole bunch of friends and spend time talking about life, Christ, and laughing. It was also amazing to meet a whole slew of new people, many of them from Virginia Tech, and to hear their stories and get to know them. I know the next time I head to Blacksburg it will almost feel like a homecoming or a second home at this point just because of the wonderful people that are down there. It wasn't just the people that made it a great weekend, but the God that we serve and who loves us. He revealed Himself to me in a bunch of great ways, and reminded me of His power, love, and Word. 

Now usually when someone goes on a leader weekend, especially at a YL camp, they come back and the common sentiment is: "That was the best weekend of my life!" This used to be the case pretty much every time I went on one of those, however for the past couple ones I haven't said that. That doesn't mean that they weren't amazing times, but rather I think it means one of two things. Hopefully the more positive one...

1.) My heart has somehow become calloused to the Lord's moving in my life, as well as my attitude towards people has soured and I don't enjoy hanging out with either God or people as much as I used to. (this is 99.9% not what's going on...)

2.) I have fortunately matured enough in my relationship with Christ that it is not dependent upon mountain top moments to get me through. Fortunately I don't think that I anymore have to ensure that they are big enough to get me to the next one. It makes my walk with Christ more constant and consistent, and hopefully gets me to a deeper level with Jesus. 

So in analyzing things I'm gonna go with the second option. Mainly because I feel quite close to Christ today and still, and it's not because of some afterglow of too much worship music. Christ is alive and real to me, moreso than before but not in a cheesy and artificial way that will fade. 

This is the first of a couple posts I'll have on this past weekend, and I'll make sure to let each of them sink in before putting up the next...thanks all. 

Wisdom of G.

Another thought from the weekend that has been oh so prevalent in my mind lately, is this one from the incredible Steve Gardner. On a side note, the introduction of Steve by Rick Scherr was one for the ages and one of the caliber that anyone and everyone would dream of. It was potentially though one of the most impossible to follow up as a speaker ever. Rick said that Steve had become known as the voice of truth within the mission of Young Life. Wow, I mean I believe it from knowing Steve for the last 8 years, but seriously? Across the mission? That's nuts.

Back to your regularly scheduled programming...

The thought that Steve brought to our attention was from the very beginning of the weekend and from the very beginning of his first talk. In fact, there's a a good chance that it wasn't even one that was very important to his talk and I know it definitely was not a main point that he built the talk around. However, it stuck out to me personally for reasons that I'm still wading through. Anyways, that thought was...

"Contrary to the world's view of maturity, becoming mature in Christ is not a process of becoming more independent but rather a process of becoming more dependent upon Christ."

How crazy is that and how contrary to the world is that? The truth there will blow your mind, and the accompanying thoughts will probably make your nose start bleeding. Think about it this way: when you talk to someone who is much older than yourself in Christ, that has been following Christ and seeking God's will for their life for a long time, this telling maturity factor really is quite evident, much more so than you would think. They depend upon God for everything: life, breath, money, food, love, grace guidance, everything. It's incredible and beautiful. This is where true freedom comes in, the freedom in Christ that we love to talk about and yet so often fail to grasp. Freedom doesn't come from being independent and making our own choices to follow our earthly desires, it comes from becoming completely and utterly dependent upon the Lord and following His desires for our life, the life that is actually His.