The past three days have been fantastic. From Friday night until this afternoon, I spent my time meeting new people. New relationships formed and ones I'd begun were strengthened. From Friday night until this afternoon, I spent my time meeting God. Through worship, prayer, communion, and times of solitude I found a fresh expression of my most Faithful Friend.
In a way I never thought I would, I experienced God. This weekend was unlike any retreat I've been on in the past. Instead of spending the whole weekend crying - or "being moved" - as I have in the past at similar events. I spent this weekend focused, truly focused, on moving toward God.
I learned, through my actions (and a few times inactions), what it really it means to be moved by the Spirit of the Holy One. How did I do that? I moved. I acted. I served in a practical way. Because I served, I was also more intent on watching others around me serving. I realized how much I've missed the serving aspect of a community of believers. From such a simple act I learned so much about myself and my response to my Lord. Observing and assisting, communicating with and growing in love for one of my sisters in Christ gave me a clear picture of what the word "community" looks like in the kingdom of God.
Among various learning experiences all weekend long, at the end of the retreat we were asked to think of characteristics that the community of Axis should display. My contribution to that effect was to do with authenticity. I believe I stated it something like: "I believe Axis should seek to be a community of real people moving toward the real God." So many other characteristics were thrown into that mix that to list them would take more time than I have remaining in wakeful moments; but I believe at the heart of community, each person needs to commit to living in a real, vulnerable, and genuine fashion. In this way I believe the movement toward God becomes a true relationship. It is in this way that we can respond to Christ, the ultimate example of real genuine vulnerability. He surrendered everything - His very life - that I might choose to experience His grace. The absolute least I can do is be real; to serve the Servant whose blood has saved me.
Back in college, in 2004 when blogging was hardly even a thing yet, I was here. Blogging before blogging meant anything to anyone. You can look in the archives for my past writings, but it was much more like a journal in the past. When we started fundraising, I messed around with the idea of launching something new for this new phase of our journey but actually hated that idea. I am a sum of all of my life and so much of it is here already. So I'm keeping it here. At least for now.
My main focus these days is blogging about our newest journey into the bizarre and wonderful world of gestational surrogacy. Posts dated 2013 and forward will trend heavily toward that journey. I don't promise everything I write will be about though. There might be other things that sneak in occasionally.
Please come along our journey with us. As the saying goes, "The more, the merrier!"
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