Hope all is well in all your lives. Mine is very interesting right now. Unfortunately I cannot write about Youth this week because yet again the Kaleo schedule has inhibited me from attending youth. If anyone has has been keeping count I am up to seven consecutive weeks of being absent from my group of pretentious little 7th graders. Love those guys. BUT...I am not only going to youth this week, I am speaking at it! Sweet! It will be cool to talk about the bible to the whole group. It will be my first time talking about scripture to a group of people. I would definitely appreciate prayer so that I don't go up there alone; that would be a nightmare.
But to return to the opening clause of my title, we went surfing up at Tofino this past week. It was largely different from last time. We had a great long drive there stopping at a market and to climb some trees (subsequently Justin fell into a river). Upon arrival we perused the town, read some of our Christian Worldviews books and many sat around and played music. I chose to sleep as i was quite tired and knew that surfing the next day would require a great deal of energy. The next morning we went to a beach (I have no idea what it was called) and just climbed around. I personally had an experience with the divine. I stood and watch the waves crash violently against the jagged shore, listening to the deep bass of water beating upon stone and feeling a gentle breeze pushing at my back. I have been meditating on worship and music lately. It was incredible to witness such a performance. I use sound when I perform. Some even manage to marry sounds to visual entertainment and create a whole new dynamic of experience. God, however, created a beach that incorporates all five of my senses and brought my understanding of performing to a new plane. I felt the breeze, I smelled the salty, sea air, I tasted the crisp chill on my tongue, I heard the bass of the reckless waves and I saw the glory of God pounding water in triumphant blasts upon the rocks. I realized that nature can far out-perform me and that my feeble attempts to honor God with sound are not valued for ability, even the inanimate has more skill than I. Rather, before God my music has value for the heart it portrays, for the soul that it describes. God values my efforts, seeing my skill as the fruit of devotion. God would much rather hear devotion than a pop tune, at least that is how it seems to me.
Yeah after my euphoric encounter with the ocean symphony, I left and got ready for surfing. Surfing was not nearly as fun as last time. My toes hurt cause my boots were a size too small, the zone we had to surf in was so small that after fighting the inward flow of waves to get out to a decent depth, I was already out of bounds and had to then fight the undertow back in bounds. After i had then return to the proper lateral position on the beach I was then too far in to surf because the relentless waves had pulled me back. It was frustrating. I got up a handful of times but it was most unsatisfying. I didn't last very long.
The trip was cool because the last night there we opened the Kaleo door to a guys youth group and a local family. It was an interesting night of prayer, encouragement, great conversation, even a little scripture reading. It was cool to see how Kaleo opened up and shared with the other members of the church.
After I got home I read a really boring book called Engaging God's World and then I have been reading a really good book called Prayer by Richard J. Foster. He is a great writer and he has some God-given things to say. Rob Bancroft is arriving soon and I am excited to go see him. I will leave you all now. Can't spend too much time on blogs with only three weeks left in Kaleo. Cheers everyone.
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