"Doesn't it taste like a trampoline in your mouth? It's just so fluffy!"

"To choose to celebrate in the world we live in right now might seem irresponsible. It might seem frivolous, like cotton candy and charm bracelets. But I believe it is a serious undertaking, and one that has the potential to return us to our best selves, to deliver us back to the men and women God created us to be, people who choose to see the best, believe the best, yearn for the best. Through that longing to be our best selves, we are changed and inspired and ennobled, able to see the handwriting of a holy God where another person just sees the same old tired streets and sidewalks." -Cold Tangerines

 

Usually friendship bracelet season doesn't come till the Spring but this year I've gotten on a kick and I don't think I'll be stopping any time soon. I love this act of creating, turning a pile of string into a pile of friendship bracelets. I love getting to surprise one of my friends or Young Life girls or students with a bracelet and seeing the look on their face. I love that something that seems so insignificant can actually be such a big deal.

I ran into Mariah, a Senior YL girl, at the basketball game tonight. She's on the Varsity team and had stayed to cheer on the younger girls. At first she didn't think she was going to be able to make it to Campaigners tonight because of homework but in about five seconds she changed her mind. "What am I thinking? I can't miss Young Life! I have to be there. Ok, I know what I'll do. I can write my papers on my phone while we're watching the game. Then I can study for math when I get home. I can't miss Campaigners."

I love that this is a place and a community that Mariah doesn't want to miss. This makes her life better. This is where she can grow and be challenged in a way that's different than most other places.

I love the rhythm of Campaigners lately. We greet the kids as they arrive and talk with friends. Then we have some sort of activity at the beginning that goes along with this Community theme of the month. We sing together and tonight I shared the story of how God is calling my friend Murphy to work with Bob Goff in Uganda. Then we split up into groups to talk about community, about forgiveness and being united in the ways of the apostles.

Tonight we talked some about "living a life worthy of the calling." My friend Lani has been called to work with social issues in South America. Riley and Hannah were called to do something about the needs of people they met in Ethiopia even while they're still college students in the States. I think that in this stage of my life I've been called to work with kids through Young Life, teaching and Tecumseh. I think that we're all called to something, that we've been given a passion for something. Sometimes it's huge and obvious, sometimes it's not. But God always invites us to be in tune with what he's doing.

Rob Bell says, "The song keeps playing. Jesus came to show us how to live in tune with the song. He came to show us reality at it's most raw, how things are. In his generosity, love, forgiveness. That's who God is. That's how the song goes.The song is playing all around us all the time. It's written on our hearts and everybody is playing the song. The question isn't whether you're playing a song, the question is, Are you in tune?"