GO. G-O, GO

I'm gonna be blunt here, and a bit vulnerable; one, because not many people are reading this yet. And two, because that's just how I do. I'm gonna start off little, and then GO big. Bear with me.

. . .

Honestly, I never have felt like rejection was a good thing until this week. It's not like it's great, and I'm definitely not super happy with it. But, it's been teaching. Without GOing too far into details, this past week I tried pursuing something that, all things considered, wouldn't have been ideal. Long story short, God, smart alec that he is ;), made me be rejected. It wasn't exactly a smack in the face, but it didn't pan out the way I had really hoped. And that bummed me out. You never like not getting something you're GOing after. But I realized afterwards, that God did it for a reason. This trip is coming up in barely over two months, and I already have enough distractions keeping me from being fully prepared. Trying to add one more would not have been smart. Unfortunately, that got me the hard way. But, you live and you learn, you know?


. . .


This past week was SOS, or Summer of Service. SOS is a youth conference my church holds once a year, where upwards of 1000 students from all around the worldgather together at our church, learn about God, and then GO and serve the whole city of Cincinnati, and outwards as far as we can. And this year was absolutely awesome. The theme was GO. GO. Something that's been running through my mind constantly. What are the odds that my church and youth conference would both have the same message for me? And that it happened to be the message that I've been needing the most? I'm definitely GOing for it.

SOS got me out of my comfort zone in a way I haven't been for quite awhile. If any of you know me, you know that my comfort zone pretty much spans a LOT. Not a lot makes me uncomfortable. However, I ran into almost all the few things that do at SOS this year. GO figure.

First off, there was the simple fact of meeting new people, then being put in tight quarters with them for five days. Don't get me wrong, I love new people. But I'm not the best at talking. I tend to end up blubbering and forgetting what I'm saying, then ending the situation with a preposition, or creating a run on sentence which makes everyone wonder where we're at. However, our group was pretty phenomenal. Even with all the new people, I had a lot of fun. And made lots of new friends.

Number two was GOing up and talking to/praying for people I don't know at all. That's something I'm sure a lot of people have trouble with. Yet, that's something that I have a CRAZY desire for. When I think of doing that, it makes me giddy. When I'm actually about to do it however, it makes me nervous as hell. But, throughout the course of the week, that was almost all we did. Since our motto's were "Get Over yourself", and "Man Up", I did both of those, cried a river, built a bridge, and got over it. And it felt awesome. I had so much fun, I can't even describe. I met so many new people, and it was a major confidence booster for me.

Our group ended up at an old persons home after an e2 outreach. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's this thing called "Experience Experiment". Basically, we go quiet, and just listen for God wants us to do, and where he wants us to GO. Then we GO. So, long story short, all our signs led us to Veranda Gardens Retirement Home. There were twelve of us, we had twelve roses, and we walked into a room with twelve old folks partying for one of their birthday parties. It was a crazy sign from the big Man. I got to talk to a woman named Lovie Bronson. She was absolutely cool. She had Asthma, and a cold, and was also missing a leg. But she was super happy, especially to see all of us. She happened to love music(and had apparently recorded an album), so, being the guy I am, I sang her a little bit of Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours". And she loved it. It filled my heart with a lot of joy talking to her. It was just little things we talked about. Music, cake, parties, her day, life. It was great. At the end I got to pray for her, and promised I'd be back soon. It was a blast, and great preparation for Germany.

Finally, I had to learn to talk to people with special needs.

I have a great passion for helping people with special needs. I love them all to death, and I think they totally deserve to be treated with the same amount of RESPECT as anybody in this world. However, my trouble with people extends over to them as well.

For the past two years at SOS, we've hosted this thing called "The Luau". In a nutshell, our church basically holds a huge party for all folks with special needs, who usually wouldn't have been invited to the parties. And it's awesome. I've always had a lot of fun. But I've never actually been an escort to a guest. And, knowing me, I weaseled out of it once again. If only I had listened to my leader.

I had a lot of fun though. I got to rile up the crowd, and get everybody pumped for our guests. It was such a blast, minus the almost dehydration and the loss of my voice.

Once that was finished, I headed on inside. There, I ran into my friends Malcolm and Christian, who were hanging out with their new friend and guest, Tracie. Tracie was a woman with special needs. I'm not sure exactly what she has, but the longer I hung out with her, the more it didn't really seem apparent. Like one of my friends said, she doesn't really have special needs. That's just what our society's standards calls special needs. Tracie was a really cool gal, with mad dance skills. She had extra sass, she was quite hilarious, and she "adopted" us all as her children. She was absolutely awesome, and I had an unbelievable blast with her. More than I could ever expect.

. . .


All this happened in four and a half days. It really did change my life.

I see now there's a war GOing on. God vs Satan. Angels vs Demons. Right vs Wrong.

God has called His people to be on the move, to rise up, to march forward, to make disciples of the nations. God has called us to Get Over ourselves, to man up, and to follow Him. God has called us to minister to His people, and show them His love. God has called us to GO. And I know for me at least, I'm RSVPing with an "Attending".