The Doing's

So my life for the past couple days has been quite the whirlwind. Filled with adventure and turmoil, joy and pain, nights and days, experiencing the presence of God and the limitlessness of man. Through it all I have seen the goodness of God. I have experienced His love to the fullest. I have danced with my daddy to whatever tune played. Let me explain...

Exactly one week ago from today was Jesus Culture Redding. A group of us fearless leaders took about 25 10-12th graders to California for the best youth conference that exists! Let me tell you what an adventure it was. It took us a ridiculous amount of hours, driving in the stuffy white vans to finally reach our first destination: Medford, Oregon, where a loving church had opened their doors for us to spend the night. All of the girls slept in one room on the squeakiest cots EVER. If you even breathed through the wrong nostril these cots let you know about it. But we got over the noise because we didn't sleep there long anyways...just a short three hours. A nap really because then it was off to Redding.

Now I went to California with high expectations. I hoped to leave the dreary winter behind me and pursue a life of warmth and flip flops. Surely the Lord did not want to withhold one good thing from me on this trip...but to my dismay there was no warmth. There was no sun. There were no beaches anywhere in sight. There was only snow...lots and lots of snow. Five feet of snow easily graced the banks of the passes as we drove through them. We were all dumbfounded because of course we start to slowly die when we get a mere three inches. You can only imagine what five feet of snow was doing to our nervous systems!! It wasn't pretty. But at he same time it was beautiful. Snow, I have decided, is one of the most beautiful things He created- perhaps that is why purity is linked to the whiteness of snow. But we finally emerged from the treachorous mountains and into the heart of our beloved city Redding.

We checked into our hotel at about 1 in the afternoon. We showered and took naps and got ourselves ready to experience the "Jesus Mosh Pit" as we like to call it. We went to JC and unfortunately our group had not checked in on time and the main convention center was sold out. We were stuck in the overflow room which actually took place at the church. There was live video feed of Dutch Sheets...and to our amazement, live video feed of worship. Now somehow they expected us to worship to tvs. We didn't really know what to do with that. Our stage was empty, our stage was bear...people had flooded the front to the "Jesus Mosh" for what??- to watch the t.v.s of Kim Walker leading worship 10 miles a way from us. Hmmmmm....definitely the most interesting worsip experience I have ever encountered. That kind of put the whole night on a interesting foot for me, and if I am honest that night I didn't get much becuae I shut myself down. All I remember from that night was traveling to my beloved IN AND OUT afterwards to have my much awaited, much drooled after DOUBLE DOUBLE ANIMAL STYLE!!!! Enough said...

The next morning we eagerly awoke and headed to the conference, wondering what they had planned for us that day. To our great delight they had arranged for Brian and Jen Johnson to lead worship- which was AWESOME!!! And then we went into workshops. There were two workshops, I don't quite remember the first one but the second one was awesome. The second one was led by a youth pastor named Scott who was absolutely hilarious!! He spoke on healing evangelism and it was awesome. We had all heard it before but he made it sound new and refreshing. And he let us encourage him by saying "milk that cow" or "shake that tree"- those lingoes have indeed stuck with us so that whenever we hear some good preaching you may hear some youth pipe up saying "MMMM MILK THAT!!!" Oh Good times. That afternoon we got Dutch Sheets- up close and personal. He talked about Revival!!! COME ON. He released us into our destinies and called out the passion in us. There is just something inspiring when a father figure calls out destiny in the generation under him. Its powerful and cannot be stopped by any force. He talked about how God is an everlasting God...meaning He doesn't only see what is ahead He also sees what was in the past. He can take any of our mistakes, any of our shames, any of the things we wish we could take back- He can go back and change those!!! He is not bound to time. He is not a man that He is subject to our faults. He can erase our past and put us into our destiny becuase He is an Everlasting God!! Nothing is to big, nothing is to great, nothing is impossible for HIm. We have no excuse not to create revival in anything and everything we touch!!!!

That night was when the fire came!!! Up to that night I had experienced the Lord in a very deep and sobering way. Sometimes when you realize that the Lord is in love with you, you can't move, you can't breathe, you can't talk, all you can do is sit and enjoy Him. And that was where I was until Saturday night- just enjoying the presence of the Lord and giving my all to Him!! The theme song of the conference that they sang over and over was "You Won't Relent" by Misty Edwards. That song rocks me! I hear that song and I can't do anything but fall on ym face before the Lord. "You wont relent until You have it all, my heart is yours....I'll set You as a seal upon my heart, as a seal upon my arm. FOr there is love that is as strong as death, jelousy demanding as the grave and many waters cannot quench this love!!...Come be the fire inside of me come be the flame upon my heart! Come be the fire inside of me, until You and I are one" And I would listen to it over and over again and just let the Lord take it all. And it was deep and it was cleansing and it was healing and it was beautiful. But the Saturday night was when the Lord let me get drunk!! Because we were in overflow we had all the School of the Supernatural students ministering to us and we were wrecked. I just remember sitting with Rose up in the front saying "God would You invade us...would You wreck us??" And He came and when you experience joy like that, love like that, you cannot and never will be the same. Its AWESOME. Whats more awesome is that its not an emotional high. Its not a weekend conference that we go to and never experience again. God is the same everywhere. His joy is the same. His love is the same. He's not a bigger God in Redding than He is in my room. He doesn't grow because of conferences. He is the same!! He is everlasting!! When I encounter God...that encounter sustains!! And its awesome!!

Three days ago i was in the ER experiencing something I hope to never experience again. But tonight I choose against my pain and went to homegroup and you know what I found out- God is the same. He doesn't change. He loves us. He cares about us. And He is GOOD! The timing might change, the setting might change but He doesn't. Just because in the last song you were swing dancing, and the song before that you were waltzing and now you are just slow dancing doesn't change the fact that you are dancing with your Daddy!!!