A Gifted Response / Checking Out of Civilization

Hey friends! I'm starting work at Kingswood Camp this Monday May 23rd and will be there - weekends excepted - until near the end of August. It’s almost time for me to bring the Kingdom into canoes, cabins and forested canopies. Over this last year I've been so privileged to both continue and begin many relationships, branch out into exciting new avenues of ministry, and live out the bachelor dream with a houseful of fellas all while traversing the frontiers of social media - making a few posts now and then. The love has been real and will keep getting stronger!

But in these last weeks, I've been gradually narrowing my circles and spending a lot of time tending to my soul. Getting well-grounded is essential preparation for over a month of work and life with a very small group of leaders. Taken together, my jobs as Worship Director and “Maintenance Man of God” will engage my entire being and I want to wholeheartedly enter in. So with that said, I want to apologise for missed connections, unfulfilled plans, delayed replies, ignored invitations, and other symptoms of my search for tranquility in the Lord. Thanks to so many of you, I'm experiencing such a kaleidoscopic richness of support and community going into the summer - we’ve been doing some serious churchin’!

If you think of me, say a prayer for the camp kids as well!

And if I could leave you with any one thought, it’s this:

I don’t understand why life seems incredibly unfair for so many well meaning people; I hope if things ever took a turn for the worst I could still say this with conviction - but believing as an axiom, and seeking to implant deep in my heart that God is actually, truely, unconditionally, unsearchably good - loving ~everyone~ and desiring all people to be saved [1 Tim 2:4] - has cemented the most transformative change to my cognitive and spiritual architecture since accepting Jesus as Christ as an adult. People really really matter. And it’s not up to me to figure out all the hows and whys, to develop the right philosophy or theological system: it’s a simple gospel, and we have to keep it that way. For the sake of the children.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Gal. 2:20 [ESV]

Thus, I stand in agreement with the self who penned this first line of my 2016 journal:

Everything I do from here on to the rest of my life is a
Gifted Response.

Here's the **extended version** from one of the most astonishing and powerful gatherings at Bethel Church. Five saturated minutes where silence breaks into free expressions of worship, unmediated by the band. I see it as a picture of Heaven: when in such a vast building, under a powerful, charismatic leader like Jeremy Riddle, the Spirit can guide the worship team and congregation into one body, offering to Jesus unashamed, undivided adoration.

Catch Me Up In Your Story

Five months ago today I was flying back to Halifax from Toronto. Early morning in the lobby while waiting to board, I was refreshed being in the presence of Martimers. The tone of the banter and the cantor of the chuckles practically begged me to join in and make a connection. With each miniscule step in the cavernous terminal magnetically drawing me to the less-than-full service Tim Horton’s, bonding with a random Bluenoser over the lack of breakfast sandwiches popped a blister of pretention that had been festering for my entire week’s stay in the Centre of the Universe.

Rather than feeling drained from over stimulation, I was starved for meaningful engagement.

Don’t get me wrong, my hosts were incredibly gracious. I had a private room in a swanky home, free range of an expansive kitchen, a giant cat to hang with - perks abounding. My sister did her best to point me toward touristy attractions tailored to my taste. The AGO made me sit up and appreciate Canadian Art while the ROM splashed millennia of antiquity ‘round every corner. But alas! I hadn’t a guitar, nor any other instruments with which to warble out a heavenward plea. My cries were silent.

Looking back, to say that the highlights of my trip were three coffee dates with friends from home sounds incredibly mundane. But it is true. I had the best Americano Misto of my life at Dineen’s on Bay Street. And spurred by these various brews, the depths of conversation with the best kinda folks were wells of life. Okay, so I’m not a city kid. I grieve at the sight of thousands of people walking around as if they were in invisible cocoons. Touch not, speak not, hear not; where a friendly ‘good morning’ is met with a stare to the ground. No, I don’t take it personally – but this is an allegory:

Wherever conversation can organically percolate between strangers, there is an opportunity for a healthy culture to develop. Yet, wherever culture shuts down spontaneous conversation there is a pall of gloom.

Thus, we arrive at this post’s original raison d’être, which I owe to a message delivered by Grace Han one Friday night in Acadia’s Chapel basement. Coloured by my interpretive flair, the key point is this: in our walk of faith, where we find ourselves at fork after fork, we have to realize that God is already at work down every trail. He’s doing stuff. Our response to this humbling awareness is then: “How can I join in on what You are already doing?” Maintaining this perspective has the potential to shift our focus beyond our individualistic quests for purpose.

For we can be so caught up in the madness of trying to shape our souls into perfect spheres when all the while, God is carving our rough edges into the links of puzzle pieces. Instead of standing isolate, we must tessellate.

So with today’s meditation, I sing:

“Catch me up in Your story, all my life for Your glory – my God, my joy, and my delight.”