My summer camp experiences have come to a close so I will be chronicling some lessons and/or insights I gathered. I am on the road headed to Southern so I have limited writing time which is why I am sharing a video today, but my last two stories can be found here and here. Very rarely do I feel satisfied with the way a video of mine comes out.
This one made from the footage compiled from the Teen Track Vespers program highlighting the 2015 Kulaqua theme is a rare moment where I almost feel satisfied. Almost.
But I like it enough to share it, so I encourage you to watch and share!
[embed]https://vimeo.com/132170377[/embed]
The Poem:
Inside the human heart lies a root desire: To be. Behind the faces around us, there is a yearning to be everything & anything that will satisfy our hunger for affirmation, attention, and pleasure. To be strong & independent, To be beautiful & accepted, To be intelligent & witty, To be known & loved. We are all good at manufacturing personas & identities that will reward us with the human attention we crave. And it is the sin of the religious heart to transfer these desires into Christian spirituality. We decide that by our own existential power, we will be enough. We will be holy, pure, and perfect and like the ancient Israelites, we strive to do the will of God by our own strength. We build our own isolated kingdoms of heaven & ask the Almighty, like a child asks a parent, are you proud of my good works? But the clenched jawline & the clenched fists of the legalist will always end in burnout. In a breaking down & breaking apart... Thus, the healthy Christian lives a paradox: we are the light in the same way the moon is the sun. We can be nouns in the same way adjectives will function as nouns in an English sentence. We are flames in the same way a match becomes fire when it draws near the source of heat. So let us create these pockets of illumination, these communities of light bearers who do not confuse the light that shines through their hearts with their own glory. Rather, let these light bearers walk in and through the darkness proclaiming the name of the One who has shone in their hearts: Jesus, the Christ. And with joy, they will sing for they have found what they were always meant to be.