UP UP AND AWAY.

In a few hours, me and the bro will board a plane to head up to Scotland, where we will be hiking through the Highlands for two weeks. I'm sure that there will be many stories upon our return. I hope you have an incredible Easter, reflecting on all that this week means to our lives.

Much love to you all!
Aaron

HOT STUFF.

How could life be complete without sporting that furry upper-lip? Step back with me to a time when it was actually fashionable to see these men on the streets.

Transit's Mr. Mustache Competition 2007. No, I didn't win. No, I'm not bitter.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mustachecompetition/sets/
72157594583079712/show/

A BITE OF AN APPLE.

I hate the old cliche that says that it's the hard times that produce growth and strength and character and perseverance and blah blah blah...

I suppose it's true, though.

THE MESS.

Sometimes we realize that life is just one big mess.

Messy people.
Messy programs.
Messy lives.

As much as we hate to, we accept this and move on...

the best we can.

LIFE.

Last week I had a conversation with a friend back home. They were telling me how college life was difficult because of the lack of good relationships. They told me how they felt that they were misunderstood. They also told me that they feel like that is one of the most difficult feelings in life…to be misunderstood.

Today I found myself walking to meet with one of the big Transit leaders. I had been promised this meeting weeks ago and was looking forward to it since then. It was supposed to be a time of reflecting on Transit thus far, looking at this next term and then looking forward to the future. Sounded good. Trying to see how we could bridge the gap and make this course more individually catered.

As I walked, the reality hit me. Could the source of so many of my frustrations here be that I feel misunderstood? Could it be that I feel more like a project than a person? Less and less like an individual? Could this be the reason for the lack of life here?

One of the leaders of 24-7prayer has told us something that has really stuck with me in the past weeks. He was saying how there are 5 types of people in life: resourceful, teachable, important, nice & draining. The problem is that we spend most of our time in the Church with those last two. We must learn to instead surround ourselves with the first three. We must be with people who fuel our passions and visions. We must seek to be around those who energize us instead of drain us. This whole idea slams me in the face. I’ve completely learned the necessity of this in the last couple months. Note to self: remember this in the future.

So, back to the meeting, once again. It started with looking at how I’ve felt Transit has gone thus far. He already knew quite a bit of my past feelings and so I tried to focus more on the recent. In all honesty, I could talk for hours about the frustrations and how I think I’ve seen the good thus far. Today I couldn’t put much of it into words, though.
So, instead, I sat and listened to him tell me that he felt one of the biggest things for me was that I decided to stick this year out in the midst of difficulties. Being misunderstood. Are you serious?! I am not one who is about to quit simply to get away from the tough times. Again, I feel like a project instead of a person.

The meeting progressed and I soon found myself dumping my heart out. Ideas for the future. Dreams. Speaking of how lots of Transit has seemed to put ‘meat on the bones’ of those ideas. A mere twenty minutes had now passed. And the meeting was over. Misunderstood. Another thing to check off the list. A project.

I’m taken back to last spring. It was when I was really wrestling with ideas for the future. I found myself speaking with an individual about plans to be in Atlanta. Expecting some super-spiritual response from this particular person, I was taken aback when he responded in such a simple way. His advice was that choosing our next step in life must be highly influenced by the people we will be surrounded by. As simple as that. They must fuel our passions. They can’t just be ‘nice’ people.

So, how do we respond to this? I don’t believe that we can just choose to ignore those who are more difficult to get along with. We must still love them, despite the fact that they drain us. But, it is vital that we surround ourselves with those who understand us well…those who challenge and push us on. I’ve found glimpses of this in a few individuals here. But, man has it been difficult. To go from a place of having several deep life-bearing relationships to coming here and not being able to find these is tough. Being someone who is energized by others, this has killed me in many ways. And this may be one of the biggest reasons for feeling as if life has been squeezed out of me.

It’s a messy life we live. But I push on. With a lack of thriving, I search for new opportunities on my own. And things come. God provides. I will soon begin a project with homeless in downtown London. I’ll be helping teach these individuals photography skills and they will, in turn, document their lives in these homeless shelters. It will all end with an exhibition of their work.

Just as this opportunity looks ahead to mold me for the future, I ask for your prayers. Throughout the last couple weeks, I’ve been bombarded with thoughts about what’s next. I’m getting to the point where I feel that I need to decide on this. I don’t want July to come and I find myself sitting around with nothing to do and no direction to head. As for now, though, life goes on…

WHAT HAVE WE DONE WITH THIS KING OF GLORY?

As my fingers push down upon the slick white keys on my Mac iBook, I listen to the soundtrack from RENT through my matching iPod headphones that fit snugly into my ears. The story of RENT is one that seemed to radically affect my thinking over a year ago. It’s a story, in its most basic form, of love. A story of broken lives that find themselves in a community of starving artists trying to make it through life. Struggles with suicide. Homelessness. AIDS. The mess of life.

What is our response to this thing called life? Several days ago, we sat through a training block revolving around the theme of Christ’s incarnation. Our theology and approach to life must be centered on the life of the Son of God. All of Scripture revolves around this single life. The Saviour of the world came and stepped into every day life. Reflect on the events of his ministry. Think of how he gazed into the eyes of the lame. The lepers. The blind. The last and the least.

The entire Bible is splashed with God’s heart for the poor.

"Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of wickedness,
to undo the straps of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover him,
and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
Then shall your light break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up speedily;
your righteousness shall go before you;
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.'
If you take away the yoke from your midst,
the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,
if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
And the LORD will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.
And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to dwell in.” (Isaiah 58:6-12)

I’ve recently been flipping through the pages of a book entitled ‘Under the Overpass.’ It’s a story of two college-aged guys who set five months of their lives aside to go live on the streets of America. They went from city to city, taking nothing but what was on their back and a guitar. No money. Panhandling was a must. The pages of their story reveal a terrifying truth about the Church. The loss of love that is rampant in our everyday lives is being covered up by our comfortable programs that allow us to ignore the broken and battered.

So, what does it mean to live incarnationally? What should our everyday lives look like? I think it’s more than scheduling in a certain number or hours each week to go and take part in a certain so-called ‘ministry.’ We must make it our mission, as Christ did, to step into the darkness and be salt and light. We must be a transforming presence in the place we find ourselves. Life. Living. Love.

Let’s escape our comfortable suburban prisons. Let’s actually love the unlovable. Let’s reconsider what it means to be the Church.