If you were sitting where I am right now, “glorious” would not be the best way to describe the weather today. In fact, you would probably look at me with concern for my mental well-being and quickly but quietly walk away. I live in Ohio and the weather today is typical: no sun, a solid sheet of clouds outside. Everything is cast in the most gloomy gray imaginable and it looks like perfect hoodie weather.
I say “looks like” because I haven’t been outside yet. I slept until eleven today, checked Facebook and was about to catch up on the latest episode of “Glee”, when my lovely friend Kaite from down the hall knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to watch “Alice in Wonderland” (the “new” Johnny Depp one) with her and some of our friends. I did, so I donned slippers, clicked out of Hulu, and now, five hours later, here I am still sprawled on one of the lounge couches, writing this post as four of my friends work on homework/creep on Facebook.
If you ask me, this is the most perfect day of my semester so far. I am entirely content, and my mind is in perfect rhythm for writing.
I love the people in this lounge with me right now. That’s saying a lot considering I’ve only known them about a month, but they are wonderful, beautiful people. I spent the weekend with three of them on a church retreat the past two days, which is why we are all so lethargic today.
If you’ve never been camping with a hundred or so teenagers, it is a good time. At least in my opinion.
Coming from a Christian background and actively participating in a church with an exceptionally large teen population, I can say without any exaggeration (okay, maybe a tiny bit), that I have been on close to a hundred weekends like this one in my lifetime. They’re always about the same: Too many people crammed into mini-vans getting lost on forsaken back-country roads, driving past corn fields and cow pastures, blaring an alternate of nuevo Christian music (that’s not a technical term, it just sounded good right there) and Top 40, and talking endlessly to distract a befuddled driver, finally arriving late at night in the cold and standing around shivering outside of cabins, clutching sleeping bags, while someone goes to check in. Then there is the chaos of unloading the vans and claiming bunks in rooms that sleep twenty or so by dumping bags, Bibles, hair straighteners, extra tennis shoes, and pillows/stuffed animals (even though we’re all “adults” here) onto your chosen bed.
This last bit is always a rush, because while you’re doing this, the band is setting up for worship. You know exactly when worship is beginning by the sudden, unrehearsed opening crash of the drums and assorted guitars. Then it’s the standard Hillsong United, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder covers; the guest speaker in jeans, polo shirt and sandals; and more music. Campfire, up all night and junk food until morning.
For the rest of the trip, between the pranks, hikes, ridiculous competitions, and tons of food, you get the greatest bonding experience of your life, and go home riding the Jesus High. It’s a feeling like none other and you hate more than anything to have to go back to the real world where people don’t understand what you’ve accomplished personally this weekend and how right everything suddenly is because of it. You want to grab everyone you meet and hug them and love on them to make them understand that you are 100% changed as a person thanks to the last 48 hours or so.
I have always struggled with this part of the experience. To go from being so high on life to dropping right back down in to the shallows of everyday existence is rough. It leaves you stunned. The weather in your soul kind of feels like the weather outside today. It is blank, but buzzing with an undercurrent of what could be.
The clouds could part and the sun could come out in full force, taking the day on a complete 180. Our they could thicken and heavy, and it could storm the rest of the day. There is so much potential. It could even stay the same until tomorrow when it makes up it’s mind one way or the other and becomes a distinctive weather day. Days like this don’t last. They’re purely transitional as far as weather goes, signaling the start of autumn.
This is the perfect weather for a day like today. This weekend I was the sun, burning bright and pouring out pure energy. Today, the fact that I’m back in the real world makes me a little cloudy and blue. Tomorrow I will have to choose a side. I can let what I learned and felt this weekend blow past me into the usual drear and storms of life, or I can keep burning and let the Son shine.
Hopefully, I will make the right decision, and with my new friends here, this week certainly has the potential to be clear and cloudless.
If you ask me, this is the most perfect day of my semester so far. I am entirely content, and my mind is in perfect rhythm for writing.
I love the people in this lounge with me right now. That’s saying a lot considering I’ve only known them about a month, but they are wonderful, beautiful people. I spent the weekend with three of them on a church retreat the past two days, which is why we are all so lethargic today.
If you’ve never been camping with a hundred or so teenagers, it is a good time. At least in my opinion.
Coming from a Christian background and actively participating in a church with an exceptionally large teen population, I can say without any exaggeration (okay, maybe a tiny bit), that I have been on close to a hundred weekends like this one in my lifetime. They’re always about the same: Too many people crammed into mini-vans getting lost on forsaken back-country roads, driving past corn fields and cow pastures, blaring an alternate of nuevo Christian music (that’s not a technical term, it just sounded good right there) and Top 40, and talking endlessly to distract a befuddled driver, finally arriving late at night in the cold and standing around shivering outside of cabins, clutching sleeping bags, while someone goes to check in. Then there is the chaos of unloading the vans and claiming bunks in rooms that sleep twenty or so by dumping bags, Bibles, hair straighteners, extra tennis shoes, and pillows/stuffed animals (even though we’re all “adults” here) onto your chosen bed.
This last bit is always a rush, because while you’re doing this, the band is setting up for worship. You know exactly when worship is beginning by the sudden, unrehearsed opening crash of the drums and assorted guitars. Then it’s the standard Hillsong United, Chris Tomlin, David Crowder covers; the guest speaker in jeans, polo shirt and sandals; and more music. Campfire, up all night and junk food until morning.
For the rest of the trip, between the pranks, hikes, ridiculous competitions, and tons of food, you get the greatest bonding experience of your life, and go home riding the Jesus High. It’s a feeling like none other and you hate more than anything to have to go back to the real world where people don’t understand what you’ve accomplished personally this weekend and how right everything suddenly is because of it. You want to grab everyone you meet and hug them and love on them to make them understand that you are 100% changed as a person thanks to the last 48 hours or so.
I have always struggled with this part of the experience. To go from being so high on life to dropping right back down in to the shallows of everyday existence is rough. It leaves you stunned. The weather in your soul kind of feels like the weather outside today. It is blank, but buzzing with an undercurrent of what could be.
The clouds could part and the sun could come out in full force, taking the day on a complete 180. Our they could thicken and heavy, and it could storm the rest of the day. There is so much potential. It could even stay the same until tomorrow when it makes up it’s mind one way or the other and becomes a distinctive weather day. Days like this don’t last. They’re purely transitional as far as weather goes, signaling the start of autumn.
This is the perfect weather for a day like today. This weekend I was the sun, burning bright and pouring out pure energy. Today, the fact that I’m back in the real world makes me a little cloudy and blue. Tomorrow I will have to choose a side. I can let what I learned and felt this weekend blow past me into the usual drear and storms of life, or I can keep burning and let the Son shine.
Hopefully, I will make the right decision, and with my new friends here, this week certainly has the potential to be clear and cloudless.
