The first was on our way through Alabama. In Birmingham we stopped for lunch with a friend who is (very obviously) engaged to be married to the wrong person. It was painful to watch her skirt around deep conversation and sweep up her fiance's statements that left her embarrassed. As we left that lunch the 4 of us talked about the beauty of living in God's plan and the heartbreak of conviction you feel when you know you are living against it. We began to discuss how living against Gods plan usually ushers you into a fight against being the person you were created to be.
Later that night as we entered Georgia we thought it would be fun to conference call our dear friend Jordan who wont be with us at camp this summer. We were elated when we found out that Jordan was actually only 20 minutes away from us and would be an easy pitstop to make on our way. It had been a year since we saw him last! Jordan is one of THE most unique individuals I have ever met. Unique because he unashamedly lives out exactly how he was created, offers no apology for the God he loves and serves, and because of these two things offers a ray of light to who ever passes in front of him. Oh yea, he's also one of the funniest people on the planet! Needless to say we were all bursting with excitement as we approached exit 12 to meet him at Starbucks! Just down the street from him I received this text "i legit wrote ya'll a song in 10 minutes to the tune of Katy Perry's "fireworks'' get ready. No physical touch until the song is thru..I'm waiting here for you... Presentation Style." As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, there he was with one of his buddies, guitar in hand ready to put on a show for us. Here's the link to the song he greeted us with....
In that quick 20 minute stop Jordan loved on us, encouraged us, made us laugh, and spoke truth into us. How anyone can do all that in such a short amount of time still baffles me! So there you have it, a boy who lives completely out of the box. Unashamed to sing in a starbucks parking lot at the top of his lung (i mean it does help when you sing like an angel.. but anyways..). It was a quick hug session and whirlwind of a catch up before we had to jump in the car again so we could hit our destination by midnight. As we pulled the car out of the parking lot Jordan ran to the window and asked if he could pray for our journey before we left. He's one of those people that have you dying laughing one second and then can't stop spitting off words of truth about God the next. There is usually no downtime and it's always 150 miles full speed ahead.
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| Guess who Jordan is :) |
As we drove away from our hangout the 4 of us again struck up a conversation. We couldn't stop beaming about how Jordan made each one of us feel... treasured, valued, loved and he made us laugh while doing it. When our team first met Jordan last summer I must say that we were offended. We approached him with a "who do you think you are" attitude. He talked about God non-stop and it was hard for us to not judge what we thought was a shallow faith. Quickly God grabbed our hearts and whispered to each of us individually "nope, this is how I created Jordan, this is how I made him and he is freely living in it, your agenda for him is not good enough." We reflected on the idea of 'maybe this is how we would feel if we were standing next to Jesus.' Its crazy how someone like Jordan can be so magnetic yet you don't find yourself starring at them thinking "i wish I was him", you find yourself saying, "I want the freedom you have, I want to know the Jesus that you live in and that lives in you."
Along this journey so far we have encountered many people living out their life very differently. Sadly many of them appear to have hidden in the shadows and turned their back on the journey God was/is beckoning them to. I do believe that we were created to worship and connect with our creator so I guess the question is more how were you created to do that? For myself, it's helped affirm that I am headed on this trail of life as a creator, artist, and dreamer. The moments I find myself en-lined with that heartbeat is the moments I feel like my heart is beating in rhythm with the one who made me. The only times where time slips away. I want to remember to often ask God to keep me connected to the way he's designed me, to feel my heartbeat so I can feel his, and to help others find their heartbeat in the process.
It was good to be reminded of that this week. I pray that your life is one that ushers you and others closer to the heart of it all.
To the adventure,
Rachael
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