Jubilee....wow

So I've been to conferences before, and knew what to expect from them, but this one was different. I kind of knew what Jubilee was about, and my mentality going into it, was "ok, let's see what they have to offer and is this going to be useful for student leaders at Geneva?"
For as strong as my faith has been, you can never underestimate the power of God and how convicting he can be, through the power of worship, and through his people, people who are living for God everyday and doing really cool things for him.

The conference overall was a good reminder of the reformed perspective, which I think was the coolest part for me. Most Christian conferences are all about the heart, and the emotion, and the Love of Jesus Christ, which is important stuff, no doubt. But Jubilee was all of that on top of how to actually live it out. So for those of you who don't know what the heck I'm talking about when I say the reformed perspective...the basic gist is that we are called to be stewards of this earth while we're on it now, and make the most of it. To engage the world and its different cultures, intricacies, and crevasses...and live life for the Lord. The reason for this is because reformed believers think that the earth that we live on now, will eventually be the new heaven, and we as believers will roam the earth as it was originally intended i.e. before Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge. So we're not just waiting to go to heaven, but waiting for Jesus to come back to the new earth.

Ok, so how do you live life for the Lord on earth now? A earth that is broken, corrupt and full of sin. Good question, and I was reminded of the answers while at Jubilee.

Steve Garber who I was introduced to during the my time as a fellow, reminded me about the story of vocation. Faith shapes vocation, vocation shapes culture. We all have something that we're passionate about, injustice, starving children, AIDS in Africa, or maybe it's something more simple like music, architecture or education. Whatever it is, we're called to be a light of Jesus Christ, in the passions that we have no matter what we're called to do.

Bob Goff the CEO of Restore International who Donald Miller talks about in his newest book, is a crazy, crazy dude. I'm smiling just thinking about him because in his talk, he made me realize that he is so crazy about God and trusts him so much, that he doesn't care about what people think of him, or that he can't do anything for Christ. He truly has his identity in Christ. Bob started a school in Uganda called Restore Academy. He brought students from all over the country which has been ravaged by a Civil War and a group called the Lord's Resistance Army, which kidnaps children and brainwashes them to persecute there own countrymen. He showed us a video of the students there and I wrote the following passage in my journal:
"How do students in Uganda who have gone through so much, have so much hope? Belief? They truly believe in power of Jesus Christ. Why don't we have the joy and hope that they do at Geneva?"

Mako Fujimora, again another person I was introduced to as a fellow talked about the verse "Jesus Wept" in John 11. Jesus didn't have to weep with Mary, but he did because he loves us and wanted to be a part and experience what we go through. The pain and suffering that the Lord brings to us sometimes. Sometimes things don't seem rationale. When Mary broke a year's worth of perfume to wash Jesus' feet, it was not rationale, but it was a necessary extravagance. Mako talked about how as an artist he is sometimes criticized for spending his life as an artist, something that doesn't seem necessary to survive, but is an excess thing. But even though this excess thing that doesn't seem rationale sometimes, it is so necessary to experience the beauty of the Gospel and Jesus Christ. You know what I'm talking about, the picture or piece of art that moves you, or the movie that causes you to weep, or the song that clinches at your heart because it's exactly what you're going through and you didn't know how to express it in your own words, yup that is Jesus.

John Perkins....is the man. He is the face of racial reconciliation. He talked about 2 Cor:5. I've never looked at this passage before in the way that he revealed it to me. I don't even know how to write about it....but basically we're called to move away from what society has created, labels. The only label that we should live by is that we are saved by the love of Jesus of Christ, and to not use titles like black or white, republican or democrat, Baptist or Presbyterian. We CANNOT use labels as an excuse to not show God's love to someone, because they are "different". Why are they different? Because we make them out to be, but aren't we ALL created in God's image? And are we not called to love your neighbor as yourself? This is something I will take with me as I possibly pursue a job in Multicultural Services.

These are just some of the sweet things I was reminded of this weekend. Faith has legs, and we're suppose to live it out everyday.