today we started off with roofing school! which was a bit difficult, i have to say... but, we went to mrs. evelyn's house, who i got to speak to a few nights ago. we went over what materials we have to buy, how to install the drip edge, felt, and shingles, which sounds a lot easier than it really is. haha. but, i think i'm about 70-80% there, which i think is pretty good for not knowing anything about roofing. then we learned about tin roofing, and all the procedures to go about that.
after that, we had a little but of a break, and then lunch.
then it was time for us to film our safety video! our main "theme" so to speak was off of the mayhem commercials from allstate, incorporated into all of the arm rules. and we also printed out pictures of jessica and john who are away for the weekend and planted them in the background of each scene. it's really funny to our staff, but who knows how funny it will be to the youth... haha
anyways, after that we broke up into groups to work on various things we still need to flesh out for our evening programming. one of them being the communion drama, the group i was in.
arm has a tradition of a drama they do for communion, and it's kind of an interpretive thing with the bread and juice. the bread is symbolic of jesus, of course. but it starts out with him as a baby, to symbolize his birth. then he is baptized by sprinkling water on him. while this is happening, signs are being held up reading how jesus died for us and all the things he did in his life (for lack of a better explanation). then, water is poured into a cup which turns red, to symbolize his blood. finally, the bread is nailed to the cross, symbolizing the crucifixion.
our group was supposed to be practicing and learning the skit, but we came into an interesting and challenging discussion. one of the staff members expressed how he was uncomfortable doing the skit because baptism being symbolizes through the sprinkling of water versus immersion, as well as the idea of communion by intinction, or dipping the bread into the cup versus passing the cup around to drink. in his faith, he believed baptism was only "real" so to speak if you are submerged in water, as it is shown in many scripture passages. coming from a faith where i was baptized by my methodist grandpa by being sprinkled with water, i did become a little upset. i hate to "criticize" someone for their beliefs, because we are all raised in so many different ways, but i couldn't help but defend myself in saying i felt my baptism was very real and meant the same thing as any other baptism. then another argument came up that how could it be a baptism if i'm not confessing my own life to christ because i am too young to know better, being an infant. but, i went through confirmation and was able to affirm my faith and my beliefs in my own way.
in some ways, i do believe maybe i should have matured a little more before that, as i've been through plenty of ups and downs in my faith since then. but, haven't we all? isn't that was a relationship about god is all about? a relationship is full of fights, struggles, good times, bad times, confusion, trust, doubt, everything. and if that is what i believe a relationship with god is, then i have without a doubt had one with him, whether it's been in time with my baptism and confirmation or not.
this also led to whether or not intinction was a proper form of communion, because it again technically is not exactly how it is done in the scripture.
(side note: i am not saying any one way is right at all, i believe everyone is free to believe whatever their faith pulls them to and it's right for them. this is just how i personally feel)
in the book searching for god knows what, there's this whole section about how we're wrapped up in the "logistical" and "rule" part of the bible. we all have this set list of things we must abide by, and if we don't, then we aren't true followers of christ.
this conversation reminded me of just that.
why are we all so wrapped up in how we do things, and whether or not it is exactly set out like it was "supposed" to be implemented?
if our hearts and minds are in the right place, and we are doing this in remembrance of god, to commit to god, for god and to live for god, isn't that all that matters?
if the god wanted us to do things based on formulas, then the bible would have written out those formulas. we wouldn't have scriptures that could be interpreted in our own ways and writings that made us think about so many different thing.
in the end, doens't god just want us to glorify him? in whatever form that may be, does that really matter?
after that discussion, we moved back into final evening preparation.
i won't go into all the little details, but our mail point is this:
based off of matthew 7, god is calling us to go to him for all of our struggles, opportunities, etc. we are meant to first ask for him to be in our lives and ask for his presence in all that we do. once we ask, and make this initial surrender, we are to seek out those opportunities he is putting in our lives to serve, to grow closer to him, anything. and finally, we are supposed to knock on those doors we are too afraid to knock on and just surrender everything to him. we can trust god because he will never deceive us or lead us down the wrong path. but he has presented us with opportunities that we must take because of this trust we can have in him
that's a little bit of a rough summary, kind of very rough, but it's made me think about any risks i've been willing to take in my life. have i ever surrendered everything i had to god and gone that extra step, knocked on that door, and led myself to a place god intended for me to give all that i had?
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