Take Three

OK, so I've lost all this twice. Let's see if I can continue my charmed existence. Ooh, my leg fell asleep... sitting normally, too.

Anyway, I went to Louisville, Kentucky, with David for the New Attitude 2002 Conference. Starting from the outside and going in, let's just say that Looavil isn't high on my Honeymoon Destination List. The flights to and from were quite good, actually. Props to Continental Airlines and God for being really cool and getting us through even with close connections in bad weather. Flying did take 8 hours each way, nearly half the time of driving straight, though the bad weather on the return day would have made that miserable (that's what we originally wanted to do).

Anyway, once in Loovul, we took New Attitude's shuttle to the Hyatt, where we had reservations. We stayed there the first night, but were invited to join a friend of David's (and now of mine) for the remaining 2 nights in a suite for 2 that already had 5 guys at the nearby Galt House. Actually, he didn't mention the other guys when he invited us, so it was crowded, but cheap, cheap, cheap ($12.50 a night). So we had a lot of fun crammed in there, stayin' up late, debating theology, ordering pizza, and sleeping on the floor.

The conference itself was even better than the hotel rates and the social life! New Attitude is an annual Christian event for young singles. It's led by young author and pastor Joshua Harris, of I Kissed Dating Goodbye fame. He introduced the first speaker - his own pastor, CJ Mahaney, an excellent speaker. CJ opened right up with both barrels, coming from I John 2:15-17, a passage condemning worldliness. We are not to love the world, that is, we must not participate or entertain ourselves with the world's rebellion against God. The threat to our generation of Christians in the U.S., as CJ said, is seduction by the world, not persecution. The next morning Josh picked up where CJ left off, applying the passage practically to our contact with the media. His two main points were the errant (but widespread) beliefs that "Half A Poison Pill Won't Kill You (so take one every day)" and "If You Don't Enjoy A Calorie It Won't Make You Fat," and he encouraged us to look at our media habits and give up what is hurting us. Josh spoke later that day, on the basic spiritual law of sowing and reaping. He connected the principle back to the last two, showing how our worldliness is sowing small seeds of destruction (Galatians 6:8) in our lives, and when we make habits of indulging our fleshly desires it can add up pretty quickly. And then there's the opportunity cost: we could be sowing into the Spirit's "field", and reaping a "Harvest of Holiness". That really resonated with me, and with many, many others, and I personally am revising my daily routine and mindset.

God is really cool. Looking back, I can see how He wove many themes into my life, inside and outside of me, culminating in the message at the conference. My post below entitled "Dressing Up" is one thread of that, and my long-growing realization that my spiritual life has become dry, and I have become like a stereotypical old person: more experienced, wealthier, etc, but much less alive than a young adult, despite all the latter's many flaws. I'd ceased to grow - I wasn't backsliding, but it seemed to me that my spiritual Man grew at the same pace as my physical body: hardly perceptable the last few years. As a mid-teen I was tangibly more spiritually mature - and physically taller - than I had been the previous year. Now? Well, I just don't see that much difference between now and a year ago - seriously, my education seems to be the only thing advancing, and that right slowly.

I'll continue this tomorrow - or, should I say later today: it's 00:03 already :-( and I have to get up at 06:00.