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| Costume Selfie |
It was so great to be back at WyldLife this morning! I didn't realize just how much I missed it until it was time to get up and go. I didn't know what to expect this morning since it is Halloween, but we had a great group of kids come out, and we had a blast!
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| The "Human Centipede" |
Andy Wright, one of our fearless volunteer leaders, came up with the game for this morning. It was called "Human Centipede." Kids had to link arms through their legs, and race as a team around a leader and then back. The goal was to make it the whole way without getting disconnected. Out of the five teams, it was only the girl team that was able to get this done, and they were rewarded handsomely with a bag of candy. As always, even though the game might not have gone exactly as planned, it was a blast.
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| I'll take a double double with fries and a shake. |
It was fun seeing everyone dressed up in Halloween costumes today. We had everything from batman and an In N Out employee, to Napoleon Dynamite and Wayne from Wayne's World. The leaders all got into it as well, Matt and Andy were the guy from "Castaway" and Wilson, Caitlin was a disco diva, Matthew was an 80's mobster, Grant was a flying squirrel, and I was a nerdy dad (didn't have to dig too deep to find that costume).
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| Right before things got crazy |
After the game we did a reenactment of a story in the Bible where Jesus and the disciples find themselves in a situation that seems like a scene right out of a modern day horror movie. I read Mark 5:1-20, and we had a bunch of the kids act out the different parts of the story. We had a few demon possessed guys, a couple gorillas, the disciples, a herd of pigs, and Jesus. It might not have been 100% accurate (pretty sure gorillas weren't in the story) but it was fun and the main story was still clear.
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| I love getting to talk about Jesus |
Now, as they are more than likely nervous because of what they just witnessed Jesus do, they come in the very early hours of the morning to shore. As they approach the shore, they hear a man, or it may have sounded like a beast, screaming. As soon as they get out of the boat, this man, bloody, wearing torn rags for clothes, clearly insane, and barely resembling a human being at all runs and falls at Jesus' feet.
Mark tells us that this man had been living in the tombs on the hills. The town had most likely exiled him there, and this man may have even felt more at home among the dead than the living. People from the town had tried to tie him up, but he would always break out of the ropes, and not even chains could hold him. It seems he had some sort of supernatural strength. The Bible says that, "Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones." This person was not normal, he was scary, he was dangerous, and he was on his knees in front of Jesus.
In front of Jesus he screeched, "What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God's name don't torture me!" This person, insane, frightening, stronger than rope and chains, was now begging for mercy at Jesus' feet.
Jesus didn't run, he didn't cover himself... he also didn't try to get rid of the man, or tell him to get back to the tombs where he belonged. Jesus did something I am certain I would have never thought to do. Jesus asked this man what his name was.
How is it that even in this scene out of a horror movie, Jesus is interested in the person. He didn't tell this man to get lost, he asked this man what his name was. What his parents named him when he was born. The town people had most likely forgotten this guys name. I'm sure they had more than a few names for him, but I doubt any of them were the name his parents gave him on the day he came into this world... they didn't care, he wasn't a man anymore, he was a problem.
But Jesus wanted to know the man's name.
The man's response goes to show that he didn't identify himself as the person he was before. He didn't even view himself as a man. He responded, "My name is Legion, for we are many." His identity as "Legion" shows that he viewed himself as a problem. He identified more with the demons possessing him than anything else. He identified with the problem he had become for the people and the town, more than with the boy who was born and given a name... but Jesus saw this man not the problem, and he wasn't scared, instead he drew near in power and love.
The demons begged to be thrown into a large herd of pigs nearby instead of getting cast back into darkness, and Jesus gave them their wish. As soon as the demons left the man, and entered the herd of pigs, the whole herd ran off a cliff and drowned in the sea. This is what it seems they wanted all along, death.
The man, on the other hand, was completely restored. When the towns people heard the news and came to where Jesus was, the man was sitting there, "dressed, and in his right mind."
I think this is where the story gets strange (because nothing that happened before this seems strange, right). The people were scared. They didn't welcome this man back. They didn't rejoice in the fact that this person was now healed and back to his true self, instead they were scared and asked Jesus to leave.
The man asked Jesus to take him with them, but Jesus refused. He told the man to stay and "Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you."
Home. Your own People.
I doubt this man had heard that in a very long time. For so long his home had been the tomes, and his people the demons that were tormenting him. But Jesus knew him, he saw this man, he saw who he really was.
Later in the Bible, they return to this town and find that people know who Jesus is and welcome him back. This man, this crazy, dangerous problem spread the good news of Jesus with everyone, and helped change the lives of the very same people who exiled him to the hills and tombs, and tried to forget that he even existed. The love of Jesus is powerful when fully experienced.
When talking with the kids this morning. I hit mostly on the fact that Jesus saw this person. He didn't see a demonic crazy barley-human thing, but a man with a name. Jesus looks at us the same way. He doesn't see us the same way others do. He doesn't see our faults, our failure, our fears or insecurities. Jesus looks at us and sees the true us. Jesus knows our name, and wants us to live out of the truth: that he knows us completely, and loves us completely. He isn't waiting for us to get our act together, he isn't waiting till we have changed enough to be useful, he loves us right now, the way we are, not the way we should be... because, as Brennan Manning says, "None of us are the way we should be."
This is powerful, and a person that has truly experienced the love of Jesus and let it sink down deep into their hearts is truly free to love people the way Jesus did. Once our identity is founded on Jesus' love for us, as we truly are, and not what others think of us, we are free. Free to live. Free to love. Free to enjoy God and all he has given us. Free to help others. Free to be honest and real. Free to be our true selves. God created you. He made you unique and you are a masterpiece. The world wants to destroy that masterpiece, and if it can't do that, it will do its best to make you believe you are imperfect, flawed, less-than, not right.
Jesus restores. Jesus brings life. Jesus brings truer love than we have ever known... and it is extremely powerful.
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