Aquire The Fire...or a latte

Crazy go nuts weekend. At each individual moment I knew exactly what I thought, but taking it all in as a whole...I have no idea.

I didn't arrive in a great mood. We'd gotten lost and we were late and I had the world's largest headache. The praise band had already started when we got there. We climbed up, up, up into the nose bleed section. I am terrified of heights.

After we scooted past the people who arrived on time one of the highschoolers asked me if I could feel it. At first I thought she meant the way the ground was vibrating, but since it was impossible to not notice, I wasn't sure what she meant and told her so. Her eyes got wide and she said, "The Holy Spirit!"

Dizzy? Check. Grumpy? Check. Holy Spirit? No. Sorry.

The theme for the week was "Branded by God". They talked alot about how the clothing you wear and the music you listen to don't make you a better person. How what is "cool" is decided in corporate board rooms by people who don't care about kid's lives, only their money.

All of this is true. But every single person on stage could have been a model. Everyone had amazing hair and clothing. It was obvious that alot of effort was put into making this "cool". So if they're telling kids not to let themselves be sucked in by the branding...why is it that they've already bought into it themselves?

I'm not sure what I expect them to do. I love marketing. It is near and dear to my heart. I love design and they obviously have some amazing graphic designers working for them. I don't think Christians are called to wear ugly clothes either. But it all seemed to counter what they were telling the kids. There was alot of lights and hype and underneath it all I still think they have a good message, I just can't help but feel it gets a little diluted with glitter and sensation.

All that aside, it was a really good time to get to know some kids that I've not talked to much before. The first night we stayed up until three in the morning talking and the second night it was till two. Leader alertness was sponsored by Starbucks. I will sleep well tonight...and maybe by tommorow I'll be awake enough to have some coherant thoughts.