{"id":168,"date":"2008-09-23T19:17:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-23T19:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brianmashburn.net\/?p=168"},"modified":"2008-09-23T19:17:00","modified_gmt":"2008-09-23T19:17:00","slug":"a-sacred-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/?p=168","title":{"rendered":"A Sacred Weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=Section1>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>I&#8217;m sitting in an airport just a few hours away from my reunion with my family, and just a few hours removed from finishing a weekend retreat with about 100 students from <st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:PlaceName w:st=\"on\">Pepperdine<\/st1:PlaceName>  <st1:PlaceType w:st=\"on\">University<\/st1:PlaceType><\/st1:place>. <\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>It was&nbsp;a great weekend for me personally for at least a half dozen reasons: <\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<ul style='margin-top:0in' type=disc>\n<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><font size=2 face=Arial><span      style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>They wanted me to share      about&nbsp;following Jesus&nbsp;&#8211; pretty much the only thing I feel      passionate enough to talk about<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/li>\n<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><font size=2 face=Arial><span      style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>This is my first &quot;speaking      engagement&quot; in a long time, and I re-engaged my old ego-based demons      associated with that &#8211; quite the humbling experience<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/li>\n<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><font size=2 face=Arial><span      style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>I got to engage in toil      side-by-side with a sister-in-arms that I really respect,&nbsp;who has      honored and encouraged me by being attentive to my life-long journey &#8211; and      I got to see and participate in a work she is dying for daily.<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/li>\n<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><font size=2 face=Arial><span      style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>I got to meet another capable,      gifted, and loving couple who has joined her in the work there &#8211; and I instantly      loved them both deeply.<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/li>\n<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><font size=2 face=Arial><span      style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>I experienced a very loving,      global-minded, receptive, transforming group of college-age students who      are eager to &quot;figure it out&quot; in their own hearts while also      looking for ways to &quot;change the world&quot; for it&#8217;s good.<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/li>\n<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'><font size=2 face=Arial><span      style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>I got to bond personally with a      few of these folks, and experienced the powder-keg of energy and desire      that resides deep in this generation &#8211; and it&nbsp;made me want to connect      with, learn from,&nbsp;guide, and make room for them to &quot;do their      thing&quot;&#8230;because when they do, watch out! It will be very,&nbsp;very      different, and very, very good&#8230;more like Christ.<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>I&#8217;m still trying to explain to myself what I witnessed in these &quot;kids&quot; this weekend. In one respect, it was just a typical college-age, Christian weekend retreat&#8230;complete with beautiful hills and trees, mess hall, swimming pool, football field, and boys and girls cabins (and Fabio (yes, I said Fabio), the cook, and his crew provided very acceptable food).<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>But as I talked about Jesus, about his heart and desire for them, about his sacred calling for their lives, his sacred motive of love, his sacred strategy for changing the world through relationships&#8230;I saw a common desire lighting up behind their eyes. <\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>A desire for a better life. A better way of life. A better way of &quot;doing Christianity&quot;. <\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>And while I was very encouraged, and excited&#8230;I think more than anything, I was affirmed. I was validated. Does that make sense? As I said, I&#8217;m still figuring it out, but I confess that sometimes I think that I&#8217;m crazy. Seriously. I&nbsp;walk around&nbsp;wondering if I am the only one feeling the way I am feeling.&nbsp;<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>But this weekend, I was clearly presented with evidence that I am not.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>I was very blessed this weekend by this group, and they were very gracious to let me share about my life and passion, about Jesus Christ and his life, and how he wants to use us to change the world globally by loving very deeply, personally, and &quot;transformingly&quot; locally. Just like Christ (who changed the world globally having never travelled more than, what, a hundred or so miles locally). <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>I shared about a God that I am very excited about, but I do that all the time, and I&#8217;m just insecure enough to think that maybe no one wants to hear, or no one needs this God like I do, or no one understands just how incredible great the life He offers is.<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>One of the students had set up an &quot;e-card&quot; station &#8212;&nbsp;full of paper, paint, colors, markers &#8212;<\/span><\/font>&nbsp;<font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>for everyone to sit down and create an &quot;encouragement card&quot; for each other. A beautiful heart named Abby told me she would make me one (after I complained out loud that I was feeling left out), and she made a &quot;crayon card&quot;&#8230;and on the inside she wrote:<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'><img decoding=\"async\" width=576 height=147 id=\"_x0000_i1025\" src=\"cid:image001.jpg@01C91D87.149AA780\"><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'><img decoding=\"async\" width=576 height=277 id=\"_x0000_i1026\" src=\"cid:image002.jpg@01C91D87.149AA780\"><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>I sure would never have thought to put it that way, but that is exactly how I feel&#8230;I know that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, but He&#8217;s also new every morning, and so whenever I find something new about God (or rediscover something old), through Christ, I feel like the kid with a new box of perfect crayons and I want to share him, and my excitement about him, with EVERYONE so they can see how awesome He is!<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>As it turns out, Jesus let me feel him again, through these young and energetic and &quot;open to life&quot; students, many of whom are hungry for guides and mentors who will be open to them and their vision for a new world, and will join them in forging it.<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>I would be honored to be one, and I hope I have something to offer them, but I sure know that they have a whole lot to offer me.<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'>&nbsp;<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>Across the generations, across the nation, let us all join Christ on his sacred mission of changing the world&#8230;starting with ourselves.<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Arial'>&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/span><\/font><o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face=\"Times New Roman\"><span style='font-size: 12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;<\/o:p><\/span><\/font><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m sitting in an airport just a few hours away from my reunion with my family, and just a few hours removed from finishing a weekend retreat with about 100 students from Pepperdine University. &nbsp; It was&nbsp;a great weekend for me personally for at least a half dozen reasons: &nbsp; They wanted me to share [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pO6nf-2I","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brianmashburn.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}