Something Moves

Wow...Action for Life is in full swing. I am feeling the heat of community and completely enjoying the blessing that is this wonderful collection of people from all over the world. They are challenging and inspiring and I'm amped to spend the next 7.5 months with them.

As you know, I like to talk about God. Since I was young, through my studies at college up until now, its the one thing I always find interesting to discuss. It seems the one subject on which everyone has an experience and an opinion.

When I was in school, I began to talk my friend Alex about God. Over time our discussions got more complicated and fille din with our philosphy course. We used to discuss God as Truth. We then began to talk about the concept that truth = verb which means that truth = action. Truth in its Greek sense is more about fact, but in the Hebrew sense, it was much more about faithfulness. Since that's action, we further extrapolated that in fact, action is everything, a phrase we've carried with us through our 20's.

I've often asked people what they mean when they say something like, "I've seen God's hand at work" or "I felt like I was part of God's plan". I've always been curious about this - to see how people interpret it.

Just the other day I was walking to my room. Mid stride, I a clear thought popped into my head: "Give one of your turtles to Vijay, the security guard at the front gate of Asia Plateau." (When I left Va Beach I took a bunch of little crafts to give to my hosts, etc. They are little shells that have been decorated to look like turtles wearing glasses and hats. The shell reads "Virginia Beach". Actually, they are pretty nice for 99cent a piece and I'm glad I picked them up.) With a sense of conviction I hustled down the hill. I ran to my room, grabbed it and went straight to the gate. But when I arrived...he wasn't there.

Disappointed, I put the small trinket in my pocket and set off for a session with AfL. When I got to the auditorium I noticed one of the participants looking down. Her cousin had passed away on the first day of AfL and she had been quietly grieving his death. Walking by her I didn't think too much about the fact that she sat apart from the rest of the group.

I sat through a few minutes of the session. My next action became clear. The whisper I heard that told me to get the gift was right on, I just didn't get the right name. The turtle had a different destination. At a break, I hopped off the stage and quietly handed off the turtle trinket. It was the first time I saw her smile all day.