Behold, I am now a man. Not only did I turn 21 on Friday, February 21, 2003 (my “golden birthday,” as I’ve been told), but I also attended a Navigators conference which lasted Friday night till Saturday night, and then I attended a concert.
Friday was just your typical ordinary day. The weather was actually decent, which made it quite a nice day for a birthday. Class went fine, I took care of some minute details (buying a new parking permit, yada yada). I got two packages in the mail. One was a book called “Every Woman’s Desire.” My cousin Mandy sent that to me ’cause I asked for it. The other package was from my family. This is the third year in a row where I’ve gotten a birthday cake mailed to me from my family in Colorado to me here at school in Nebraska. Exciting stuff! I got the new Blindside CD, money to order MT Volume 1, a tie tack, a shirt, a couple knick-knacks from Knottsberry Farm, and two birthday cards. Good stuff!
Later Friday went to Arby’s for dinner and got a slice of cake from a couple cool ladies. After that was ManMaker. It’s an annual men’s retreat put on by Navs and this year it was also done in conjunction with the UNL Campus Crusade for Christ group. This dude named Wayne talked to us three times. The first talk was about growing in belief of God’s love. The oft-quoted verse John 3:16 was referenced: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” A few points about this talk really stood out to me and are included at the end of this post.
After ManMaker ended on Saturday night (we actually left a little before the end), myself, Phil and Aaron B., and Scott (freshman connection) went to a concert that was part of an event called “Dare 2 Share” where kids are encouraged to evangelize and they go out into town and share the gospel of Christ with people. Anyway, got to hear some really awesome bands. Sanctus Real started off. They only played a couple songs, but one of them is doing decently on the Christian rock charts, so I enjoyed it. They were followed by John Reuben, a rapper. His music was decent, but the performance wasn’t all that exciting. Next came Pillar. These guys can rock like crazy! They played several songs. Most were from their most recent album “Fireproof” but they also played a few from their original, self-titled album. Relient K played after that. I really like Relient K. They played “Pressing On,” a short parody/cover of “Sk8r Boi” by Avril Lavigne talking about John Reuben, a short cover of part of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself.” After that, they got back on track with “Softer To Me,” “For The Moments I Feel Faint,” and one of my favorites, “Sadie Hawkins Dance.” Do /you/ like my sweater?
After the concert, I was worn out. We helped take down a lot of the sound, video, and lighting equiptment in the auditorium. There were tons of professional guys there, but we volunteered to assist. They even gave each of us a T-shirt for helping out. Woohoo! (I found some Skittles backstage [it's a Relient K thing... I guess they like ‘em] and gave those to this kool friend of mine who likes Relient K.)
So that was most of my weekend. I’ve got a little bit of homework to do today. Mostly I’m gonna chill out. Latez!
What ManMaker was all about:
• My feelings cannot negate God’s truth or his love for me
• God doesn’t need my efforts (I could explain this more, but won’t for now)
• God wants me to enjoy his love
Romans 5:8 - “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Even as sinners, God is capable of loving and forgiving.
Wayne’s next talk focused on victory over sin.
• Sin has no power over those who have faith in Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57 - “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”)
• 2 Corinthians 2:16 - “‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”
• Ephesians 1:3 - “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,”…
• Ephesians 2:6 - “and [God] raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”…
A few other noteable thoughts I wrote down are the following:
• flesh cannot defeat the flesh
• I am already victorious in Christ
• Do I see myself as God does?
• Am I living out of gratitude to Christ?
• every man struggles with sexual sin
Wayne’s last talk talked about leadership. He talked about six different leadership attributes:
• humility
• faithfullness
• secret life
• sovereignty
• authenticity
• taking ownership (recognizing strengths and weaknesses)
So this is all the stuff. If you’ve got questions for any reason, feel free to leave a post or email me.