Ice Pops

Faiza told me recently that she now associates ice pops with Christianity due to SCF's tradition of handing out ice pops at multiple campus functions, including move-in day, activities fairs, and the housing lottery. I find this amusing. On one hand, SCF doesn't want to only be known as the nice people who give out ice pops, but it isn't necessarily a bad thing to have this reputation, is it?

Greg Comes Clean Regarding the Chapter Camp Chicken

Like The Fox: The Chicken Story: " It started, brainstorming in the guys' dorm. 'What if we put a live chicken in their room?' said someone. 'And then what?' 'And then there'..."

Kite strings

I was thinking today about the beautiful sermon my mom's Anglican priest gave this Sunday. Sunday was, of course, July fourth, so in honor of the day he talked about freedom, and the greatness of a nation that allows it - freedom of religion, of speech, of assembly. We can gather into large groups in order to scream about how much we hate our country, our government, our military, our president and said country, government, military and president sit by and let us do it. In that sense, we are freer than the people of almost any country in the world.

But nevertheless, he said, we are enslaved. Both free, and enslaved. Freedom, he said, was not about having no master at all, but rather about having a choice of masters. You could choose to be enslaved to commerce - to spend all day, every day, commuting to and from work and being at work and thinking about work and never seeing your wife or your kids or ever do anything for yourself. You'd be a well-paid slave, he said, but a slave nevertheless. Another example I would give is that you could enslave yourself to your spouse and kids - to people you love and trust. I would point out that wife and kids are wonderful, but, to be terribly depressing, fragile. Still, better to be a beloved slave, I think, then simply a well-paid one. The point is, we attach ourselves to things - tie ourselves down.

From there, my priest gave an absolutely lovely metaphor. He talked about a friend of his, another priest, who went to a barbecue, and flew a kite with his two nephews. It was a nice windy day, and the kite flew easily and high, straining hard against the string as if to say 'let me go! Let me fly! I could go so much higher than this if you would just release me!" So this other priest asked the kids, "So? What do you think?" The boys were very excited. "Release it!" they said. "Let it fly!" And so the man released it. Predictably, the kite was caught up in the chaos of the wind and pretty quickly came crashing down. My priests comment was something like, "Interesting, isn't it, how much higher we fly when we are tied down? We strain so hard to be 'free,' only to discover how much harder gravity pulls on a kite that is 'freed' from all restraint."

So the question is, of course, to what or whom do we tie our kite strings? Who or what will allow us to fly the highest? What restraint will help us towards the most freedom? The answer, I think, is obvious.

Anam Cara: An Irish Perspective on Relationship

This blog was prompted by a little trip to Barnes & Noble with my brother. Basically, I got tired of helping him find a birthday present for a girl he really didn't know (all he knew was that she liked indie-rock, vague). As I meandered through the shelves, I picked up a book on Irish culture and opened to a page about "Anam Cara" which means "Soul Friend". According to Celtic spiritual tradition, the soul is illuminated around the body as a glowing aura. A deep bond is made when you open yourself to one another. This transparency and vulnerability creates a relationship that is appreciative and trusting, allowing "two souls to flow together". Your anam cara always "beholds your light" and loves you as you are, as a beautiful mess of raw brokenness. This kind of friendship awakens your fullness, allowing you to engage yourself and the community around you. The Irish believe that when you are blessed with anam cara you have been given a sacred place, you have arrived "home". Beautiful. All I could think about was, "how can we be "home" to people, especially in the fall? Well, we could offer them biscuits and "jam", but I think we have more in mind. Loving people is the hardest thing we are called to do.
Relationship is something that is essential for people to actualize God's New Jerusalem, his beautiful vision of community. Within the first week at Swat I realized that true relationship building was not going to be an easy task due to the engulfing culture of individualism and success. At Swat, everyone is on their own track. It was sad to try to talk to people, but see their eyes focused past your head on their list of things to do on the path to "success". Have you ever heard the phrase, "busyness is the devil's best tool"? Busyness, in my opinion, is the biggest obstacle between me and the people around me. At Swat, our "busyness" is masked by its academic character, but it is still busyness nonetheless. If we can make time for relationships with people and God, He will make it possible for you to accomplish his vision for your life. God is our "time-turner" (for all you HP fans out there). He'll make it happen. Promise.

In conclusion, I think we should bless people with hardcore love and jam ;)

If you guys have some free time this summer, meditate on what it means to provide a relationship that is "home" to someone. How do we actualize this kind of relationship? (Ya'll probably have lots of ideas coming from Chapta' Camp).

Love ya'll,

Hana

Welcome back from Chapter Camp!

Hello! Swarthmore Christian Fellowship has just returned from InterVarsity Chapter Camp 2010, and we're itching for some kingdom work to do. This blog will serve as communication for ideas and inspiration and follow-up in the three months we have before school starts again this fall. Post about new ideas you have, great things you've read, anything God has told you, even your frustrations and doubts as you experience "post-mountain syndrome." We're building community here even though we're scattered over the summer.

- Andrew

P.S. Tagging (labels) makes it easy to locate posts of various themes or topics. Some suggestions for tags are: "prayer request", "NSO", "answered prayer", "random", "Bible verse", "picture", "video", "large group", "small group", etc.!