day 23. goodbye california :(

so ends my tour of california. it's been a great run, but sadly all good things must come to an end. i finished off my last few days at woodleaf (which for those of you who don't know is a younglife camp in north cali), and chico up in north cali. woodleaf was great because even though its been almost a year since i've been through there, it feels like its only been a few weeks. it almost felt like home to me, which is wierd but cool at the same time. i think a huge part of that is because i was able to do some serious growing while i was there over the summer.

this weekend at woodleaf there was an all men's conference going on. It was funny seeing a bunch of men running around camp instead of high school and middle school kids. and as i was walking down towards the beach, a random dude walked up to me. no idea who he was, but he said, "hey brother, what congregation are you with?!". of course i had no clue what he was talking about at the time so i said, "i'm with the road travels from chicago congregation!" which of course confused the crap outta him haha. but then i explained what exactly that meant, and he told me all about the weekend. it was really cool talking to Jim because he was really genuine in asking about my life and hearing about what my trip was all about. and equally for me, it was cool to hear about where God had taken Jim as a pastor throughout his life. how he had lived in chicago, near naperville, then moved around the country. How his daughter met an indian boy and married him, which of course brought about a 20 minute convo on my heritage and family background. but throughout our hour long conversation, the best part had to be how he ended it. he said, "well brother, considering i probably won't see you again until we meet in heaven, i guess this is good-bye. what can i be praying for?"

and that's what really hit me. that interation right there. i won't see you again until heaven, but what can i pray for. a simple phrase that has deep meaning to it. this guy has a deep understanding of what being a christian looks like. to the point where he'll walk up to strangers and learn about their lives and pray for them. because ultimately that's what Jesus was about wasn't it? isn't that the kind of way he did his ministry? i feel like a majority of people Jesus came in contact with during his ministry were random people that He got to know, love, and care for. But he didn't see them for very long. Those people he met with and interacted with got glimpes of a perfect and amazing man. They got glimpes of a better life, one where love and compassion is the main foundation.

what would our lives look like if we did that daily? what if we were to show people glimpses of Christ in the most basic of interactions? in the same way Jim did to me? think about how many people we pass by in a day. think about how many people you say hi to in a day. think about how many people you actually have conversations with in a day. now imagine showing each and everyone of those person's a clear picture of Christ and how that could affect them. pretty gnarly right?

so yea, woodleaf was great basically haha. and chico was sweet too. i got to hang out with ryan and ben. it was awesome because on my last night in Cali i went roller-skating haha. totally rad. it just goes to show you're never too old to enjoy yourself in that way.

so now it's off to colorado to hangout with my buddy jimbo. gonna be shweeet. later.