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2007-07-03 issue:

Confidence to 'live the call'

by Jacob Yordy

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It was the first day of the youth convention, with energy and excitment in the air. As Michele Hershberger, professor at Hesston (Kan.) College, proclaimed, “We are chosen,” the praise songs began and we knew God was there.

We jumped into the Epistle to the Ephesians, a letter lovingly written from Paul expressing his love for the church and the Christian doctrine. The speakers made the scripture so applicable and so approachable, it seemed as though it was written for each and every one of us personally, addressing the issues that we face today.

That night I felt alive and estatic and I saw many friends. On Tuesday my youth group went swimming and played volleyball and table tennis in the recreation room, enjoying the simplicity of a game with nobody trying to compete or vanquish.

We went to a seminar on sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, only to be shocked when the first thing Lynn Miller said was, “I am Lynn Miller, and I love sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll!” He went on to explain that drugs were created by God (everything God makes is good), and were only wrong because humans used them incorrectly. He also explained that sex in a relationship is like the frosting on a cake—the flashy and tasty part, but only enjoyable after you’ve baked the cake. “After all,” he said, “who eats a cake with just frosting in it?” As for rock ‘n’ roll, he has always enjoyed it.

The messages on Tuesday prepared us for our service project: First, with the message of John D. Roth, professor at Goshen (Ind.) College, we realized that we were broken people, imperfect and often striving to hide our true selves. That night, Rudy Carrasco, executive director of the Harambee Christian Family Center in Pasadena, Calif., taught us how often we alienate others.

During the service project on Wednesday, we cleaned up public parks, gaining humility and an appreciation for our planet. During our project, some of my close friends and I encountered young children who lived right on a park. They picked us some small but very ripe peaches from their own tree. These children had only a few fruit trees, and they picked out the most delicious and ripest peaches for us to eat. We gave them a toy car that we had found, still amazed by their generosity. Those were the people we were helping.

That night we went to the boardwalk at Santa Cruz, relishing the welcome salty chill and the beautiful misty ocean. The cable ride provided a scenic and very high, view of Santa Cruz with the natural and urban areas surrounding it.

Friday morning began with a bang. Sleepy teens, by now being forced to walk into the worship room (having ran in, bodysurfed and made human pyramids while waiting to enter) were surprised by Brenda Matthews, poet, playwright, activist and more, yelling, “I love young people!” She read moving and powerful pieces, advocating not only God’s love for us but our love for God, and how almost every wrong in the world can be fixed by God. Matthews reminded us to love and defend God and to arm ourselves with His love.

And it was during lunch that we realized—San José 2007 is over. There goes that great feeling. Now, we are going to go back to these boring churches where energy is zapped from us. We can no longer feel God as we did that week.

But that night, the speaker Luke Hartman, education consultant for Harrisonburg (Va.) City Public Schools, felt our pain and knew what we were thinking. It isn’t over, he said, but just beginning. We can change so much! If we do actually live the call, then we will be poised to aid others and worship Him. If we live the call, he said, then this feeling—this power, love, collective energy and excitement—will not leave us.

There it was: the dreaded end of a great week. Sure, the opportunity to catch up on sleep, but the end of thousands of kids, just like me, giving themselves to God with me. I felt a certain element of sadness: there go all my new friends, all my relatives in Christ. I also felt a strange emotion: confidence. I decided then that I would do all in my power to live the call.

Yordy is a member of North Suburban Mennonite Church, Libertyville, Ill.