youhadtobethere.

wat kinds of pictures will you have in the photo albums that you show your kids?

the olympics are absolutely incredible. it's a show and competition of the best of the best of multiple disciplines, and it's a coming together of so many different upbringings and their respective values. of course, as human contact tends to do, this beautiful tradition has acquired numerous impurities and stains over the years. from steroids to the infamous olympic village parties, the olympics closely resemble the nature of humanity itself: we were created to be so beautiful and pure, and as much as we've retained that, we seem to thrive on cheating our way through hard times, on looking for short term thrills... on  tearing one another down. our one saving hope is this thing called grace, this thing that rains (and reigns) down from above in such great quantities that we should extend it to one another.  

this grace gives us overwhelming passion, and it's so freakin awesome to see teens and college kids get passionate. by way of nbc's olympic coverage, the tv audience has access to interviews and back stories for many members of team usa, and they are all so passionate. the key to their success is focusing that passion on watever it is they wish to achieve. our rising generation has a passion that is uncontained and uncontainable, and we have no freakin idea wat to do with it. but we have it! we have the passion, you can't teach that! speaking of which, we certainly didn't learn this passion from the generation before us: that's the office job, cubicle-work generation. there are always outliers, but as a whole the people one age-group ahead of us has not set a great example of taking courageous leaps of faith to achieve dreams. not leading crazy passionate lives is not the main problem here; it's the fact that they don't know how to teach (or how to handle) kids like us.

so let's get back to our passion... do we have it? yes, check. but wat have we done with it? anything useful? anything worth remembering by future generations? by our kids? hmm.  those are tougher questions, one's that should be given some serious thought. but only some, because the longer we dwell on those answers, the longer we aren't focusing on doing something with our current passion. in light of that, let's figure out where we stand, and where we want to stand; wat we serve, and wat we want to serve; where we spend our time, and where we want to spend our time; who we are, and who we want to be. and the umbrella question: wat we're holding on to, and wat's holding us back.

so you're all fired up and totally changed and ready to change yourself, others, and the world? watever your answer, good. having an answer is the first huge hurdle. but we're running the 400m right now, so there are bound to be other obstacles in the near future. these will require careful , intentional maneuvering, which will look different for everybody. however, this dude named james wrote a self-titled book that speaks to the nature of "trials of many kinds," and why we face them: why facing them is actually in our benefit. whether self-imposed or brought about by external circumstances, we have all been through times that really tested our patience and our character. these rough patches in life flat out suck, and whether or not god gave them to us is not always clear, but it is always clear that god believes we can make it through--that is, should we apply our passions to his purposes. if we apply our passionate energy toward anger, we will not "produce the righteousness that god desires." however, if we "get rid of all moral filth that is so prevalent" and therefore choose to replace those stains with a "humble acceptance of the word planted in us," we can be saved and "blessed in wat we do." freak yeah.

part 2 will be up in two days. how will you spend you passion from now until then? will you create a memory worth telling? will you take a picture worth sharing?

[colossians 3:15-17]