So here I am at HoneyRock once again. In contrast to last summer, I'm residing here presently for the sake of my studies and ministry/work. The high school program I will be counseling is entitled, "Service Team" and consists of juniors and seniors. And if I may add a subtitle to it, it would probably be ": Learning to Lead a Life of Service."
As some may have known it, throughout the week and a half before I arrived at HoneyRock for two sessions of summer school, I was frantically considering whether or not I would take the opportunity also to work as a Service Team counselor. After what seemed to be a very rushed decision process, I made my decision to leave once again -- this is the second summer in a row now. Why? Well, it was simple. There was one responsibility the Lord was calling me to this summer, and that task was to write. I'll be working on an extensive piece of literature titled Side by Side: Imagining the Heavenly Community on the Earth. [The sneak peek lies in my blog under the title On Earth as it is in Heaven] After a year and a half of receiving the Lord's imparted wisdom and contemplating the intriguing ideas of this theme, the Lord led me to begin compiling an elaborate explication.
It still doesn't sound entirely cogent why I would leave to work instead of remain at home where I had innumerable days of freedom; countless days unscheduled. It is entirely true that staying at home had its positives, and vice versa. For HoneyRock, the same conclusion. Will I really have an increased amount of time while I'm at home writing? Yes. I would have at least 4 hours a day which was the amount of time I had planned to spend on this peculiar project. Would I be more efficient? After much consideration, HoneyRock's context is a much more apropos environment for me to create this discourse. Though I will have less time, I will be invigorated with much more thought and articulate with much more dexterity. But why? It is because my journey of the conscious discovery in regards to the theme of community began in the Wheaton community. This community challenged me in my participation in the body of Christ as an individual and as a part of the whole in its myriad of shapes and forms. So the discourse of which I will be working inherently finds its earthly home in the Wheaton community. This is the reason why even my explication should be more appropriately completed in the context of where it was born. It is not a rule, but it is a preference because of the dynamism of this context's effectiveness.
It is not that I did not consider the suggestions of my community at home, from my fellow Asian brothers and sisters. I did consider their thoughts and challenges. Coupled with these considerations, I was most seriously considering my family's desires for me. After such an extensive amount of thought, HoneyRock was my choice.
I believe that my return to this sacred place will not be a reflection of my past summer, but that I would receive a second experience of grace. Before this post, I was planning on writing a post entitled The Incarnational Grace Found in Equilibrium, and I may still write that post. To phrase with succinctness, grace looks differently when we require a different balance in our lives. Our lives are kaleidoscopic and does not cease to change, and so our equilibrium is our worship day after day. The grace that we begin to see is tailored to the contextual equilibriums to which we acquire, and so the Lord incarnationally reveals to us according to these contexts. This is the reason this second summer will be as Paul quotes in 2 Corinthians 1, a second experience of grace. It is a grace that is illustrated differently from the previous grace received. There is nature around me everywhere, there is the same sort of quietness, and the same sorts of animals singing its sweet melody, but there will be an experience of the Lord, whether through these things or not, unique to this visit. I am excited for each component of this summer, each giant I will be confronted with, each relationship I will encounter, and the realms of thought into which this discourse will lead me.
I am imaginatively excited for this second experience of grace.
And I would greatly appreciate your prayers.
