For me there is nothing more invigorating and truly inspiring as someone who is not afraid of how they feel, and they live holding nothing back.
You know some cultures are very different than us. For some reason in America it has become tradition to be civilized, and act a certain way. Make sure not to get too excited or too happy or too sad, of course unless you are at a football game. For the most part or at least the Midwest there is a strong sense of never letting yourself go too far. I find that so sad.
I am here in New York City, it is not the only place with a lot of culture, but it is one of them. With my experiences in other countries I find that impulses and emotions are not treated with such a filter that we put on. For example in Jamaica, people love music and they love to dance. I admit I love to dance as well, unfortunately not so good. When I hear music I am embarrassed to just let myself go or sometimes even on a dance floor but them, when they would hear music it didn’t matter where they were. If they were in church or in the middle of the street they would dance, because the music moved them and I don’t think they were afraid of where it would take them. I find the same here in New York. I am not about to start on stereotypes of certain people groups, my opinion is not professional but, I guess it is just a little of how I see the world. I find that the black community here is not as afraid to let God move them, or shake their being. Maybe it is because their culture is naturally more “gifted” in the rhythm aspectJ
One of the worst traditions that has come about I think is that a lot of American “white” churches have lost the movement. Some where along the line the feeling and the energy was sucked out. Whether it be by religion or legalism, and then it got to a point where getting too excited about the King of Kings was shameful. So now we have the families who sit through worship and preaching silent sometimes sleeping and they get home and cheer as loud as they can for their favorite team.
And you know I think I just realized something. A lot of people are not comfortable or are scared of things that are really real. It’s the same reason that a husband and a wife can talk for hours about nothing but when something real comes up; an emotion or an event….silence. I experience this with my own family. You see we went through a tragic loss, my mother passed away and I find that I like to talk about things that I learned from counseling and really dealing with emotions that are hard, but it is more than evident that they would rather push it under the rug and pretend everything is ok.
If you ever get a chance to go to another country, not one so “civilized.” I hope you see them celebrate something. A wedding or a holiday I think you will find every kind of person giving in to the joy that this life and God brings. Last night I was at our event here in New York, it is called Battle Cry and it is a movement. I saw people open up their souls and realize that their lives are worth something, and it didn’t matter what had happened in the past it was like a revelation that God loved them and dreams that they had dreamt so long ago were being awakened. And they loved each other, and they celebrated like we always want to, but are too afraid. But it was like watching a group of people being released from slavery. Someone had just unlocked their chains and they couldn’t help but dance. And it wasn’t some holy rolling or provoked, pushing people to the ground or telling them what to do, it was out of the heart. And it was from within each and every one of them.
Yes something really penetrated through, and it was not too embarrassing.
So they inspired me and I hope one day this tradition of holding back feelings and avoiding the sweetest things in life will be washed away by an overwhelming sense of explosion. That somehow people are loved enough and spoken to with faith enough, to believe in themselves and to not be afraid of what might come out of them.
Be full of hope.
things are going ok here in Texas. It is a little lonely transition, since my husband leaves every weekend but we are doing good. It would be really great to find some place to get plugged in here.
For those who don't know, Daniel is the new event manager for Aquire the Fire, that is why we are back in Texas.
Be blessed everyone.
Anna
