Last year, particularly spring semester, was a season of great growth in my life. I found that I have depended on friendships in the past to give me joy, and God knew it. It so happens that all of my close friends that I had made during my time at school were GONE at least for the semester, some the whole year. One friend simply took a break from school to work, one went to teach in Korea, two went to the Philippines, and others just simply graduated or transferred schools. Not only did I lose my friends, but I stopped attending the reformed church after Christmas Break that I had attended most of my college career. I also ended up leaving CRU again, both had to do with the absence of friends that once were there.
As the fall semester progressed, I was suggested to read a book, by many, many people. So I did. (Up until that point I had not bought a book to read for myself in a long time) The book was, "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan a Christian pastor and speaker I had heard many times before. I have always been moved by his talks at conferences and everything about the man screams extra-ordinary life lived for God. That was what his book was about. The CRAZY relationship that God calls us to as His children. His Crazy Love for us and the relationship he seeks with us. As I went on reading it, chapters at a time, I felt like this is exactly where God wanted me to be. The book is life-changing, if you get a chance to read it do so, you will not regret it.
SIDE NOTE: I don't like reading long posts but this is my first, so I will try to keep it as concise as possible..
That being said, basically as the semester progressed I relied less and less on the friends around me and started to fully focus on my relationship with God. I began attending Elevation Church with a good friend so that we could ride together and not have to go by ourselves. I started thinking about the whole idea of putting God in a box and trying to contain Him and His ways. I really started to realize that some churches try to do that, and that I was starting to live that way myself.
There are many things that have been said of Elevation Church, but as far as I am concerned the church's way WORKS for growing His Kingdom. It's doing exactly what the beliefs section of the website say: "Elevation Church will aggressively utilize methodologies in an attempt to reach people who are far from God. Rather than run from culture we have chosen to harness it to connect with people and show them God's timeless truths. Although our approach is anything but traditional, we believe in and maintain a conservative theological position." Attending this church has awoken my eyes to the fact that God uses whatever he wants to reach his people. After this awakening, I started to view things in a different light. Thoughts and beliefs that I had been testing all along, and had been testing more strenuously since I had come to college are back in the testing and refining stages.
.
