Love like no other

"I walk, my soul is flying;
I cry, but I'm rejoicing;
I hunger, You're edifying;
Bathed in light I roam this life,
'Til time takes me home...

Immortal, immortal,
Forever I will live;
Immortal, immortal, immortal.

I talk, my heart is singing;
I kneel, and I'm ascending;
I'm wounded, but You are healing;
Earth is bright through Holy Eyes
That search from above...

And my spirit's leaping straight to the gates of heaven,
where I belong;
My feet have journeyed longing to reach my home,
I'll be safely home,
I'll be safely home.

Immortal, immortal,
Forever I will live;
Immortal, immortal, immortal."

And this is what we live for. To bring the glory of this immortal one to our mortal life, to transform this life from a mortal one to an immortal one.

How do you say something that is both coherent and that will encompass the beauty of something like this week, this week that so powerfully turns your heart eyes back to where they should be looking, that pierces your heart and soul with the deepest of encouragements and love? The thing is, when you try to explain it, it sounds boring. Who wants to spend three hundred hard earned bucks for a week of listening to 30 hours of lectures, getting up at an hour that is ungodly because of the hour you went to bed, eating cafeteria food, and hanging out with over a hundred other people in your approximate age range who are just as exhausted and crazy as you are? So what makes it so special?

Maybe it's the speakers. Maybe it's the dancing. Maybe it's just the appealing funness of a conference for a week at a college campus. The experience is exhilarating. But primarily, I suppose, the people there are the biggest part of it. I don't even feel like I know very many of them very well, but it doesn't take me very long to know someone to love them and see their beauty. Actually, a lot of people there that I didn't even meet, are extremely beautiful to me. There's John Stam, one of the coolest people I've ever met, way over six feet tall, Canadian, and super fun. Suzanne, who is probably the most adorable expectant mother I've ever seen, a wonderful dance teacher, and so sweet. Lauryl, who I hardly know, but I can already tell is one of the sweetest girls you'll meet. Zachary Hollen, who can pull off a kilt and bagpipes very well, and has connections with my mom's family in Maine. Alex Moreau who is probably the coolest dancer I've ever met and who looks just like Neil from Celtic Thunder. Jenny Lopez, our sweet and beautiful counsellor. The list could go on and on and on. They're all beautiful. Every single one of them. And that's special. That's so special.

Of course it helps matters when you're rooming with your best friend, and you're hanging out with three of your favorite people in the world. (Isaiah, Zach, Lydders and I are the greatest combo of four in the world, just saying.)

"Love can touch us one time,
and last for a lifetime,
and never let go till we're gone."

This touch, this love will touch us now, for a whole entire week, and we find it lasts the entire year. And I wonder, how could just this love touch me like this, and last forever? But it's really rather obvious. We all have the same love shining through. We all have the same light as our guide. And maybe it's as simple as that. Maybe it is something as simple, though profoundly deep, as that, that we have the same purpose, hope and Spirit inside us, that connects like nothing else in the world can. And that's why it's such a special week. Yeah, you should definitely come next year.