Oh, I am wrong and of these things I repent...

I repent, I repent of my pursuit of America's dream
I repent, I repent of living like I deserve anything
Of my house, my fence, my kids, my wife
In our suburb where we're safe and white
Oh, I am wrong and of these things I repent

I repent, I repent of parading my high liberty
I repent, I repent of paying for what I get for free
And of the way I believe that I'm living right
By trading sins for others that are easier to hide
Oh, I am wrong and of these things I repent

And I repent of judging by a law that even I can't keep
Of wearing righteousness like a disguise
To see through the planks in my own eyes

I repent, I repent of trading truth for false unity
I repent, I repent of confusing peace and idolatry
Of caring more of what they think than what I know of what we need
Of domesticating you until you look just like me
Oh, I am wrong and of these things I repent

So this last weekend a group of about 15 or so youth and sponsors from our church went to this thing called Poverty Simulation in Waco, TX sponsored by Mission Waco. We had no idea what to expect and I have to admit, I was quite skeptical. But by the end of the weekend I had learned and been made aware of so much more than before I went.
One of the many things I learned was how much stuff we take for granted and how much we really don't need at all. By the end of the weekend I've never been more grateful for my toothbrush, my bed, my car and other little things like chapstick and sunscreen. To get sunburned not because I forgot to put on sunscreen or because I didn't want to, but because I didn't have any was a completely new thing to me that I'd never really thought about before.
Another thing I learned that I'd never really thought of this way before was that we're here in America with all this stuff not because we deserve it, but because this is where God put us. He could have just as easily made me be born in the slums in Africa somewhere, but he put me here. He put us all here in America. We're not just lucky. We're blessed. And that's not to say that those born in the slums in Africa somewhere are not blessed, because it says in Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor." Andrew Peterson says it well in his song Land of the Free:

"'Cause I'm just a little jealous of the nothing that you have, you're unfettered by the wealth of the world that we pretend is gonna last. They say God blessed us with plenty, but I say you're blessed with poverty. 'Cause you never stop to wonder whether earth is just a little better than the Land of the Free."

So those are just a few of the things I learned this weekend. And the Derek Webb song describes a lot of the other things I discovered and I'm sure others did as well. If I described all the things I learned it would take way to long and you would get bored of reading by then, so I'll just stick with that. Oh, and I have to mention that Church Under the Bridge was one of my favorite parts of the weekend. I'm not going to describe it because as I said before it would take way to long and you'd probably get bored reading. Oh, and I'm headed off to the Transforming Culture conference in Austin this week, so maybe I'll post on here later this week about that! So many writings, so little time. So I guess that's all for now. Maybe I'll write another time about more things from this weekend, but for now I'm signing off.

Jenna