So I just joined the Paint the Town group. It's really amazing how one week affected me so much. Maybe it's not that my life and my neighborhood is so boring. Maybe it's not that anything there was so exciting (though it really was). Maybe it's more that for one week in my entire life, no one had an attitude problem. No one had a bad word to say about anyone. Everyone was just there to work and praise God. Everyone just wanted to do the job. Life is so in the attitude. Why don't people get that? I came back to my retail job (in the middle of back to school season) to find everyone on edge. Everyone was quick to accuse, pass blame, offend and be offended. It was culture shock. The recovery from the Bronx has not been that I no longer have to dodge cabs, live with no air-conditioning, spend the day picking paint from under my nails, or eat nothing but cold cut sandwiches (with Italian dressing). The adjustment isn't in the building size or the routine. It's not in the location or the job I'm doing. It's not even in this intense separation anxiety from people who became my entire world for a week.
The difference is that the attitude is not the same. The difference is that I've tasted a bit of heaven and now I have to go back. This is how I felt after Passion '05 Nashville, only more so because I also have a sense of accomplishment after Paint the Town.
Maybe I think that if I can keep in touch with those amazing people, I can keep in touch with that great attitude. Maybe we all need to go out of our way to encourage each other more. There's just not enough encouragement around. So this is me encouraging anyone that reads this. Eph. 3:20-21 Ps. 30:5 Phil. 4:4
Keep it real.