25.09.09

Today was Friday, and what a Friday it was.

I am a leader in my church youthgroup which we like to call ALTR. I'm going to explain that. We take our name from Romans 12:1-2. Which reads as follows:

"Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."

Those are some pretty heavy but cool verses that sometimes we read a little too flippantly I think. They call for some pretty radical changes to the way in which we live our lives, or at least, to the way in which I live mine. They call for us to offer ourselves up as "living sacrifices" and I'm inclined to take that literally. I mean not that we should get all flagellant or anything, but that we should dedicate our lives to God, and if necessary die for Him. We need to place our lives upon the altar. We're also called to "not conform" to "the pattern of this world", ergo, alter our lives. And that is a pretty scary and crazy thing to be asked to do really isn't it? When you think about it. God is calling us to make ourselves aliens. Distinguished by our love for Him Do you think so? How can we do this? By "renewing our minds" in His Word? Those two verses are sort of our mission as a youth group. Someone had the idea to play upon the words altar and alter (which are synonyms of words that are actually in the text...) to make ALTR. Upon reflection I wonder if perhaps we should have chosen easier ones :P Because those are flipping challenging verses. But I think that may be the point. Certainly something to be working towards as young adults.

Anyway, I needed to explain that so this next part would make sense. Tonight ALTR went rollerblading in Panmure. We had to come dressed as something beginning with A, L, T, or R because those are the letters of our name. But hardly anyone did. Zaneeee and Megan made an effort (road worker and... ladybug? respectively), and so did Rowena and Sky (characters from some movie) , and Rachael and Sarah (twins)... but no one else. Zac didn't even come. So I found myself in a situation in which I felt overdressed. I'd had the inspiration to come as an Australian Lawbreaker, Troublemaker and all-round Rascal (Ned Kelly). I used one of mum's knives to cut a visor into a bucket which I covered in tinfoil to make a distinctive helmet. I had a boomerang and a pistol and a bandana and excalibur too. And another hat. I wore yellow. I was like an action figure with extra accessories. My dream for ALTR is that one day we'll all be dressing up like Ned Kelly.