s e n i o r: Collide 2012

This past weekend I went to Collide at Brook Hills and it was amazing. Absolutely incredible. All that was needed was an open heart and listening ears to our Heavenly Father to hear Him speak and see Him move through the students at Brook Hills. At the beginning of Collide, I was excited but unsure of what to expect. On the outside, Collide is just a bunch of people with a speaker and a band and leaders and host homes and devotionals. It only took the first night to figure out that Collide is so much more than all of that. Collide is more than a get-together for kids who are supposed "Christians". It's more than painting a couple of doors and clearing away brush from a church yard. Yes, even more than hair braiding and the constant intake of anything sweet. Collide is welcoming God. Collide is God literally intervening in your life in just the way He knows you need. It's taking your heart and willingly offering it to the Lord and saying "Here, God. Take my heart. Break my heart. Heal my heart. Change my heart. For You, all for You and Your glory." Collide puts you in an environment that's focused on God and His LOVE and ADORATION for wicked, despicable, wretched people like you and me and tells you that you're forever His beloved. Forever His child. Forever His disciple. I could feel Him during the times of worship, during the times of doubting myself, during the time spent on my knees calling out to Someone greater, stronger, more beautiful than anyone can fathom. God, the King of the entire universe, the forever Ruler, the One we exalt, the One to which we cry out, the One who redeemed us, the One who RESCUED us, through Collide, FREED ME. I'm free from having to conform to the world. I'm free from all insecurities that Satan uses against me. I'm free from feeling inferior. I'm free from shame. I'm free from bowing down to the world, 'cause I'm choosing something more eternal. I'm free from hell. I'm free.

I'M FREE.

So thanks, Collide. God, through you, opened a door for Him to freely walk in and claim the accepting hearts of fifteen new believers, reclaim the wandering hearts, and console the weary ones. I can't wait to see what God has in store next for The Church at Brook Hills. Collide 2013? Sign me up.