This guy totally lived his faith out loud and labelled it clearly. I used to make fun of people like that. Christian T-shirts. Overly Christianized Facebook profiles. It all seemed like such a good way to ostracize yourself and then not make any non-believing friends at all, thus having nobody to show Jesus to except people who already know Him. I think I also feared replacing true Christian spirituality with its squeaky clean, made-in-China merchandise Christian culture counterpart. But this guy, he had a message, a thesis to his life, and it seems to have been splattered all over everything he did.
His thesis: Live your life for God right now.
Everything you can possibly stalk about him on the internet BLASTS this thesis. Stalk him on Facebook yourself! His name is David Powell and his facebook page is relatively open. Its in each of his Facebook pictures, of him on some sort of adventure, with people he clearly cares about or being silly.
His profile, in his religious views, his little box and his quotes ALL scream this thesis. Just look:
Even his last facebook status update before his death read, "I want to run, jump and spread life in this world..."
Lastly, at the Embassy we have a weekly question to answer on camera and then everyone's answers get smooshed together for a 2-3 minute video which introduces the sermon the next week. Usually the question is silly and usually people's answers are silly. In October, the question was, "What are your words of wisdom for the world?" Most people gave silly answers (you can see the full video here).
His unedited (or, less edited) answer is not silly, but thoughtful and beautiful. And he says it again, "Live your life for God now!"
Here is that version:
Having examined his life on the internet, hung out with his family a couple times, talked to his friends, I've seen the impact that having a clear life thesis can have on your surrounding community. Why would I ever want to be ambiguous about what I want to say to the world?
So I thought about it. What DO I want my life to say to the world? I decided: "God loves you!" So I'm going to say it clearly and directly, a lot. Its not enough to live a life of love. People need to know Who's light I'm shining because it is not my own! I would hate for someone to see my life and, not knowing I was a Christian, think, "Well, if she can be a great person without Jesus than so can I." That would be so opposite to what I want my life to be about!
And that, blog world, is why you will now always see in some form or another, "God loves you" under my Facbeook dp and why my statuses have gotten a little more spiritually meaty.
Dave. I miss you every day. And every time I miss you I am challenged to examine, day by day, what I am doing with each day. How I am treating people, what kind of passion I am following or encouraging, and I think about God and how good He's been in this horrible process of grieving. He's so present in my life ever since you left us. The tidal wave of affect has poured over everyone around you. You would be so shocked and honoured! I hope you can see from heaven all the people who you've affected. People who don't know you have had their lives changed. And not just Gloria either. I've heard countless stories.
ReplyDeleteWe're so blessed to have know you Dave.
Gloria you're so right. The reason he made such a huge impact on everyone was because he dared to live loudly for God and to risk looking silly and being laughed at, and he dared to live life to it's fullest.
I don't think he realized when he wrote his "run jump and spread life" quote the day before his death, just how much life he really would spread. Never so much life spread as in death. Wow. That's amazing. Dave was amazing, and God's presence has permeated every aspect of the circumstances around his death. I'm encouraged to know that Dave's in heaven but still hurting because he's not on earth.
This is probably the most raw, humanizing event of my life thus far. Thanks for your thoughts Glow. You're so right about how inspiring Dave's passion and rawness is. He's realness grabs us and shakes us violently to wake us up to the reality of what we believe.