Renewed

Well, I got back from TMI last night at about 7:30 PM. Was supposed to be home at 4:30 PM, but the bus company that was supposed to pick us up from camp to take us to the airport was an hour and fourty minutes late. So, I missed my 11:30 am flight. I Had to pay extra and catch an afternoon flight. My day started off being very challenging, but it all worked itself out.

Territorial Music Institute was an awesome experience. Not only did I learn TONS of stuff in my classes with Dr. Ron Holz, but I came away from the camp renewed in spirit and with a different, but better outlook on a lot of things to do with my music ministry and just life.

During the day, I was the manager/librarian for Dr. Ron Holz's "Advanced Musical Leadership" class. In the afternoon, some of the other DMD's/staff and me would play in the TMI band (the top ensemble... the kids audition) to help them out, and then at night I was a cabin counselor for 16-17 year olds. This was something that I was slightly anxious about before camp, but it turned out to be great. All but one of the kids in my cabin was from our division and a few are from my region, so it was awesome getting to hang out with them and get to know them.

At the camp (in Oklahoma) these HUGE locusts come out at night and if you don't get your door shut in time when you enter the cabin, they follow you in because of the cabin's fluorescent lights. These locusts make the most annoying, loud noise and they fly around with no sense of direction. One of my campers said to me:

"Those locusts... yeah, they basically live for about two weeks. Sometimes you see their wings and skin left on logs out in the woods. Man, that's weird that something's put here on Earth to only live for two weeks."

I agreed and then I thought... I bet this is the way God looks at us. To a locust, 2 weeks may feel like 200 years. 1 year to a dog feels like 9 years. I bet God looks at lot of us, especially those of us that are "lost" and thinks- "you only have 2 weeks (God's time) on Earth and you're squandering it away. When are you going to get serious and live your short life for Me as I have told you?

The normal life expectancy for a male is 74 years old or so. I bet that 74 human years is equivalent to one breath of God.

We were put here for a purpose, but life is short. Consider the locust.