And so it begins.
On tuesday I met with about 10 students at APU. On wednesday I met with about 7 other students at APU. We opened by saying the prayer of Saint Francis Assissi together, as one:
"Lord, make us instruments of your peace
Where there is hatred, let us sow Love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may mot so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be Loved as to Love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen."
And so, those are our objectives; to sow Love, pardon, faith, hope, light, joy and to also allow ourselves to be embraced by these things, so that we may combat the evil which exists in their void.
One of the primary ideas I wanted to share was that Christians constantly refer to God as Love (God=Love), but I think there's a lot more to it. I think if God is Love, Love must ultimately lead to God, that is, if God DOES exist, Love is what will expose His presence in our lives (1 John 3:11, 4:7; John 13:34; I Corinthians 13:13). Basically, we use the rules of simple algebra (& reason) and we flip the equation, making it: Love=God. My hope in this project is to convey that point, to convey God & the Gospel, just by simple extending hands of Love toward my peers and colleagues.
At our meetings, me and some exceptionally caring people tried tackling the challenge of this movement. That is, HOW? We decided a couple things.
First off, we want the whole thing to be somewhat underground, completely free, and very dependent on word of mouth. We want to remain unique, special, and moving this way. We stay underground so that our wristbands are somewhat unexpected and those who are hoping to gift the wristbands are somewhat secret. The idea of grace is VERY important when we discuss Love, that's why it HAS to be free. It has to be a free, unearned, token of appreciation, which brings us to our next point.
Our second stipulation is that we make efforts to give each band a special meaning and an associated story. We want each and every band to remind someone of something they did, something someone did for them, someone that appreciates them, etc. You're not a trick-or-treater and this isn't halloween.
Given these ideas, there is also a question of WHO. Do we target any particular group of people?
I want that to remain somewhat open. I want us to be free to target whoever we feel honestly needs to be touched and moved by this endeavor. It's your own perogative, just try not to water down the token of Love which I believe the wristbands can be, however silly that may sound.
Finally, we must remember that this is not REALLY about the wristbands. It's about Loving each other. It's about keeping our head up on the sidewalk so we can smile and say hello to passersbies. It's about walking with those who walk by themselves, eating with those at empty tables, and remaining open to be Loved and embraced by others.
That's about as simple as the summary is going to get. I hope to see this project become successful at APU, that is, I hope to see this project increase the friendliness and openness and Love found at APU. We should stand out, as a private Christian school.
We should be different, more Loving, and we should provide that atmosphere that no one else can provide.
We should want to encourage Love at APU, not for the sake of "obeying" rules or religious stipulations, but because we believe in the restoration power of Love.
