The Lockout was the bomb.

A little over 40 students converged at Clemmons UMC last weekend.  We played some fun games and listened to little ol' me talk about LOVE.  We all want love.  It's the basic thing in life we all live for, hope for, and search for.  And the only way to experience LOVE is (gasp) in relationship: with God and with others.

Put simply, we need people in order to know love.

So the idea of the lockout was not just for kids to go crazy, drink Red Bull, run through an inflatable obstacle course, and possibly sleep on a sidewalk (what?):

it was to know love.  specifically, God's love.

I could feel God's love around us all night.  Laughter between friends, encouraging words spoken when someone won a prize (Criston won the Wii, btw. sweetness), all of these things and more said LOVE to me.

Love was in the air, and it isn't stopping there.  As God loves on us, as He always is, we in turn must love others in the same way.  Christians are people of compassion.  People of mercy.  People of love. People who forgive much and see the best in people, who see people's potential - that's how God sees us.

So this summer, at Mt. Shepherd or CCC, we will show people love.  Crazy, house busting, over the top love.  Because it is only in relationships we can know and GIVE love.

Each week at Clemmons:One, we will show love to one another, pray for each other, even show love to skater kids who show up in the parking lot (we gave them some ice cream this past Sunday - shout out to Blaine, Evan, and Ann Marie for doing so).

But hey, be looking for the Lockout again next year, bigger and better and stronger.  It was the tops.

Clark