Back from another fantastic Autumn Soul! Young people encountering God, encouraged to pray, to serve, to love. All good.
The speaker, Paul Flavel, was listening to God. He hit a lot of targets, real things that real teenagers are going through. One of his comments caught my attention – about going back to school and being called a ‘Jesus loving… loser-head’. It brought it all back to me! I remember walking down the school corridor, aged about 13, being pushed about a bit and being called something similar. It upset me hugely.
But there is a certain reality to those words – first, I was and am a Jesus-lover. And I’m not ashamed to be so. Second, when I was in school (and let’s face it, today) I was a geek, not cool, and a loser in the “World’s” eyes. And that’s fine with me too – I’m counting it all as dog poo for the sake of knowing Jesus.
So today I’m forgiving the guy who said it (he’s probably a lovely chap with beautiful children now) and praying for the people at Autumn Soul who today go back to school and are called to be Jesus-loving loser-heads.