It all started with an Eiffel Tower...wait what does an Eiffel Tower have to do with Australia? Well I'm going to take a quick segue (no not that motor scooter, though they are pretty great if you've never ridden one but now I've segwayed further). It all has to do with a feeling I got in France.
Last summer, I went and visited London, Dublin, and Paris. It was all great and saw so many interesting things and blah blah blah. I vividly remember going to see the Eiffel Tower and thinking how iconic and amazing its supposed to be and there I was staring it right in the face.. It felt like this completely romantic moment you build up in your head, she's standing right there and the light hits her just right... and then you wake up and realize you are making out with your pillow. It gave me an epiphany of sorts.
I realized that traveling and seeing things does not in itself actually make me happy. In the moment its great, but then you are always longing for the moment or looking for the next great adventure to fill you up. People will find this true with a lot of different things they think they are passionate about whether it be girls, cars, new toys, drinking, drugs whatever. You are always looking for that new fix or something better that's coming out. When you step out of the situation, you realize there is a void there.
Shortly after, I started to read the book "Desiring God" which opened my eyes to where my passions should lie. Its with God and His word. Many of us seek Him in pain, in anguish, in sorrow but often don't seek him for Joy. Trust me it ain't easy. Sin is easy, making mistakes is easy and sometimes necessary but actually, truly, honestly, seeking your Joy in God though difficult has the best reward. The Hillsong conference itself was a chance for me to jump out of my ruts and routines and put God and His work within me ahead of everything else.
Jumping off my segway!
Its funny for me to look at my life and the turns its taken to even bring me to the conference. A year ago, I never even heard of Hillsong. Two months ago I never knew what the Hillsong conference was. I just happened to be sitting down with the pastor of our church, Taka, and another teacher, Steve. They were talking about going to the Hillsong Conference in Sydney. I had joked that I wanted to go. I didn't even take myself seriously. But I decided after that just to randomly look into it. Around the same time, I felt the need to just get out and travel. It just always stayed on my mind.
I couldn't quite get the week off, it wasn't cheap, I would have to miss some of the conference...was it really worth it? Its easy to let this doubt get in your way of taking action. I could have saw these issues and went alright I guess I just won't go and moved on with normal. Being in my 3rd year here in Japan, I've been feeling I'm in this funk of going through the motions with life, getting tired of what was normal. I felt God calling me to stop sitting back. Instead of going with the easy eh I guess it won't work, I decided to just say "Hey if I get the time off I'm just gonna go for it, No Turning Back." So that's what I did.
I flew out the 2nd day of the conference with a 5 hour layover in Seoul. Jumping on my Segway for a minute again. Incheon airport is probably one of the best airports I have ever been to. Its huge and has a mall, hotel, free showers, a museum and more without ever leaving the international terminal. Also, Asiana Airlines is great. The meals on the plane were actually edible and they even give you slippers, and ports to plug in your electronic devices in the remedial (economy) class. Also, yet again I had no delays or cancels. I actually flew back to Korea the same day that Asiana flight crashed from Seoul to San Francisco. Definitely makes you a little nervous flying but ultimately you can't let the fear of falling keep you jumping to new heights and adventures.
Sorry Segways are very fun to ride. Back to the reason you are reading this:
I flew into Sydney, Wednesday and went straight to the arena where I met up with the pastor of the church I attend out here. They were staying with family and were gracious enough to let me stay with them for 2 of the nights I was in Sydney and really made me feel at home.
I got into Allphones arena, exhausted but excited to get in that environment. There were tons of people everywhere and they spoke English. I forget people do that in other countries haha. Though I was tired I really tried to soak up the teachings and worship time. They days broke down like this.
9:00 Message and worship time
12:00 Lunch and discussion time with different people that were speaking or performing.
1:00-4:00 break out sessions.
5:00 Random stuff with some Australian comedian team on stage.
6:00 Worship time and message
It was all just really amazing and spiritually what I needed. Worship time was the best I've experienced. I could write a blog post on that alone I think. Most of the speakers had really interesting and positive things to say. I could talk about each day and everything that was said but that would turn into a really long post and if you're interested in knowing more detail or my experience feel free to talk to me. Right now my mind is racing about the different things I could talk about. I'll just give a quick recap of some main points.
TD Jakes: a crowd favorite. He has an infectious ability that just draws you into what he has to say. Main message: God doesn't need anything you lost to heal you. He will use what you have left. He talked about a zoologist guiding him and could tell everything about it but couldn't find it then a Zulu guy driving them around says the elephant is over there. People can study the Bible quote it and what not but if you don't have a relationship with God you will miss out on the point.
Joel Olsteen: I know people that will roll their eyes as soon as his name is uttered. For people that don't know he is known to preach "Prosperity Gospel." If you are faithful God will give you what you really want, promotions, business, etc. I tried to stay open minded here for his talk.Here's my take: He is a man that does love God, he has lots of good points on how to be happy. I found myself agreeing with him for some things he said. I found myself going "well if you just stopped there I couldn't argue against you" BBUUT he takes the plunge. After worship time, said get out your Bibles then went on a rant about how great his church is and how he never wanted to be a preacher but God put him in the position. Then went on to say if you are faithful you deserve to be rewarded and God will reward you with jobs and success. It sounds really good and that's why he has a following. I just don't see that in the Bible. Which was proven by the fact that he never quoted anything from scripture or opened his bible in the 60 minutes he was given to talk. Being faithful to God SO THAT you get some Earthly gain is ridiculous. I could rant about all the negatives but honestly, the crucial thing in your own walk with God is that you find out for yourself who He is and what He is about. We don't worship the man on the stage and nor are we qualified to judge him as a person.
Charles Nieman: He was a last minute addition. He was very genuine in his talk and faith. He talked about his wife dying of cancer. His main message was: Gathering with people of God is essential, when life is tough don't leave church. Let God into the NOW moment when you are dealing with the pain. He will help you stand up. Bitterness creates a root and can seep into other areas of your life. Choose to be recovered. God's hope is our anchor for our souls.
Craig Groeschel: He is the pastor of lifechurch.tv and also the youversion bible app most people have. He's funny and speaks plainly. Main message: be adventurous and courageous with your walk with God. Don't just stay comfortable and be afraid to fail. Failure isn't a person its an event. Its the first step toward success. I'm currently reading his book, The Christian Atheist, its really good and an easy read. It takes a lot of problems we go through as "Christians" that keep us from truly being Christian. I found a lot of myself in the chapters. I HIGHLY recommend it.
Judah Smith: He's a seventh generation pastor and speaks well to the younger crowd. His main message is that God loves us in spite of us. I've been watching a lot of his sermons on youtube lately.
I know the quick summary doesn't even begin to explain all the different stories told by these people and their messages.
Overall, it was a great conference. The whole theme was revival and it felt like it was exactly what I needed. I was glad that I went to this conference in a place I've never been before all by myself. It allowed me to just push everything else out and really focus on God and his work within me. I didn't care what people around me were doing I just focused on Him.
My biggest piece of advice for people that know of God but don't really know him, or like me thought he was this distant creature that I can never have/don't deserve a real relationship with, seek Him out for yourself. Don't let religion or what you think you know about him, or what people told you about Him get in the way of you KNOWing Him. Trust me, I'm far from righteous and deserving yet I know God loves me and wants a real relationship with me. If you told me if I'd say that sentence a year ago, I'd think you're chewing paint chips and it sounds hokey. One thing I can say for certain through my experience and connection with Him in the conference is God truly IS. Don't be afraid to let Him in.
...Going to ride my Segway for the rest of this post.
I did get one free day in Sydney which I used to see as much as I could. One thing about Australia that I noticed right away is that it feels just like America. The style, roads, music, everything besides the accent. Saturday I went to the Opera House and took a tour (travel tip: the tour is $35 and not worth it. You can get a better sense of the history on the discovery channel.). After the opera house, I went on a boat to Darling Harbour. There's tons of restaurants and things over there. I tried to fill in my Sydney Bucket list as much as I could: Opera House, see a koala, play a didgeridoo, eat a kangaroo, wrestle a kangaroo, and watch "Man of Steel." It was a pretty full day. There were a billion other things I wanted to do but didn't have money or time to do.
Sydney was a lot of fun and probably the most expensive city I have ever been to (2. London, 3.Singapore) . If you are eating out and plan on visiting anywhere be prepared to spend $$$. I would love to go back again someday!
Last summer, I went and visited London, Dublin, and Paris. It was all great and saw so many interesting things and blah blah blah. I vividly remember going to see the Eiffel Tower and thinking how iconic and amazing its supposed to be and there I was staring it right in the face.. It felt like this completely romantic moment you build up in your head, she's standing right there and the light hits her just right... and then you wake up and realize you are making out with your pillow. It gave me an epiphany of sorts.
I realized that traveling and seeing things does not in itself actually make me happy. In the moment its great, but then you are always longing for the moment or looking for the next great adventure to fill you up. People will find this true with a lot of different things they think they are passionate about whether it be girls, cars, new toys, drinking, drugs whatever. You are always looking for that new fix or something better that's coming out. When you step out of the situation, you realize there is a void there.
Shortly after, I started to read the book "Desiring God" which opened my eyes to where my passions should lie. Its with God and His word. Many of us seek Him in pain, in anguish, in sorrow but often don't seek him for Joy. Trust me it ain't easy. Sin is easy, making mistakes is easy and sometimes necessary but actually, truly, honestly, seeking your Joy in God though difficult has the best reward. The Hillsong conference itself was a chance for me to jump out of my ruts and routines and put God and His work within me ahead of everything else.
Jumping off my segway!
Its funny for me to look at my life and the turns its taken to even bring me to the conference. A year ago, I never even heard of Hillsong. Two months ago I never knew what the Hillsong conference was. I just happened to be sitting down with the pastor of our church, Taka, and another teacher, Steve. They were talking about going to the Hillsong Conference in Sydney. I had joked that I wanted to go. I didn't even take myself seriously. But I decided after that just to randomly look into it. Around the same time, I felt the need to just get out and travel. It just always stayed on my mind.
I couldn't quite get the week off, it wasn't cheap, I would have to miss some of the conference...was it really worth it? Its easy to let this doubt get in your way of taking action. I could have saw these issues and went alright I guess I just won't go and moved on with normal. Being in my 3rd year here in Japan, I've been feeling I'm in this funk of going through the motions with life, getting tired of what was normal. I felt God calling me to stop sitting back. Instead of going with the easy eh I guess it won't work, I decided to just say "Hey if I get the time off I'm just gonna go for it, No Turning Back." So that's what I did.
I flew out the 2nd day of the conference with a 5 hour layover in Seoul. Jumping on my Segway for a minute again. Incheon airport is probably one of the best airports I have ever been to. Its huge and has a mall, hotel, free showers, a museum and more without ever leaving the international terminal. Also, Asiana Airlines is great. The meals on the plane were actually edible and they even give you slippers, and ports to plug in your electronic devices in the remedial (economy) class. Also, yet again I had no delays or cancels. I actually flew back to Korea the same day that Asiana flight crashed from Seoul to San Francisco. Definitely makes you a little nervous flying but ultimately you can't let the fear of falling keep you jumping to new heights and adventures.
Sorry Segways are very fun to ride. Back to the reason you are reading this:
I flew into Sydney, Wednesday and went straight to the arena where I met up with the pastor of the church I attend out here. They were staying with family and were gracious enough to let me stay with them for 2 of the nights I was in Sydney and really made me feel at home.
I got into Allphones arena, exhausted but excited to get in that environment. There were tons of people everywhere and they spoke English. I forget people do that in other countries haha. Though I was tired I really tried to soak up the teachings and worship time. They days broke down like this.9:00 Message and worship time
12:00 Lunch and discussion time with different people that were speaking or performing.
1:00-4:00 break out sessions.
5:00 Random stuff with some Australian comedian team on stage.
6:00 Worship time and message
It was all just really amazing and spiritually what I needed. Worship time was the best I've experienced. I could write a blog post on that alone I think. Most of the speakers had really interesting and positive things to say. I could talk about each day and everything that was said but that would turn into a really long post and if you're interested in knowing more detail or my experience feel free to talk to me. Right now my mind is racing about the different things I could talk about. I'll just give a quick recap of some main points.
TD Jakes: a crowd favorite. He has an infectious ability that just draws you into what he has to say. Main message: God doesn't need anything you lost to heal you. He will use what you have left. He talked about a zoologist guiding him and could tell everything about it but couldn't find it then a Zulu guy driving them around says the elephant is over there. People can study the Bible quote it and what not but if you don't have a relationship with God you will miss out on the point. |
| Dosing off |
Charles Nieman: He was a last minute addition. He was very genuine in his talk and faith. He talked about his wife dying of cancer. His main message was: Gathering with people of God is essential, when life is tough don't leave church. Let God into the NOW moment when you are dealing with the pain. He will help you stand up. Bitterness creates a root and can seep into other areas of your life. Choose to be recovered. God's hope is our anchor for our souls.
Craig Groeschel: He is the pastor of lifechurch.tv and also the youversion bible app most people have. He's funny and speaks plainly. Main message: be adventurous and courageous with your walk with God. Don't just stay comfortable and be afraid to fail. Failure isn't a person its an event. Its the first step toward success. I'm currently reading his book, The Christian Atheist, its really good and an easy read. It takes a lot of problems we go through as "Christians" that keep us from truly being Christian. I found a lot of myself in the chapters. I HIGHLY recommend it.
 |
| He didn't put up much of a fight |
I know the quick summary doesn't even begin to explain all the different stories told by these people and their messages.
Overall, it was a great conference. The whole theme was revival and it felt like it was exactly what I needed. I was glad that I went to this conference in a place I've never been before all by myself. It allowed me to just push everything else out and really focus on God and his work within me. I didn't care what people around me were doing I just focused on Him.
My biggest piece of advice for people that know of God but don't really know him, or like me thought he was this distant creature that I can never have/don't deserve a real relationship with, seek Him out for yourself. Don't let religion or what you think you know about him, or what people told you about Him get in the way of you KNOWing Him. Trust me, I'm far from righteous and deserving yet I know God loves me and wants a real relationship with me. If you told me if I'd say that sentence a year ago, I'd think you're chewing paint chips and it sounds hokey. One thing I can say for certain through my experience and connection with Him in the conference is God truly IS. Don't be afraid to let Him in.
...Going to ride my Segway for the rest of this post. |
| playing a didgeridoo |
 |
| Kangaroo steak |
Sydney was a lot of fun and probably the most expensive city I have ever been to (2. London, 3.Singapore) . If you are eating out and plan on visiting anywhere be prepared to spend $$$. I would love to go back again someday!
