Tuesday, August 3, 2010

They tamed him and the color of the wheat was different.....

I am sitting on my porch the night after our school the "18 inch Journey" ended. I feel super emotional...I keep reflecting on a moment I had with Cadence, my 8 year old son last night...we were at our house eating freshly made pound cake, with a lemon glaze sauce drinking coffee and getting ready to do our last night of encouraging each other. By that I mean we were sitting around one by one telling each other the things that we love about one another and speaking life into each others hearts. You don't realize how much you crave encouragement until your sitting in that chair. Cadence asked to stay up and I said no its time for bed, he called me into the pantry closed the door and said, "Please mom." I started to say no again...but I quickly saw tears streaming down his face. He looked me in the eyes in a way he never has before and said, "why does it have to go by so fast, it was like a flash of lighting. I am going to miss the students so much." In that moment I realized that my little 8 year old son had received a revelation from heaven. He really felt the pain of love. He began to tell me that all day he had thoughts of the first day they arrived, he remembered waking up and being so excited to go down to the farm and meet them all. His new family for 2 months. So many memories he said as he uncontrollably cried in my arms. I know it would seem that I am exaggerating the moment but it was so intense I cried and cried with him, not knowing what to say. I realized in that moment that my 8 year old was really learning how to love. They tamed him and the color of the wheat was different. [taken from the Little Prince a children's book we read this summer] We sat in our living room all 25 of us circled up one by one loving on one another, and Cadence Zion laid down in the center and fell asleep surrounded by love. For all of you who don't really know what we do in the summer...Here is a simple picture. We have a school in June and July for 60 days. Where we have about 15 students and 10 staff and a lot of the Holy Spirit. In this school we don't teach them how to be amazing worship leaders or incredible artists we don't even teach them how to do ministry really well. We teach them how to love...love each other, love the Lord and love themselves. We teach them how to live lives of extravagance and give themselves to the dream of God over their life. Yep in the middle of no where in Sophia, NC we took twenty-five, 18-25 year olds on a journey, an 18 inch journey, to be exact. The longest journey we ever make is the journey from our heads to our hearts. I could blog all day and all night about the little moments that made up the journey but I would subject myself to a lot of tears and I think I have run out. I cry because I am alive. And tonight I am swimming in a river of thanksgiving for the overwhelming love of the father. He came so intentionally this summer and I can't believe it is over.

Melissa Helser

9 comments:

  1. Thank you for your obedience to walk with people into the love of God. Nearly a year ago I was led to A Place For the Heart website. I no longer can remember how I landed on it, but as a result I have felt so blessed. There was something that resonated in my heart that day, and chose to write an e-mail to Ken to communicate the encouragement I felt by all that I read. It began a chain of e-mail conversations, in which I learned about the Father in completely new ways, and as I was introduced to your music I lept inside as I worshipped through it. My husband David and I feel so blessed to have crossed paths with A Place For the Heart, your family, and pray that we will be able to come visit. When we learned of the 18 inch journey school- we began to pray. That is the journey in which one, as you mentioned in your blog, not only knows love, but steps into and embraces it. A person comes alive. It is our prayer that God continues to use you to lead people in this way, and although we have never met.. we are committed to praying and supporting you.

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  2. I began to cry as I read this post....completely blindsided by the wave of undemanding comfort that rolled me. I, too, felt surrounded by that circle of love and let my heart take it slowly in...sip by sip...all the way down to my hiding places.
    I'm still weak with it.
    And grateful.
    So, so grateful.
    Love to you all,
    Jennifer

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  3. Thank you so much for sharing this, it's so good! Also thank you at least just as much for sharing your worship online, it has brought me into many great moments with the Lord.
    Gerben de Vries (former MorningStar student)

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  4. What a beautiful picture you painted of love. I love that your son experienced it by all that you were sharing with your group of young people. Such a gift to his heart.

    Beautiful Father... beautiful love.

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  5. Melissa, i am rocked by this as I am learning how to love myself, learning how to receive His love, people's love...learning how to be loved, that i may love as He loves.

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  6. Thanks for sharing this story, guys. It truly is the "pain of love" isn't it?

    I was remembering my dad telling me years ago that he wondered if sometimes that 18-inch journey isn't the other way around. Like God has put this revelation in our hearts that we just can't conceive of all at once.

    Either way, it is a magnificent thing when our Father opens our eyes and we can walk away from a thing eternally changed by His love!

    Blessings,
    Janna

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  7. This story was so beautiful, it ministered to me so much. I love so hard and deep and I never want it to end with those that He loves. I want to be that child laying in the middle of the floor surrounded by love and then I want to do it for others as well. Thank you for sharing

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  8. Your words have penetrated my heart and allowed Him room to be revealed, known and seen.

    http://shedancesfree.blogspot.com/

    Thank you so much!

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  9. This absolutely wrecked me when I read it. Isn't that what it's ALL about? It's not the profound words, the awesome melodies, or any techniques we can learn from worship leaders we admire.. it's ALL about being loved by God and learning how to love.

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