Hippie drum circle

I meant to post over the weekend but didn't find the time between building a chicken coop, playing a soccer game and transcribing an interview for a future blog post. Also because last night I enjoyed participating in my first hippie drum circle. This is why I love Austin: you can go for a dip in the freezing cold water at Barton Springs and then hop out to find your hips twitching from side to side of their own accord to the beats of a hippie drum circle not far away. My friend Chelsea and I decided to go and check it out. Across the the creek we found a big group of people dancing and hula hooping and reading poetry while a self assembled "band" played the sitar and the bongos. Chelsea wanted to hula hoop but I mostly just wanted to watch and observe. These people were in their own world. A lot of them had just come by themselves and had no qualms about closing their eyes and flopping around like a wet noodle. Let's just say that their moves would rival my own best awkward dancing. It would have been easy for me to laugh at them but the truth is I was jealous of how little they seemed to care about what other people were thinking.

But the longer I sat there and watched the more I realized I'm just like them, they're just like me. It may have looked like they didn't care about what others were thinking, but the truth is they probably were trying to prove their membership in that specific "clan". Just like how I try to prove my membership in the intellectual clan, or how hipsters try to be more hipstery or soccer moms try to be more soccer mommy. We're all looking for the same thing. And while I may try to throw in my lot with a specific crowd, ultimately I know it will not satisfy what I REALLY want, which is love, which is Jesus. I think sometimes we as Christians get into this rut of thinking about people on "us versus them terms". But the only difference between me and that group of hairy hippies is that I actually know what it is I long for. I've met Him. I've tasted and seen that He is good. And while I may see the deceivingly beautiful spread that the world has put out and sample the fare it has offered, at the end of the day I'm still hungry.  They long for the same thing I long for, they just haven't met him yet. They haven't tasted him yet.
Romans 8:22-23 says,
"For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies."

So as I laid back on the grass with the stars above me, the wind blowing my hair, and a naked baby dancing in front of me, I couldn't help but feel tied together to this group of people I didn't know, overcome with love for them. What a good gift it is when God gives us just a tiny glimpse of the never-ending expanse of His love for His children.