Chasing Glowsticks

After the first full week of school wrapped up, this Friday night, we were all excited to escape the blistering heat under the Berkeley sun for our first message series of the year: Chasing. Meeting up at Durant Loft, of course, we couldn't get started without getting to know our group a little bit more, so naturally, we were able to meet more people by assassinating each other! Each handshake and introduction was a potential crime scene, but fortunately we had our civilian heroes step in and eliminate the killers one by one. It was a tense game with our friends slowly killed off, but a ton of fun to play.

Kevan then told us a story about four friends chasing and seeking something for their paralytic friend: healing. It's a story told in the Bible in the book of Mark, and Jesus shocks an entire audience with a simple sentence, "Son, your sins are forgiven." This happens after a paralyzed man gets lowered from the ceiling by his friends, for the sole purpose of Jesus providing physical healing to this man.

Instead, Jesus turns the tables on them, claiming that the healing that they are chasing after is wrong, that the first priority for the paralytic is the need to be forgiven. An incredible claim, and we really have to reconsider the identity of this man Jesus through this incredible statement, that this stranger man is being forgiven of his sins. Who is this person that outrageously suggests that he has the power and the authority to forgive other people's sins? Kevan posed this question to us, and it's something that we all need to think about and take seriously.

After our time at Durant Loft wrapped up with Kevan, Josh K explained to us perhaps the most absurd game ever to be fathomed by human existence. We played full-body rock-paper-scissors out on campus near the Campanile in order to stake our claim for glowsticks that were hidden in the grass around the area. Through the night, we heard cries of anguish and screams of delight, as teams battled it out desperately to snag the glimmering colorful treasures. In the end, we're not even sure which team won, but we celebrated altogether back at Durant Loft with ice cream, board games, and some of the best musical jamming Klesis has ever seen!

Join us next time!