A Great Greenbelt Weekend

So, at the last Seek His Face (next one coming up soon), the band were talking about going to Rivercamp, which is held over the August bank holiday-the same weekend as Greenbelt. So you might think that would be an easy decision for me, as anyone who knows me well knows I don't really like Greenbelt. (This isn't anything to do with Greenbelt itself, really, it's just that it feels too big for me to be really comfortable.) But Rivercamp, although not that far away, is just far enough that I would need a lift to be able to get there. However, I did feel that maybe, just maybe, I should make the effort to do so.

That's sort of by way of being a prologue. That thought, or something similar, continued to buzz round my head for the rest of the week. The main thing that was happening that week was a friend coming to stay the night before he went off to Greenbelt himself. Which was unfortunately a bit short -just one night- but it was great, as he doesn't live locally, and he'd just come back from travelling round New Zealand, so it was going to be good to catch up with him. So we sorted that out with my housemate, and figured out when he was going to get into Cheltenham, and I met him off the coach; ready for an evening's entertainment. We needed to get something to eat, as he'd just been travelling for about 5 hours (and there was no point in me getting food separately), so we went to a pub-where we ate, and then happily stayed for the next couple of hours.
We had a pint with our meals, and then decided to experiment a bit with the cocktail menu. By avoiding the pitchers, we had the possibility of trying quite a few more, including ones we hadn't tried before. Or for a while-like the red Aftershock, which used to be cinnamon and is now citrus. We bought a couple of rounds each, which I struggled with, not because I didn't have the money, but because my natural inclination is not to spend it -even on myself. But a while back, God spoke to me about being generous as a general way of living; and, though I'm still not good at it, I knew that I want to be. So I made the effort. And then we went home, where he met my housemate. And they immediately got into a long conversation. Which was good. And after that, we prayed. One of the things we prayed about was the buzzing thought that I should maybe go to Rivercamp. Or Greenbelt. Or something.

And so, the next day, off to work I went. Early in the morning for a change. And I met up with a friend after work. His last day home before going back to the army. And the Saturday was the same, as far as getting up early went. But I went out in the evening that time. I met up with a friend after work, and when I met her, I saw another friend who was only around for the day, purely by coincidence (maybe). And we ended up going to the cinema and seeing 'Kick-Ass 2'. Which was great-but quite different from the book. Which is hardly surprising, as I don't think they'd have been able to get a certificate if they'd filmed the book exactly. Sunday I ended up relaxing most of the day. Another friend phoned at some point and asked if I wanted to go to Greenbelt with him, but quite frankly, I was just too tired. I ended up going to church, which turned out to be fantastic. Apart from church itself being great, there were some friends of mine I hadn't seen for months-who also have been away recently. So, that was amazing. We caught up a bit, and chatted about going to Cwmbran, where they have been quite a few times recently. They said they'd be willing to give me a lift at some point when they go, so I look forward to that.

So, I ended up not doing anything out of the ordinary particularly that weekend, but I do think that thought was from God. Because of that, I thought about going to church or going somewhere else. It wasn't exactly as usual, as I hadn't actually been to my church for 3 or 4 weeks. The things that stuck in my mind about it are about being intentional, that often it doesn't matter what you do so much as actually choosing something. And also that relationships are important. Both of which I kind of knew/know, but that whole process really brought it home to me.