His name is Garret.
He wears a fanny pack.
He shoots you with a water gun.
He puts deoderant on in public and then offers it to you.
How disgusting.
He takes pictures of you and strangers because he likes to.
You all know someone like this.
It's Friday of Encounter.
Now for those of you who don't know what Encounter is, it's a camp on Lubbock Christian University's campus. It's a week long full of lectures and classes that challenge High School kids on their walk with Christ.
So i am sitting in the most talked about class called "relationships" on campus on Friday afternoon.
This is my second to last class of the year and something is going very awry.
Garret was in this class.
The class opens with a room full of enlarged games of Jenga made from 2x4 boards.
On these pieces of wood there are personality traits, some good, some bad.
The kids were told to only pick the good qualities that they would want in their future spouse, after all this is at a Church of Christ private college where marriage is a big deal.
Garret is in his group and he's a pro at this game but he doesn't seem to understand the rule of taking turns.
He plays out of turn; taking blocks whenever he so desires..
Pretty quickly the tower becomes very unstable and tumbles over.
The kids in his group are frustrated because he was just pulling random blocks so the fall was his fault.
They are told to rebuild and so they do, then all of a sudden water is falling on some of the kids.
Where is it coming from?
Garret.
He has a water gun and he is shooting people with it.
The teacher sees the gun and takes it from him telling him that he will give it back after class.
Garret now moves to another group to "help" them with their game which means their tower will quickly fall.
People are talking now because Garret moves to almost every group to "help" them.
He has another gun in his fanny pack and starts shooting kids again.
One boy gets pretty upset and makes a scene.
The teacher takes the second gun away.
At this point i am thinking that maybe i'll take Garret outside in the hall and sit with him while the other kids stay in the class so that he won't be a distraction.
Then a video starts.
There are kids in the video talking about "the guy with the fanny pack".
"He's annoying"
"I try to be nice because i feel bad"
"I want him to have friends, but is it bad that i don't want to be one of them?"
Garret at this point is covering his face, rocking back and forth.
People in the video are making fun and mocking him.
Then it hits us.
It's all an act.
This whole week has been an act.
See all week he's been pretending to be that guy that drives everyone crazy.
The one that people have a hard time loving.
His name is Garret and he just graduated from High School.
His youth minister, who is teaching the class, asked him 4 weeks before Encounter if he would play this part and Garret said yes.
He stood up in class and said, 'I thought it would be fun shooting people with a water gun. I thought i was tough and strong, but i'm not that strong. After being hated just the 1st day i got physically sick. I thought about quitting because i didn't like the reactions i got. I wanted to throw up but i decided to keep on acting.'
He said out of 700 people on campus there were only 6 people who actually befriended him instead of pittying him or making fun.
Garret played the part to help teach a lesson.
His youth minister then spoke of Garrets real personality.
Garret is the first person in the youth group to welcome a new comver even if they are different.
See, the love of Christ is unconditional.
Throughout the week he received comments like "what the heck are you doing?" as if he's an idoit.
Sadly that's not the worst of it.
Several people even said, "I am going to slit your throat man" or "I'm gonna kill you"
All over a water gun and pictures & this is at a church camp.
This sounds crazy but we've all done it.
Even the youth miniser told about how he was laughing at some kid his youth group goes to school with who does unbelieveable things and then he realized he was doing exactly the thing he was trying to teach against & this was on day 2 of Encounter.
He read us the scripture Matthew 5:48,
"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
The whole section before talks about loving your enemies and those who don't love you back.
vs 46. "For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
Do not even the tax collectors do the same?"
We're all flawed but we can strive to love perfectly like our heavenly father does.
Unconditionally.
It's a goal to strive for.
It's not easy nor will it always be comfortable, but it's what we're called to do as Christians.
Maybe you don't struggle with making fun of odd people because i don't, however i do struggle with making fun of girls.
It doesn't matter the type of person, what matters is your behavior.
One last thing Garret said was, "It's crazy how we think that the things we say about people will never get back to them, because it always will."
So i challenge you as i have been challenged, strive for perfection.
After class everyone was given a chance to appologize to Garret.
He has such a forgiving spirit which is recongnizable the moment you meet him.
He was called up on stage Friday night and was given a standing ovation.
Twice.
Garret is now the coolest kid at Encounter 2011.
