What was David's Tent 2012?

I still daren't post on what happened at this years David's Tent. Unlike any other exciting event or occurence in life, though it blew me away, it was such a holy experience that I don't really feel comfortable to fully comment on it for a while. There are plenty of blogs at the moment where you can read about it though by Mark, Allan and Sarah. (click the names to read their summaries on this year).

As for 2012 however...
I never thought to imagine a reality of being able to dance in worship. I would think things like "this isn't for me" and "i'm called to sing, dancing is great for others". I liked the idea of dancing, don't get me wrong, but it wasn't for me. I didn't even dance in the privacy of my own home when nobody was watching, let alone in public! A friend of mine in February of 2012 told me that there was dance coming for me, that i'd be dancing more. I thought it was a lovely word, but I didn't get any goosebumps when I heard this.

In April I went to a student and young adults conference which was exciting in many different ways. One of the topics someone spoke on was saying no to fear, and I felt that I needed to take some kind of active participation by stepping out against fear. As soon as the talk ended they invited people to come and sign up for a talent show (something I would never actually offer to do!) and yet I felt that this was a perfect opportunity to step out in faith. So I signed up, told my friends I was going to do it, then realized I couldn't chicken out now they knew I had committed to performing! The gig came and went, and I felt that it was a significant step. The day after I got back from the conference I had this song 'London's Burning' stuck in my head. It came from nowhere in particular I thought- I hadn't watched any fire related tv programs, nor was London especially on my radar.

Then, the day afterwards a magazine came through my door. I flicked through in nonchalantly, and then came to the back page. In huge, bold letters, it said 'LONDONS BURNING 2012'. Long story short, I ended up going to this camp thing called David's Tent.

In May of 2012 I arrived rather late to this christian camp, after getting a little bit lost somewhere on the A283. The weather was beautiful, it was hot, the fields were green and I was going to spend some time with my friend on her birthday. I'm not really sure I had any expectations for the weekend I was there. I was looking forward to hearing Shawn Bolz speak as well as listening to Jason Upton leading worship, and imagined it would be quite good. As soon as I stepped foot into that white tent, I was hit by a sense of "is this even allowed?!" What blew me away was the amazing freedom from *fear of man in the place. The visual possibilities of freedom manifested and paraded in front of my eyes. *fear of man: being restricted by fear of what other people will think of you. Basically being more aware of self than God.

I realized even in those moments of walking into the tent, that this had been the wordless cry of my heart. I had not prayed specifically for such a thing to happen, but I knew whilst being there that I had hungered to be amongst people who had an open passion to keep God the main focus of every part of their lives, to worship and praise God for hours and to have the unhurried facilities to deliberately listen to what God wanted to say to me. In those few days I was there, I found myself actually dancing as I praised God! In public as well! And, this has continued throughout the year, not just for that particular event. I can see my friend's word coming to pass, though I had no real intentions initially of partnering with that word.

I think, you know, i'm just coming into that freedom of being able to express what I really want to express before God. Rather than accepting the apparent cultural norms of emotional constipation, I am being released from that absurdity. Rather than being assigned to church 'mooing'* for the rest of my life, I am being released to shout and cry out and bear my soul before the LORD, and be open and honest with Him both privately and publically. *when rather than saying 'amen' or 'good word', the mooer goes 'mmm' with various levels of enthusiasm. It sounds like mooing to me. Note: I often moo in church. lol 

"Wakey, Wakey!"