For the first time in a long while, we arrived at Tottenham Court Road station a solid 15mins before service and decided to grab some much needed drinks and fruit salad as London was literally burning! At 3:30pm prompt, we strolled into the theatre and were met by a crowd of gorgeous, happy, energetic and friendly fellow Hillsongers (just made that up lol). Although we were early, church was already BUZZING and we felt very at home. Anyways, praise & worship commenced shortly after we had settled into our ushered seats and smiled at the fit guys and girls seated around us (another great thing about Hillsong, everyone is beautiful no lie). As always, the set was brilliant and uplifting, people had their hands in the air, waving and worshipping God in a way that was attractive and reminiscent of a concert minus the guilt of idolatry (my youngest sister who went for the 02 Wireless Festival told me she had felt uncomfortable with the JayHova-worship she witnessed when Jay performed Encore). Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, John B stepped on stage and he was the epitome of what I like to call "graceful swag". He literally bounced on stage and told us (in his Yankee drawl) that he recently became a grandfather, and felt 25 even though he was 50. He had an undeniable supernatural swag, the type that comes from knowing you have an intimate and ordained relationship with God. The type you feel before you see and the type you can't seem to put a finger on but want to have no matter what. A spirit filled kind of swag and literally everyone in that church was radiating with it. It was enticing and made his sermon that much special as he had come with the message of what it means to be EXTRAORDINARY, especially in a world where mediocrity is celebrated.
At some point, he asked us: Why do you go to the world for creativity, when the one who created the world, lives in you!!?" This to me was the highlight of his sermon, as I have always had a problem with unoriginality. I believe it is lazy, a quick fix and I could go on but the world is full of clones at the moment and his question simply showed us this shouldn't be so. He went on to say there is a God given innate desire for us to live extraordinary lives and backed this up with statistical data which showed that the top selling movies of all times are usually centred around people living extraordinary lives like Superman, Batman, Indiana Jones etc. As an avid people watcher and big live-r (i.e. someone who loves to live life BIG lol), I gained a better understanding of myself, my goals and my dreams for my future. John's message gave me the kind of swag you can't buy, inherit or merit. It is a kind of swag that only God's grace gives, the same grace that empowers us to go beyond our natural ability (2 Corinthians 12:9). Not the kind of conditional swag that comes from your financial status, material possessions or accomplishments in life. As the sermon ended, my sisters decided a Ping Pong late lunch was in order, so we strutted down Oxford Circus with our new found G-Swag and I can tell ya, everyone was feeling it ;-)
