A Team Member Says Goodbye

Team Member Interns travel around the country as part of a team of four—two guys and two girls. Teams speak at schools, churches, and conferences about worldviews, pop-culture, discipleship, technology, and so much more. 

If you're interested or know someone who would be interested in being a traveling Team Member Intern for the 2014-2015 school year, please go to apply.axis.org for more details. Deadline to apply is May 15, 2014! We currently have spots available for 2 guys and 5 girls.

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I had the amazing opportunity of working for Axis for a year and a half. Looking back, I am amazed at how God was able to use me. He broke me and stretched me in so many incredible ways. 

Starting out, I had no idea what I was in for, and even after all this time at Axis, when I try to describe what I got to do, I can never do it justice. After my first trip, I had many people asking me how it was, what I thought, and if I liked it so far. Though it was a great first trip, I recall summing it up in three words: “It. Was. Hard.”

The biggest thing I have learned through my time at Axis is that God is able to use every situation. He is able to use me when I feel insecure and not good enough. There were times on the road when I felt so empty and drained, but God showed up, no matter where I was and no matter what I had done. I fail so often, but He has continued to show His grace and power every single day.

When I started, I was scared to simply start a conversation with high schoolers (they are intimidating!). But God started out strong with challenging me. He showed me a lot of doubts and insecurities I had not realized I was struggling with. Speaking to large groups has a way of doing that to you. And every time I presented, I felt like God was teaching me more through the presentation. When you start to talk about the same stuff over and over and ask students to ask themselves deep questions about their lives, it’s hard not to ask yourself the same questions. 

I have learned a lot about what the family of Christ looks like through my Internship with Axis. Yes, I have my biological family and my close friends, but traveling around the country has shown me how big my family really is. With every school, church, and host home we went to, my family got bigger and bigger. Now I have family all over the country—family that laughed, talked, and prayed with us and impacted us in more ways than they know. 

Every team I have been a part of has taught me something different and valuable. I learned about leadership and respect from my team directors. I learned about love and community from my fellow team members. I learned from the people that work at Axis what a servant heart looks like and was humbled by it many times. 

Don’t get me wrong—there are definitely differences and frustrations while traveling simply because of the nature of relationships, but what I learned from being in these relationships with others is love. It sounds so simple. Christ talks about loving others so much throughout the gospels, and He considers it the greatest commandment. Love. That is how we should be different—by how we love. 

Love is a decision, not just a feeling. In Scripture, Jesus calls us to love not just our neighbors but also our enemies. It is easy to love people who love you back, but I have learned that it is difficult to love when someone is hard to love or when he/she doesn’t love you back. When there are students who do not care or when I am frustrated with a team member, I still need to love, especially when it’s difficult.

Overall, Axis was more than just a job for me. When I look back on my time with Axis, I see faces:

Faces of the team members who were strangers initially but who turned into family and taught me so many things. 

Faces of host families who were so gracious to open their homes to us. 

Faces of administrators and teachers who were so encouraging and who work so hard to love their students amidst spiritual warfare. 

Faces of parents who want, so badly, to relate to and understand their kids because they love them.

And faces of students who have touched my life. Students who have had the courage to tell me their life stories that break my heart. Students I can pray for and have had conversations with and can see God’s amazing work in their lives. 

That is what Axis is about. And it is the hardest, most rewarding part of the Internship. 

—Kaitlin

YOLO

Where I'm from in rural Illinois, you can say almost anything about anyone as long as you follow it with, “bless your heart.”  For example, “He's so dumb he'd take a shower with a hairdryer to save time, bless his heart.”  In the past two years, another phrase has come into America's vocabulary that seems both equally useful and incomprehensible: YOLO.  For example, “Not sure if I can afford these shoes – YOLO!” or, “I may be too hungover for work tomorrow, but YOLO.”  So what is this mysterious be-all end-all of self-justifying phrases?

YOLO is the millennial grandchild of an idea that can trace its roots all the way back to ancient Rome.  The Roman lyric poet Horace, in his Odes, said carpe diem quam minimum credula postero, or roughly translated, "seize the day, putting as little trust as possible in the next.”  The sentiment is echoed in  Robert Herrick's 1648 poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time,” which admonishes its readers to “gather ye rosebuds while ye may.” In both instances, the argument is to value the time you have because you may not have more.  It's a noble sentiment, even Biblical, as in Ephesians 5: “Make the most of the time, for the days are evil.” But like all ideas, this one grew and changed with time.

The idea that was “Carpe Diem”and “Gather Ye Rosebuds” was reincarnated as “You Only Live Once” in early 2006, when The Strokes released a song by that title.  The phrase didn't really gain traction, however, until Canadian pop star Drake released the song “The Motto” in late 2011.  Among other explicit lyrics, the chorus includes, “You only live once ‒ that's the motto n***a, YOLO, And we 'bout it every day, every day, every day.”  This compressed the idea into an acronym, something quickly said and easily remembered.

As an acronym, YOLO exploded into youth culture, taking on a life of its own as shorthand for youthful exuberance and a devil-may-care, reckless abandon to living in the moment.  The sentiment went viral in popular music, as “The Motto” was followed by fun.'s single “We Are Young,” Ke$ha's “Die Young,” “Young, Wild and Free” featuring Wiz Khalifa and veteran rapper Snoop Dogg, “Live While We're Young” by trans-Atlantic sensation One Direction, and most recently “Live It Up” featuring Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull.  The common element in all of these lyrics is the pursuit of pleasure in the brief moment of youth without regard for consequence.  YOLO has become a popular hashtag in social media, and even a verb used  for any activity that fulfills the YOLO lifestyle, as in “a hard night of YOLO-ing.”

What makes YOLO so dangerous is that it has become a moral compass for the next generation - or perhaps more accurately, a substitute for one.  The gospel of YOLO is the frantic pursuit of pleasure while sacrificing foresight at the altar of  the moment. It's an excuse, a verbal “don't judge me” to accompany a moral shrug of the shoulders.  In its current incarnation YOLO looks less like “carpe diem” and more like a phrase echoed throughout the Bible, “eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” In Ecclesiastes the phrase is used by King Solomon to describe the vanity of the world.  In Isaiah, the phrase is used to describe the wicked conduct of a Judah that has turned its back on God.  In 1 Corinthians, Paul uses the phrase to describe what Christian faith would have to look like if the resurrection of Christ had not happened.  None of these are depictions of the fulfilling life YOLO promises.

Even more importantly, YOLO simply is not true: you only live twice.  The end of our lives is not the end of our existence, and the end goal of living is not simply to enjoy life as much as possible.  Making the most of every moment doesn't mean ignoring the consequences.

This generation didn't invent YOLO, but embraced it as an anthem, and in that anthem they embrace a philosophy without limits and dignity.

What consequences do you see to living to the tune of YOLO? Comment below and continue the discussion...

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This post was written by Lucas Zellers, our summer intern.