the.slow.down

well just started the silence of adam by crabb, and man does it resonate!  maybe it’s with all this fall stuff kicking off, i don’t know but it is good. very insightful and honest.  and it isn’t good in the sense that it offers anything new or flashy, a good formula to fix stuff, but rather it returns to the old paths, to seeking God, desperation before Him, and a patience perseverance in the midst of continual suffering.

more to come, just real good stuff…

well loads of freshmen have hauled their stuff up the stairs in residence halls all over campus.  it’s an exciting time and it will be great to see what the Lord has in store over the next few days and weeks.

my prayer is that as a church we can love those in our midst, genuinely reach out to meet needs, to befriend, to listen, and to help regardless of what that looks like.  i pray that many would come to see Jesus as not “the man keeping them down” but rather one who just wants to bring them real life. i pray that all the callous and loud noise would be removed that contemplation could take place and students could hear and see God drawing them.

abuzz. the word of the day. active or busy.

campus is abuzz.  grad students are back.  indiana academy kids have been back.  internationals are back.  campus staff and professors are back. most off campus people are back, and things are abuzz.

this is always an exciting time of year, as you get to catch up with folks you haven’t seen all summer, and get to meet a whole crop of new freshmen who this is all so new to.  it’s fun and it’s also extremely interesting to me.  it’s interesting to sit back and think about the profound nature of it all. the college experience. two roads diverged in a wood.  it’s like that robert frost poem that i’m probably misquoting.  but it really is.  so everyone shows up at college, bringing with them their own story. some successful, some broken, some barely managing to make it here, some lazy and coasting, some driven and on task.  it’s interesting what happens at college.

it’s an opportunity to rise above, grow, excel, and learn about the world and at the same time a trap to get caught in, a place to miss it all, a time period to be wasted on xbox and beer, an experience that stunts your growth as a person.

so it’s all those things for people socially and emotionally and professionally.  it’s also that way spiritually.  we can either ask the questions,  or look the other way.  we can either learn to know ourslves with honesty,  or live under false pretenses about ourselves.  we can either stop and listen for this “God” person or we can turn up the music, activities, entertainment, etc. and drown Him at, at the expense to ourselves.

i guess my prayer is that as 4500, or whatever it is, new freshmen roll into the residence halls this summer that many of them would hear from God, humble themselves in honesty, and ask and begin to deal with the hard questions.  my prayer is that many would engage with the Lord, seek him and find Him.