My first whiff of upcoming college freshmen (My lament for myself)

The college age is preparing to bring in the next high school senior class. *WARNING* *CRITICAL ALERT* Please do not read any farther if you are a high school senior, college freshman, or sensitive person who sees all people as truly and deeply unique.

So, as I was getting to, the college age is preparing to bring in the next high school senior class. I don’t know if it is obsessive amount of House that I have watched lately or just the amount of years I have under me now in college age ministry, but I have a tough time not being bored. All things repeat, all things repeat. It is so hard for me to look at a senior and not describe to them their next 2 years of life, and the worst part is that if I allow myself to do it, I am almost always right. It’s not that I am super intelligent, just observant. Seniors will soon graduate and talk of being friends forever, play the same songs at their graduation, and embrace the extreme perpetual nature of pre-adulthood until they are shocked into reality by true responsibility or irrelevancy. The permission of society to see ones self as an independent individual goes rapidly to the brain and eats away the essence of intelligence. I really don’t think that this is avoidable, it is part of growing up, maturing.

I just wish one thing: that they would know why. I have always stated the importance of the question why. It is what separates the foolish college freshman and the foolish college freshman who understands why they are foolish (Foolishness in college freshmen is hard to avoid). And understanding why is half the battle (No GI Joe history here). Now as I want all those who are Christians to continue to grow in Him, for those that leave Him or will leave Him, I long for an honest look at why. I wish they would own up to the truth: I had my parents faith, I am too weak to avoid temptation, I was a Christian by association only, whatever. Any of those things are better than the trailing off of faith as they sit for the first time ever with their parents in the back of the worship center.

I guess it’s the predictability that breaks my heart. The repetitiveness of promises made and not understood, the pleading of friends, family, and ministers to maintain consistency, the arrogance of believing that one has arrived, the cold shoulder of perceived normality. Maybe I do want seniors to read this, maybe it will open our eyes. And maybe it will push me to the best possible and predicable end: pleading with God again for strength and their souls.

The Freedom of Me (Identity-Part 3)

Who am I? As I was filling out my personal info on my blogger site it asked me to describe myself. I quickly went to what I do, where I live, and who I am connected to. Pity me if one of those things change. I later asked my young adult D-group do identify themselves without using position or action…they couldn’t do it. I guess a better question would be: what are the eternal parts of me? My job isn’t, or my position, or even my family dynamic. My looks, back account, or even my sinful nature aren’t eternal. What is left and how do I measure it?

I would love to think that my hopes, dreams, aspirations are all eternal things, but it is often difficult for me to separate these from my aforementioned damned companion. (My sin nature, not my family). I have to start with the concept of to what end when applied to my hopes, dreams, etc. The surprising thing is that the simple enjoyment of those things is not wrong. I believed for years that it was God’s goal to take all things from me. I would lay all of things down at His feet. Martyrdom. Oh, how sweet. Sitting in a class with Doug Marks helped me see things more freely. Basically I can sum it up into the concept of what God created matters! God made me to love the things that I love and desire the things that ultimately lead me to Him. Sacrifice comes more with the denying of self and the embracing of the eternal, which is at its very essence the very thing we are wrestling with.

Erase the temporal and hold on to the eternal parts of you. They are bigger than your career. In fact, bring them into your career. I had to learn to stop guilting myself into misery. Bring them everywhere and begin to enjoy your life and your identity as Christ enjoys you…His unique creation.

Uniqueness (Identity-Part 2)

I had a conversation with a student the other day about doing an interest speech in speech class. She was trying to decide between two topics that, obviously, interested her. She was having a difficult time trying to decide which one to choose. It was when we looked deeper, however, that we saw another reason: she wanted it to interest others. Most speeches that I have heard around the same topic are things that not only interest us, but things that we would hope that others would find interesting. It seems to me that this classically defines it as unoriginal as the person is giving an interest speech looking to find originality in the eyes of their listeners.

This does hit at a deeper truth. We long to be unique. How does a person identify themselves? Most often a person identifies themselves by either positions or actions. Neither one of these things are unique. While their position or expressions might be unique to the community that they exist within, at the core there are the motives that drive the expression. All of those motives are always that basest of human elements: the desire to selfishly express one’s self for no general gain (sometimes called art); the need to be known; the longing to be loved; ironically, the desire for originality; and so on. It is impossible for a single person to be truly and deeply unique. At best they are simply expressing different

The truly original and deeply unique person is the one that can actually see another as unique. This either makes the person ignorant or God. The ability to see through every normal expression, every vain motive and see true uniqueness makes one truly and deeply unique. In that lies the secret, to understand the uniqueness of the One and to see what that One places inside of man makes another unique. Not that what they do or don’t do is unique, those are mere expressions. But it is what that person chooses to be labeled as and accepts that label that makes one unique. Uniqueness can only be given by One that is truly and deeply unique.

The intense value of human life (Identity-Part 1)

So I watched a special on Marilyn Monroe the other day. What a great way to start my first blog ever. Anyways, the special was on PBS and was told from the perspective of the photographers and the opportunities they had to capture her into film. It was a different time. Some photographers did try to exploit and use her. Others really tried to capture her; the different sides, moods, and emotions that she carried as she moved through her erratic life.

I really do hate the obsession with pop culture. It is amazing to me that people feed their kids with money they make following around individuals with a camera just hoping to catch a famous person getting angry, hurt, or in love. What business is it of ours to invade people’s privacy? A better question is why do we even care? How boring are our lives that we need to be distracted by the lives of others? Maybe we are just envious.

As I watched the impact Marilyn had on the people and the desire that they all had to know her and to be known by her, it made me contemplate on the intense value of a single person. Everyone, and I really do mean this, everyone needs to be known like this. Every life is valuable enough that people should be trying to know them, understand them, appreciate them. I just wonder how much do I really care for an individual? How much time am I spending on enjoying who that person is, appreciating their different sides, moods, and emotions?

It is the DNA of mankind to desire to know and be known. I wonder why do I not seek to know others in this fully? I wonder if I live a life that is worth being known? All these questions lead ultimately to one, who am I?