Finals, Broken Glass and Eternity

My first official semester as campus minister has passed! The students are done with finals and most of them are gone for a ridiculously long 5 weeks! Don’t you wish you got a 5 week break? I can recall many times in school when I jokingly or seriously pleaded for the Lord’s return during finals’ week.

I remember another time in undergrad when I was cleaning up a small glass tank we had used in an engineering experiment. For some reason, all my peer help disappeared at just the wrong time. I was on the ground rinsing out the tank and getting ready to pour the slippery substance out of it. As I tilted the tank, it was only two inches off the ground...but it slipped and the entire circumference of the glass bottom snapped off from the rest of the tank. Oh...I forgot to mention the tank cost a measly $500. The supervising professor’s blood pressure rose quickly as he wondered how the other groups would perform the experiment. As I got back to the dorm, I sat on my bed, told my roommate this story and then said, “Well, at least I’m still going to heaven.”

I write all this to say that suffering has a way of reminding us what is eternal. It gives us a perspective that allows us to see our temporary struggles through an eternal lens. And suffering produces within us a desire to see all things made right again. Come Lord Jesus!

Depraved minds

I will not be able to do the quote or the source justice, but I heard something recently concerning the American over-emphasis on outer beauty. I think it was an actress or the mother of an actress saying something like this: Sexy is no longer in--seductive is what is "in." With that statement, a transition has occurred in our consumerist culture that I have felt, but until now, have not had the words for. Whatever those two words mean to you, I think the transition or the progression shows a strong tendency towards depravity. The American mind and heart are no longer content with whatever "sexy" meant. Now the marketer and the consumer are selling and buying seduction.

As Chris Cox and I visited the guys' dorms last week, there was one common theme on many dorm walls--posters of women. Our "family" grocery stores (surely not Wal-Mart and Kroger!) paint pictures of seductive women on every aisle as we check out and in full-view even to kids. With DirecTV, I've learned that it is dangerous just to "flip channels" even though it is a great male past-time.

Brothers, who among us can withstand this onslaught of Satan without the power of the Spirit that lives in us and the accountability we can offer each other. Let us prepare our minds for action as Peter encourages us. Let us be a band of brothers who helps each other.

Sisters, please don't sell out and give in to the cultural pressure. Inner beauty is still what God wants and desires. Inner beauty is still what the godly man wants and desires and needs. I assure you, God has preserved a remnant of holy men and holy women. What our culture is offering us is so unfulfilling and will not endure! Look for and hang on to what will endure.

A FINAL reflection

No, this is not the end of all my reflections. Actually, I'm borrowing someone else's reflection and giving it to you this week as you go through finals. This quote is from my brother, Nathan Murray.

"No matter what happens between now and Friday, on Friday night sleep will come. On Saturday morning the sun will rise. Time will move on. Eyes will open and another day will have begun. If this doesn't happen, then time has ended and Home has begun. Be ready to go Home before being ready to take finals."

Thanks, brother! May his words put these difficult days in their proper perspective.

Reflections on an old yearbook

Yesterday I had a chance to look at something I hadn't seen in years...my senior year high school yearbook...1996! I brought all my yearbooks back with me from Arkansas while I was with my family at Thanksgiving. As I looked at all the pictures, particularly the seniors, I got a variety of emotions. I laughed a lot as I looked at funny pictures of old friends. I smiled a lot at pictures of best friends. I felt proud of the group pictures in band and choir thinking about all we accomplished together. But as I went picture-by-picture through the seniors, I recalled my relationship with each person. It seems like I had four categories.
1. True friend
2. Shallow friend
3. Neutral person (for example, a football guy--not a friend or an enemy, just never really crossed paths)
4. This fourth one might surprise you. I'm naming it, "Should have been a friend." These should-have-been-a-friend pictures left me feeling a little empty and sad and regretful. I could look back now and remember how friendly this person was or how that person always smiled at me as if looking for a friend and hoping to find one in me. I think and hope that I was always nice and respectful but I didn't always cross the line to friendship. I see now that I could have had a great friend had I not worried so much about being popular or what some of my other "friends" might have thought.
The convicting part is, I know Jesus would have been their friend. He would have made friends with those who were lonely, those who had no friends, those who weren't smart by school standards, those who would never make "best dressed" or "most likely to succeed."

By the grace of God, I can change how I make friends now. I want to make friends, not based on what they do or look like, but based on who they are--fellow humans made in the image of God.

Gluttony, Moderation, and Fasting: Yuck or Yum?

I know these are not three of our favorite words...particularly this time of year! But when Christians begin to think as a counter culture body, it becomes a little easier to broach such a subject. After all, God wants all of our lives, not just the parts that are easy to give to him. Let’s think about these words briefly.
1. Gluttony—I’m not sure we(the Church) have really ever talked about excessive eating as a sin. But even overeating gets at issues such as self-control, selfishness, and maybe even an ignorant neglect of poorer people whom God could bless by our abundance.
2. Moderation—This word calls for a more balanced approach instead of pursuing extremes that are harmful to us spiritually. We know how gluttony affects us physically but I fear we have not seen the spiritual detriment. Moderation teaches us a greater respect for the resources God has given us. Moderation also allows us to see that these resources can now be shared.
3. Fasting—If we dare to consider the extreme opposite of gluttony, we begin to consider the spiritual discipline of fasting. In trust, we temporarily abandon our dependence on food to say that we want to be totally dependent on God for our nourishment. What a radical faith to fast! Let us help each other with these difficult practices.