Update

I have tons I am thinking about, but I decided I wanted to take a different track. I just wanted to give you a couple of quick updates on my life:

- Megan and I are still plugging away at our wedding plans. We have picked a cake, food, colors, flowers, bridal party people, invitations, registry items, and we are setting up our showers with those hosting them. Megan has a dress, and they have picked out bridesmaid dresses. All we have left (for now) is music and tuxes. Go us!

- Life is good at KU, just trying to figure out how to stay on top of things. I am working hard, on our ministry search committee, doing things almost every night of the week... I write three lessons a week, I am in the office, I spend three days a week on campus, I am planning weekend activities and retreats, mission trips and service projects, Bible studies, ministry search committee problems, etc. I rarely ever get to stop and simply have time to myself. But, as someone recently told me, I really only work two days a week for an hour each time. What an easy job I have. Gotta love my life!

- I am going to participate in my first Civil War Reenactment in February. I am excited to go and spend time in the field with these guys. Yes, I know that makes me a dork. I don't care.

- I am missing school like crazy. I miss learning each day and having to expand my knowledge. I miss walking in with an open mind and being challenged to read Scripture differently. I can't wait to do more school. I know, I am weird.

- I am trying to learn Spanish right now. Well, I just started yesterday. Pray that it goes well!

I am sure there is more going on, but that is it for now. Be blessed!

KU Needs to start an AA meeting...

There is an astounding statistic in the University Daily Kansan today. The average KU student spends $999.04 on alcohol in a given school year.

Now, take into account this aspect of the statistic: approximately half of the 30,128 students are not legally allowed to drink. That's not saying that they don't, they just cannot legally. Whether you agree with the law or not, it is the law as it stands today. Let's go with the lowest number, 13,000 students who are not legally able to drink, and let's say that 70% (10,000) of our students do not break the law (whether by religion, preference, or indifference. That's probably a generous number, but go with it.) Thus, doesn't that mean that the average student actually spends closer to $1700.00 in alcohol in a ten-month period?

What does this mean for my ministry? What implications does this hold for my work with students? This is what I am trying to figure out...

I don't have a problem with drinking IF you are (a) legal, and (b) not drinking to excess. Paul tells Timothy that Godly men are not partakers of much wine. But Paul isn't a teetotaler; he tells Timothy to drink a little wine for his stomach.

So... I am struggling with where to begin. What do you think?

True Love

There is an old song title that sums up the attitude I perceive from many of the students at KU: “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.”

This week, the University Daily Kansan published their annual “Sex on the Hill” edition. If you didn’t see it, please don’t go looking for it. If you were to peruse the articles within, I think you would come to the same startling realization that I did: everyone is looking for love and acceptance, but they are willing to take whatever they can get.

So many people just want to be loved. They want to feel accepted for who they are (or at least who they are pretending to be.) They want people to value them, to respect them, to see them as worthwhile. They desire nothing more than to have others acknowledge them as important. The problem is, they are looking for this acceptance in all of the wrong ways and they are willing to settle for being used in order to feel “valued.”

As I talk to students, I come to the realization that all of their bravado is simply a mask used to hide the fact that they can’t get satisfaction from the world around them. The choices they make, the things they do, the way they spend their nights and weekends… it all shows that they are looking for a way to fill the void. Don’t worry, they are trying hard. And they are willing to keep trying until they can either find that “love” or dull their pain. We all want to be loved, but if we can’t find true love then we are willing to settle for whatever we can get.

I believe that our job is to give hope to the world. As Christians, our mission is simply to be ambassadors of hope. The hopeful message the world needs to hear is simple and yet profound: “God is love” (1 John 4:8). True love, the most fulfilling and amazing kind of love, can only come from our Father. As John sums up the message of the Gospel he states, “For God so loved the world that he gave his One and Only Son…” (John 3:16ff). This is true love! This is the love that the world has been looking for. This is the love that the world needs to hear about. They no longer have to settle for cheap love or conditional acceptance, because they will never find trueness in these things. They can only find their hope in the one who created them to love them, and who showed his love by giving up everything to be with them.

Now we have to show them how to look for love in all of the right places.

Becoming a Jayhawk

I guess it is official: I realized today that I am slowly becoming a Jayhawk.

I know, I know... becoming a Jayhawk is not something I ever wanted to do. I am a Memphis Fan, for goodness sakes! I sing the Memphis Fight Song in my sleep. I threw things at the TV during the National Championship Game. I thought about tattooing "Derek Rose is my homeboy" on my left arm, but I thought it would look kinda tacky about my "I <3 MOM" tat.

But today I realized that things are beginning to change, and I am not sure I like them. Last night we did "Four Corners," where we went to the four corners of KU's campus and prayed for the faculty, staff, and students. We prayed for their spiritual health and well-being, and we prayed that God would make our ministry well-known on the KU campus. (I will post about my vision for KU later.) But as we walked from place to place there on campus, I engaged in a conversation that I am not too proud of. (Yes, I know I ended that sentence in a preposition; I am not too proud of that either. Strunk and White would beat me with a copy of their book...) I was talking to a group of Hawks students, and I started a discussion on "OUR" chances for the upcoming football and basketball seasons! Sigh.

For all of you back home in Memphis, I am sorry for letting you down. Megan, I am sorry for slowly becoming a Jayhawk when you are such an avid Wildcat Fan. If I could, I would repent in sackcloth and ashes. But I think I am allergic to ashes...