Recently God has been speaking to me. It’s been in chapel, in small group devotionals, in worship, and in everyday conversations. I soon realized that God has placed a message in my heart too grand to keep to myself.
Two weeks ago, my Monday morning began with a Facebook message. First, I noticed it was from my friend Mike. How nice! However, his words were startling. Mike shared that Jay, a classmate we hadn’t seen since second grade, had recently made contact with Mike via Facebook. Nothing strange, right? That’s what Facebook does- it connects people. What startled me was the fact that I had in fact recently added Jay to my friend’s lists, just for old time’s sake. I had no idea what God was prepare. Mike has agreed for me to share those letters with you (Names have been changed for privacy):
*******
I’ve started to talk with Jay recently because Sarah told me that he is starting to become suicidal. He feels as though he has no hope. I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t feel as though he listens to my words of encouragement. I know that if anyone without a degree can help him, it’s you. You don’t even have to do it directly. Just send him a message. If you don’t want to become involved I understand. All I can offer him involves God. And him being atheist he just takes it in one ear and out the other.
thanks,
Michael.
Mike,
After sitting down with some brothers here on campus, we’ve committed ourselves to, first and foremost, pray (like crazy). I don’t want you or myself to try and do this by ourselves. That’s why we need to put together a group of friends to be committed to helping.
Proverbs 17:17- “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
We need to provide continual support…how we’re to do this is up to God. Let’s raise Jay up in prayer right now…
Peace.
Josh
Sarah and I have been praying for him and he said he is going to get some help and he is considering coming to my youth group. I knew from the beginning I couldn’t do this on my own.
I thought I would bring you in on this cause he remembers the good old days of being in Clare with you and me. And you always seemed to be in a place of peace, I thought you could help him the most. I’ve been praying for the past few days.
He’s bipolar and blames a lot of his depression on that. He also says he has problems at home and with some friends. I haven’t gone too far into that cause every time he talks to me it’s before I go to bed. I think that if he would only meet me in person. Like at youth group cause I want more than one person with me, just in case. Cause sometimes he is a danger to himself. He got so angry about something that he punched a tree a day or two ago and really beat up his hand. I’m a proactive person so it is difficult for me to just pray. I prefer to pray and do other stuff at the same time. I can’t just pray. I know prayer is a very powerful tool. But if I’m not doing something.
Thanks’
Mike
Mike,
Wow! This is a reminder for both of us that people are not what they seem…
I realize that you want to take action, and I appreciate what you’re doing. Being near to him is a great opportunity for God to intervene in his life. I believe that God can change his heart. DON’T STOP BELIEVING!
Prayerfully yours,
Josh
I definitely won’t stop believing. It’s just an awful feeling to feel like I’m not doing anything. Even though I am praying. Thanks thanks josh 
*******
Since our last Facebook message, Jay has agreed to try out Mike’s youth group. The stipulation remains: he’s going to walk in an atheist and walk out an atheist. Ouch! To be honest, I anticipated this response. For many of us, we have a Jay in our lives. Someone we’ve become accustomed to hearing about, but not believing in. The truth remains: so often we judge according to outward appearance, and don’t take the time to confront the real human being. How sad!
The challenge for Jay and all of us is to start looking forward. However, the problem we face is fear. Yet, God offers a helpful reminder in Isaiah 41:10: “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isn’t it about time that we extend love to everyone, regardless of anticipated rejection or uncertainty.
As Mike and I have learned, no matter how strong your faith, there will come a time when you face a situation that questions everything you’ve believed in. It may come from a long-lost classmate turned stone-cold atheist, or a heated discussion in a classroom. Rather than break down under pressure, Mark 9:24 reminds us to mimic the plea of the scripture’s desperate father and cry out to the Lord for the faith to overcome difficult moments.
As I log out, please be in prayer for Jay and countless others who yearn for someone like you to share with them God’s love.
In Him,
Josh Jones
Filed under: Uncategorized
It’s always interesting to me to look back at past times in my life and compare them with the present. Specifically, I enjoy looking back through things I’ve written long ago, especially anything involving my spirituality, and comparing them with my present situation. For instance, I recently read through a poem (one of about five I’ve ever written) that I wrote exactly a year ago this week. It’s fascinating to me how different I am now, just a year later. At the time I wrote it I had been experiencing an incredible closeness to God’s Spirit and Love; in a season of fairly consistent divine silence, it’s good to look back and remember how close God can be and look forward to the next time his love is so tangible in my life.
Feel free to read the poem and leave a post reflecting on how you’ve changed spiritually in the past year!
wayne beason
assistant campus minister
——————————————————————————————
lately, i’ve been in love.
and not that boy meets world
boy-meets-girl
“i love you.”
“i love you too…
until next season
or until I have reason.”
crap.
no. this love isn’t even romantic
(but it’s more than platonic)
please excuse my semantics
if i call it agapic
t r u t h b e t o l d
there’s no linguistic mold
in which this inexpressible truth
can be truthfully expressed
within my breadbox vocabulary
i find that the very best
mode of communication
is to simply confess
that
i am in love
or rather
love is in me
but to say that
would be to assume
that within my personal, physical frame
i possess enough room
in which to contain
that intangible, indescribable, life-giving force
that caused existence to bloom
the helium of a thousand suns
in a single balloon
so let’s just say that
i am in love
enveloped in the infinite
lost in the transcendent
wrapped impossibly tight
in that which is impossibly right
pressed down by the weight
of everything that ever has been or ever will be truly great
until my prostrate body
sinks through the carpet
past the padding
wood floor boards
and insulation
and out of visibility
i mean, if God is love
and God is perfect
the love is perfect, right?
that doesn’t break any logical
or theological
or algebraic
rule, does it?
good.
then at the risk of sounding like a heretic
or a lunatic
or a fanatic
or worse: a hippie
i must conclude that in this moment
i am perfect
perfection is mine
overtaken by divinity
i am divine
eternal and holy
but is no longer i
but the overwhelming
all encompassing
embrace of the divine
God and i are one
like Spirit, and Father, and Son
but two individuals cannot fully coexist
one plus one cannot equal one
so one of us can no longer be
take a moment and you too will see
that when decreasing is increasing i am forced to insist
in this moment of love
i simply cease to exist.
Filed under: Christianity, College ministry | Tags: college, God, Jesus, Rochester, Shack, spirit, spiritual
In October 2007, a friend of mine, Terry told me that he often spends time with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit separately as part of his prayer time each day. He was advising me about going deeper in my prayer life. Terry has been a mentor of mine for over twenty years. I deeply respect his spiritual life, but at the time I remember thinking that his idea seemed a bit beyond my comprehension. I’ve never really been sure how to think of the Trinity experientially. I can explain what I think about the Trinity intellectually, but I can’t say that I have really experienced what it means to live in God’s community of three. In my prayer journal, I later wrote, “God, please help me understand more about who you are in all your many facets. I want to go deeper. I want my prayer life and my relationship with you to go deeper.”
A few weeks later on Thanksgiving Day, 2007, Dr. Shelly knocked at my front door unexpectedly. We hadn’t invited him to share our turkey that day, so we were surprised to see him. He said, “I’m sorry to interrupt your day, but you have to read this book,” and he thrust a copy of The Shack by William Young into my hands, and he left. I looked down at the book in my hands, which I had not heard of at that time (this was pre-best-seller days). After lunch that day, I started reading it, and I read all that weekend until I got to the end of the story, which for me, was the beginning of a story.
Through The Shack I began to understand how I might go deeper in my prayer life and in my relationship with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. I know that God could have taught me this lesson in a different way. Terry, for example, had never read The Shack up until that point. But, God chose to answer my prayer in this unique way, and I’m thankful.
This week in chapel, we’ll start a series in which we will explore the Trinity. Short chapel programs don’t even scratch the surface of the depth of the conversation of the Trinity, but in chapel, we’ll at least start the conversation. I hope the conversation will extend into the café, the student center, and the residence halls.
As part of each day, we will experience artwork that has been prepared especially for this series by RC senior, Katie Malone. She has created three works of art to help us imagine The Father, The Son, and The Spirit.
The Father – February 19th
The Son – February 20th
The Spirit – February 24th
Worship – Trinity Theme – February 26th
Let’s go deeper together! In this blog I invite you to join the conversation.
Very few people get the opportunity to climb a mountain. When I say climb I’m not talking about the stuff you see in Cliffhanger or Mission Impossible, I’m talking about taking a 2-3 day camping trip and hiking through the woods with a 50 pound backpack. You carry your own food, tent, sleeping bag, and clothes for miles at a time just to get to the top of some hill. The idea is probably starting to sound a little useless. Why would anyone in their right mind hike up a mountain?
My senior year of high school I was forced to go on a hike in Colorado. I say forced because I wasn’t fans of the people going and wasn’t thrilled about spending a week with them in the wilderness trying to climb some stupid mountain. My youth minister at the time, however, decided to pay for my trip there as a graduation present, so I was FORCED to go. When someone tells you, ”This will be the hardest thing you’ve ever done”, that doesn’t exactly make you jump for joy. I don’t know anything about sales, but that’s a horrible sales strategy. But anyway, I toughed it out, climbed into the church van, and took the 16 hour ride to Salida, Colorado.
Mt. Ouray is what they call a “thirteener”, because is stands at 13,472 ft. above sea level. Ouray was affectionately nicknamed “The Devils Armchair” (another great sales point). Our journey took us to base camp, then to high camp, on the forth day we would summit then return to high camp, and on the last day return all the way to where we began our trek. I must say that when you are carrying a 50 pound pack for miles at a time you will eat just about anything, and I have never had the better Spam ever in my life. Turns out that I really came to love the mountains, and it wasn’t because of the great food.
The mountains were I saw God. I could see the land that he had formed with his hands, hear the wind blow through the grass, and in the mists of nothing but his creation, feel his presence in a way that I didn’t know existed. It was only when I was able to get a way from the hustle and bustle of life that I was able to be closest to my Lord. There was an overwhelming feeling in me like shortness of breath. It’s that feeling you get in your stomach on the first big drop of a rollercoaster, and it tells you… “You aren’t in control anymore.” That is what a Mountain Top experience is. It takes you without warning to a place you didn’t think you could go, and unlike the way we throw around the term today, mountain top experiences don’t wear off. They are meant to make you remember how God change your life.
I am glad to say we don’t have a God that only interacts with us on mountain tops, but desires to walk with us. He loves us enough to let go so that we may learn to walk and lift us up when we stray. Our God is accessible and present in our everyday lives; it is us who are too busy to let him take us to the mountain top.
Filed under: Uncategorized
So, today I opened my Bible to Genesis 2,
And there’s a man, freshly created, sitting by himself in a garden.
He’s the only breathing thing on the planet. Rivers, trees, and a man. His face shows a mixture of boredom, sadness, and emptiness. He’d say, “I’m lonely,” but he doesn’t know anything but loneliness. Plus, there’s no one there to hear him, so why say anything?
God speaks up and says something God’s never said before:
“It’s not good.”
“It’s not good that the man should be alone. I will make a partner comparable to him,” God says.
So, God scoops up a bunch of dirt, and a moment later…
…the earth is covered with animals and birds and fish and bugs. Thousands of them. And the man walks around, meeting each of them, giving them each unique names. Yet, none of them are nearly “comparable” to him. The birds fly away; the man can’t fly. The fish swim away; the man can’t breathe underwater. The cows just stand there and blink; the man can’t take it anymore. None of the new creatures are like him. And the man is still lonely.
Years and years pass.
Maybe 10.
Maybe 100.
The man has gotten to know every animal, and none of them are like him. And he’s unbelievably lonely.
So, God knocks him out, steals one of his ribs, and a moment later…
…there is a woman sitting next to the man when he wakes up. The man sees the woman, stands to his feet and, in jubilation, shouts out an impromptu poem:
“Now, bone of bones, flesh of my flesh!”
In essence, “Finally, after years of waiting, someone like me!”
I smiled. It’s a good feeling, finally meeting the girl you’ve been waiting for your whole life. I can only imagine what this guy must have felt, after nearly a century, finally having someone to talk to and someone to listen to, someone to hold and someone to hold him. What a great day that must have been!
Not wanting to ruin this blissful moment with that messy Fall of Humanity stuff, I skipped some pages and ended up in Genesis 12,
And there’s Abram walking into Egypt with his beautiful wife Sarai.
And he looks scared.
Next thing you know, he’s trading Sarai to Pharaoh for some donkeys and sheep.
I didn’t like that part. I turned the pages to 1 Kings.
And there’s King David, shivering in bed.
He looks old. And really cold.
The stack of blankets doesn’t seem to be doing the trick, so they bring in a beautiful young woman named Abishag. She climbs into bed with him and lies on his chest, just like she’s told. David smiles, stops shivering, and falls asleep.
I didn’t like that part either. I closed my Bible and turned on the TV.
And there’s a woman in a bikini trying to sell me something.
And now three different girls are standing in front of judges. One’s crying because she was just told she wasn’t pretty enough to be a model.
I turned off the TV and turned on the radio.
I turned off the radio.
How did things get like this? How did women become property with whom men bartered and warmed their cold, old bodies? When were they diminished to the bait with which companies enticed customers? And who decided that rhythmic lists of female body parts constitute a legitimate musical genre?
The exploitation and devaluing of women has been a staple of human society for millennia; from ancient times to the present, women have often been understood to be somehow less-than-human, not only in the minds of men but also in their own (Beyonce , please stop calling yourself “it”).
This problem is just as evident, if not more so, in our churches. Women are given nominal equality and then politely asked to keep their distance from the pulpit and song book. Wives are good for making food, taking care of kids, and saying nice things about in a sermon, but that’s about it. If you think your church is an exception, compare the male-to-female ratio of its members to the male-to-female ratio of its staff and leadership.
Truth is, something bad happened way back in Genesis 3. Since then the former equality and harmony of inter-gender relationships has been lost.
Yet, I believe that, by rising from the dead, Jesus has initiated a new Creation. For those of us who claim to be “in Christ,” we must rediscover the elation man first felt when he woke up and saw in woman the equal he had always longed for.
The era of objectifying and belittling has ended. It’s about time the Church once again greeted women not with an apron and a gag, but with an impromptu poem of jubilation.
-wayne, assistant campus minister
Filed under: College ministry
I often am allowed the opportunity to sit at the feet of some remarkable minds. Men and women whose words have transcended generations are still speaking to me today as clearly and profoundly as the men and women whose classes and sermons I attend each week.
I’ll spare you my own original thought and allow you to be affected by the words of the many people whose thoughts challenge the way I live my life. Enjoy!
“Have you ever been reading a book and thought “This isn’t all that good”? Do you understand what that means??? It means the story in your head is better than the one in the book. Ever been disappointed at lame writing or a silly plot twist in a TV show or movie? That means you have a better one inside you. Write it. Tell it around the campfire. Spend time with it. I often wonder how many beautiful symphonies, how many classics of literature, and how many stupendous works of art will never be created because people contented themselves with watching TV or surfing the net rather than allowing their own imaginations free reign.”
- Patrick Mead
“When I ask God why all of these injustices are allowed to exist in the world, I can feel the Spirit whisper to me, ‘You tell me why we allow this to happen. You are my body, my hands, my feet.’ “
- Shane Claiborne
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.
“There are many facets to the gospel. Some of those facets include: personal forgiveness, faith, hope, and love. Some also include race, gender, and economics, and spiritual formation. Different seasons call for different emphases. In all of those . . . be it addiction, divorce, sexual abuse, abandonment, pride . . . the way to the future runs through the past. We must always remember, lest we cease to be human. For it is in remembering that we remain human. Remembering the stories of God preserved through the church. Remembering the grace poured out in our lives.”
- Josh Graves
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”
- Anne Lamott
“It is true that relationships are a whole lot messier than rules, but rules will never give you answers to the deep questions of the heart and they will never love you.”
- William Paul Young
Who are the teachers whose words shape your worldview?
Filed under: College ministry
Curtis, Wayne & I had the idea of starting a campus ministry blog for the Rochester College campus, so this is our “inaugural” blog.
Our hope for this blog is that we’ll create a place where you can feel welcome to dialogue about your spiritual life while you’re a student at RC.
I love being around college students. I think that the four or five years you spend in college represent a time when God probes your heart to help you discover who you are. He helps you figure out more than what you will do in your life. He also helps you figure out who you will be in your life.
Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, says that the false self is the person we present to the world, and the person we want the whole world to revolve around (ouch). The true self, on the other hand, is found when we accept our own personalities and lives by finding our identity in God. Another writer, Henri Nouwen writes that we find our identity in our belovedness, knowing that God calls each one of us, his beloved. So, as we figure out who we are to be in life, we have to figure out who God is.
The problem I have in my own life, and I remember especially well from my college years, is that I sometimes want to fight who God made me to be. I want to be someone else other than who God created me to be. God has been teaching me that I need to let go of the need to be somebody else. I have spent too many years trying to change myself, trying to change my gifts or my personality. Instead, when I really listen to God, he doesn’t lead me to change my personality or my true self; he tells me he wants to use me in his Kingdom. He calls me to change some behaviors sometimes, but he does not call me to change the essence of who I am because that’s who he created me to be. When I really listen, he tells me that I am his beloved.
What are you learning about your true self these days? When was the last time you let God call you his beloved?
~Sara Barton, Campus Minister
