Sea of Faces with Broken Cases (From Scholarship to Discipleship)

College: An institution of higher learning. (according to Webster) College: A sea of faces, walking around in a constant blur, in a flurry, aimlessly moving toward weekly goals and deadlines. Living day to day, complaining about the business of their schedules, but secretly loving the purpose that the constant demands bring to their lives. The purpose that allows them to resort to Cruise Control in life. The purpose that if, dare I say, stopped, would bring them to the impossible analyzation of their being, their true wants, their true desires, the treacherous transition from cruise control to stick shift. (According to me)

 Yes, college the great distraction.

I'm not saying drop out of college and move to Nashville and I'm not saying the common working man is better than the average college student or vice versa. I'm not saying these at all. What I m saying is this...

College is not a faith. People attend college more religiously than church. Walking around people focused on their days work is good for some people, but, if you're like me, you feel a need to open your eyes. A need to look around you. A need to see the big picture. I don't want to se a person as the girl I always pass on my way to Phil 101 or the guy I always see hanging out in Starbucks, I want to see that person as just that, a person. A person with feelings, emotions, trials, tribulations, likes and dislikes. I want them to know I honestly care about them. They are valuable to me because they are precious to God and I mean that with the utmost sincerity. Yes, there is a Sea of Faces with Broken Cases all around college campuses. I can only do so much as an ex-college student, but it's the people on campus that can make the difference. The people around you are broken just like you. They were given life and failed miserably in earning it, but it  gets better!

"Because (Adam) disobeyed God, many people became sinners.

But because (Jesus) obeyed God many people will be made right in God's sight.

God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were.

But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful kindness became more abundant.

So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death,

now God's wonderful kindness rules instead,

giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord"

-Romans 5:19-21 (NLT)

God showed us our sin not to make us feel guilty and drown in our unholiness, but to realize our desperate need for Him. Our desperate need for grace. The most powerful part of this scripture is that God's grace grew as we became more sinful. It doesn't stop there though. It says God's wonderful kindness rules over all people more so than sin. YES --Grace is more powerful than sin! Grace is not just the little girl next door who is adorable and innocent. Grace is a 250 pound man on a Harley Davidson cruisin' around lookin' to give sin a bruisin'. Don't limit God. I wish I knew this during my first term at the U of O. Our job truly is to be the guy who nobody knows his or her name who moved the boulder away from the cave so that Lazarus could rise from the dead. Just because I'm helpless and cannot raise Lazarus does not mean I didn't help (not that God couldn't do it on His own). Remember how excited you got in grade school when there were hands on activities and not book work or in science when you did fun experiments? God is a cool science teacher. Sure He could do it himself, but then we'd have a heart of expectancy rather thank thankfulness. 

If you get one thing out of this it's move your boulder, God will do the rest. Move the road block for the 250 pound Grace to move down the highway and beat sin away from the innocent. Open the door for God, but don't try to be God. If you're thinking of something right now that is your boulder to move right it down, put it where you can see it and cross it out when you do it, move on to the next one. A Super Hero never becomes content when he saves the day, he gets prepared for the next day, when lives are at stake we shouldn't settle.

Thanks A.J. for the Lazarus thing.

God Bless ya'll, sorry this one was long I hope you got a lot out of it.