BIG Questions....

New and super awesome friends! :)

Focus on the Family!

A beautiful mountain view on the way home from our opening retreat.

Hello! Things are still going well here in the Springs and I am loving it here. We are being kept extremely busy both with our academic load as well as our social activities. We have all sorts of family dinners, worship services, small groups, and other spontaneous activities that pop up throughout the week. And if you read my last post, you know that I mentioned having to do a rather intense amount of reading. Here is a picture of the books we had to purchase (this does NOT include audio tapes to be listened to, or the entire library of required reading we have in our apartment):

Sooooo... needless to say, that is quite overwhelming, but many of the readings have been quite interesting and thought-provoking. My apartment mates and I have already been able to enjoy many "reading parties" with one another. We takes turns reading aloud and then discuss what we read to make sure we all understand. This has been especially helpful for books such as "The Abolition of Man" by CS Lewis. Thats a tough read!

Speaking of apartment mates... my roommates are MaryBeth from Illinois, Catherine from Wisconsin, and Karen from Alabama. We are loving one another's company so far and are enjoying getting to know one another. :)

There's not too much to say about class this week. We have mostly just been getting overviews for the rest of the semester. I know that I am going to be challenged in many ways. The primary purpose of each of these classes is to help us to become solid, Christ-following leaders in a society that so desperately needs Christ. As I sat at a dinner one night at our opening retreat and talked with one of our professors, Dr. Chris Leland, and he said something in our conversation that I found to be quite profound about the way that we, as Christians should be trying to influence our world in the public square. His quote: Dont argue biblically. Argue morally (with the Bible being the foundation for your morals). His point was that as soon as people hear us say, "Well the Bible says..." their ears are immediately turned off, and thus, we are never going to get anywhere. There's got to be more. That's not enough... especially when we are dealing with a society in which so few people believe in the authority and absolute truth of the scriptures. It doesn't matter to them what the Bible says if they dont believe in the Bible. In connection with this, one of our readings for this coming week was called "Love Your God with All Your Mind" (dont remember who it was by). The essence of this book was that modern Christianity has taken the power of reason and intellect completely out of its base. In a way, we have entered this era of being "anti-intellectual" and God doesn't want us to be that way. He intended for heart (faith) and head (reason) to go together and not to be completely separate from one another. If He did not want us to be rational and use reason, I dont believe He would have blessed us with the intellectual abilities He has given us. Our God is a rational God and therefore, we should also be rational if we want to be like Him.

Soooo... all that to say that basically our classes are about helping us to learn to answer the big questions of life in a way that get the attention of the secular world and causes them to want to stop and listen. In our Christian Worldview Studies class, the big question of the semester is, Why did you get up this morning? And, for those of you who have heard of the Truth Project by Dr. Del Tackett, our big question of the semester for his class, "Family, Church, and Society", is Do you REALLY believe that what you believe is REALLY REAL?

It is so refreshing to be surrounded by an awesome group of Christian brothers and sisters for just this short time, and I looking forward to being able to share in this community and learn about the very nature of God and how He can use us to impact His world wherever He takes us.

Please pray that:

-I would have a positive attitude about my practicum site and allow God to use me where He has placed me despite my own selfish attitudes.

-I would stay focused on the things that really matter this semester.

-I can keep my priorities straight and know that it IS okay if I dont get all my reading done. (Unlike a standard academic setting, these are the priorities of our community for the semester: 1. personal time with God. 2. community life 3. academics)

Cant wait to write again! Grace and Peace.