Random Confrontations

Inside the Mind:

Well, it has been a while since I posted last. It is an unbelievable relief to get through midterm week. Talk about a stressful week.

Being that conversing with people is one of my glaring weaknesses, that is one of the lessons God has been teaching me this past week. Relating with others who drive me nuts, believe the opposite of everything I believe, and push me out of my comfort zone.

I’m sure many of you know some weird computer geeks – I might even be one of them. I’ve had the chance to get to know several of them in my database class, but one in particular seems to push my button more than not. He’s the type that I could easily give up as a hopeless cause for Christ. Any type of encouragement or homework help I give him, he finds a way to turn it into complaining and whining. During the week, as I thought about him, I started to realize what a whiner and complainer I was as well. Most of my time in prayer was spent whining about my life’s situations and what a terrible week I was having. I also began to realize that the whining in my life as well as the looking down of the whining in other’s lives was starting to grow into a barrier between me and God. The many situations I used to have in talking about Christ were growing few and far between. It reminded me of a passage in C.S. Lewis’ book The Great Divorce. One of the travelers from the dead world was talking to one of the angelic giants – well more like whining and complaining anyway. He(or she, I don’t remember) was rattling off continuously about how mistreated he was and how everything was unfair. Slowly he began to shrink. As he shrunk, his voice continued to get smaller and smaller until finally he disappeared altogether. Compared to Christ’s suffering on the cross for all of our sins, we have nothing to compare with it, no matter what we go through. Rather than complaining about it, we should be learning from it.

In addition, no one should be considered a lost cause for Christ. Even though this person may drive me up the wall sometimes, my mission is still the same. Christ’s love can have an amazing effect on people like this as well. In our InterVarsity Bible Study, we are going through the book of Acts and learning more about Paul. Anytime I think of an impossible person, I think of Paul’s conversion. He went from one of the most feared persecutors, to one of the leading leaders in the body of Christ. What an amazing story! If God can change Paul’s life, than surely He can change anybody’s life. It is not our job to give up on someone.

On Thursday, I had to turn in my rough draft for my English paper. As soon as we got there our teacher told us we can leave after we turned in our papers and anyone that wanted help on their paper could stay and talk with her during the rest of the class period. I had a couple questions and I had nothing else to do for the next hour so I decided to stay. Now you have to understand that my English teacher is an Athiest, pro-choice, pro gay-rights, and opposite of about everything else I believe. Not the person I would typically get into a conversation with. Anyway, we started talking about my paper and then moved on to several other topics and somehow ended up talking about the Bible (I don’t remember how we got there). It turns out she knows more about the Bible than many Christians I have met. We talked for about an hour (nothing really deep or spiritual). I just thought it was so cool that God opened up a door for me to talk about the Bible with someone I least expected to.

On to another subject. Also on Thursday, I stopped into a LIFT large group meeting (another Christian group on campus) after my small group IV Bible study. The room was absolutely packed and I was amazed at the passion that filled the group as we worshipped through song. It was extremely encouraging to see another large group of Christians that attended DePaul. After visiting their large group meeting and talking with several of the student leaders, I was even more convinced of the need for some sort of unity among the groups. If I can be encouraged that much by being with another Christian group, I can only imagine what it would be like for everyone else. We have four Christian groups on campus, but I feel like we are divided. Something to pray about I guess.

I apologize for the disorganized and random thoughts but I’m a little scatter-brained tonight and just typed what came to mind.

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not without effect.
– 1 Corinthians 15:10