Tag Archives: God

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The Importance of High School Popularity

It's All About Your Level of Involvement

For most kids, becoming popular while in high school is the world’s greatest achievement, bringing about unfathomable bliss. Popularity is the Holy Grail of social accomplishment and life for a popular kid can quickly decline if something happens to sacrifice public opinion within the walls of the school. It’s extremely volatile and can shift like the tide.

But now that I’m out of high school (ahem, only by a few years) and simply don’t care about the inner workings of the social ladder within, I scoff at the idea of placing any kind of value in it. To me, high school popularity is silly and I really don’t see what the big deal is about having something that is based on such shallow pretenses.

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Sleeping Disorders and Drunk People

The Issues Behind The Issues

A couple of weeks after I got married, I discovered my wife would randomly shout out words or short phrases in her sleep. Most of the time this happened, it didn’t bother me at all because the bizarre nature of her erratic vocabulary made me smile. When a person you’re laying next to unexpectedly yells, “Leave the umbrella!” you can’t help but chuckle as you imagine what they might be dreaming in that moment.

I would tell her the next morning about what she said the night before and then ask if she remembered saying anything at all. She never could recall anything that came out of her mouth and would usually laugh along with me as I described her sleepy verbal escapades.

All of the humor quickly shifted to terror, however, one night during the first year of our marriage. My wife had gone to bed nearly one hour before I did because I had stayed up late to watch a football game. After the game was over, I shut off the TV and quietly sneaked into the dark bedroom, being very careful not to disturb my slumbering bride. My eyes adjusted to the dark pretty quickly as I walked to my side of the bed and removed my socks. As I was concentrating on taking off my second sock, I heard a rustling in the sheets, so my gaze went to the bed.  I saw my wife sit straight up, forming a perfect 90-degree angle. I initially thought that perhaps I had woken her up, but the thought swiftly faded when I saw and heard what came next.

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Real Christianity

Is It Authentic Or A False Caricature?

Years ago, historian A. Toynbee said, “Most people don’t reject Christianity, but a false caricature of it.” As a full-time missionary having worked with college students for quite some time now, I’d agree with that statement.

In the company I work for (Cru), we sometimes use an interview tool that does a fantastic job of getting to the heart of what people believe concerning God, Christ, and Christians. One of my favorite questions of the interview asks, “Suppose your best friend comes to you and says that they want to become a Christian but they don’t know how…what would you tell them?”

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The 5 Things A Christian College Student Should Never Do (Part 5)

Part 5 of 5: It's Go Time

Well, we’ve reached the final part in my blog series, The 5 Things a Christian College Student Should Never Do. I’m hopeful that these five recommendations have been both helpful and challenging to you, regardless of what year you might be in school.

If you’d like more input from me emailed directly to you about every two weeks or so, sign up for my email list and get a free e-book on The 10 Social Media No-No’s That Can Ruin Your Romantic Life, simply by entering your email on the righthand column of this site. I promise I won’t spam you.

Thanks for your willingness to read this kind of stuff. It shows a lot of maturity and character to be willing to let someone challenge you and raise the bar in your life. So with that, here’s the last thing you should never do as a Christian college student:

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The 5 Things A Christian College Student Should Never Do (Part 4)

Part 4 of 5: The Two Extremes

A life lived within the tension of what is called the both/and is…well, tense. In the Bible, Mark 12 gives us a great example of this played out when the Pharisees ask Jesus if they should pay taxes to Caesar or not (either/or). Jesus responds with, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mark 12:17) Jesus was presented with an either/or question and responded with a both/and answer. Surprise, surprise, Jesus’ response was perfect.

I share this because it helps us see that people are often comfortable with distinct and definable absolutes. Yes or no. Take it or leave it. Good or bad. And when the moral pendulum is applied to this line of thinking, we can start to see why people choose to behave the way they do when it comes to living their lives. The reason being is that it’s simply easier to push toward the moral extremes of two ends because the rules make more sense on the edges.

I’ve seen this quite often in my years of campus ministry and working with college students. That being said, part 4 of The 5 Things a Christian College Student Should Never Do takes us to a place that is often uncomfortable for believers because finding the middle ground can be complex and challenging when we are pulled toward the edges. So here it is:

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The 5 Things A Christian College Student Should Never Do (Part 3)

Part 3 of 5: American Idols

We’ve all seen it before, I’m sure. Guy gets girlfriend, guy disappears to hang out with only his girlfriend, friends of guy get mad because guy disappeared, guy gets broken up with, guy wonders where all his friends are to help him through his rough time after the breakup, friends say, “You were the one who left, not us.” Or maybe his friends are nicer than that and they welcome him back into the fold. But you get my point.

There are far too many Christians who fall into the trap of believing that the boyfriend or girlfriend they have been blessed with is now the god they worship. Now, you might read that and think I’m being a bit dramatic, but I’ve seen this scenario played out over and over again with college students. That’s why part 3 of my blog series on The 5 Things a Christian College Student Should Never Do is simply this:

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5 Reasons Why God Appreciates Humor

Why So Serious?

Humor is the medium by which people communicate with one another. And I’m not just talking about modern society either. Comedy has been around since humanity was created and will probably be around into all of eternity. Trust me…I’ve got a very good feeling about this one.

Are you aware that God has a sense of humor? He does. He created humor. Now, I know “funny” isn’t a popular thing to attribute to God’s creation, but neither is sex and He invented that too. I’m not sure why we shy away from talking about humor in a serious way because it is (and always has been) such an important part of the human experience. Maybe it’s because we feel childish when we process funny things in an honest and thoughtful way. There’s a constant pressure to “get down to business” and “stop the silliness” when someone wants to be accepted as a mature individual. Heck, even the word serious basically means humorless when you look it up in the dictionary, and the thought of not being taken seriously makes most people feel disrespected. Thus, humor is usually tossed out the window when talk of a serious God is brought up.