Hello, friends! I'm in a bit of a Chronicles of Narnia mood this evening, as you might have guessed from the title of this post. Earlier this afternoon I read through a book called "Finding God in the Land of Narnia," and one section really spoke to me. In many of the Narnia books, the children accidentally enter the mysterious land -- through a wardrobe, or a painting. "Prince Caspian," however, tells a different tale. In this book, the four Pevensie children are sitting at a train station minding their own business when they are suddenly "drawn to Narnia" by the inexplicable force of Susan's horn.
This reminds me of how I ended up in Tallahassee. In a way, I was drawn here by an inexplicable force. My first choice of a job would have been doing youth ministry at a church in the Midwest, and yet here I am in Florida engaged in campus ministry. As the "Finding God in the Land of Narnia" book describes, it is "an adventure undertaken in response to an irresistible summons or call." I don't entirely understand why I have been drawn here, but I like the way the book explains the life of faith:
"We enter upon this adventure only because, like the Pevensies, we are specially chosen and called, because we are hooked, caught, and reeled in by the irresistible power of the Savior's love. Out of that foundational truth flows the strength to accept the challenge, the energy to accomplish the mission, and the endurance to reach the journey's end in triumph and joy."
Let me tell you a bit about my adventure this week!
Friday and yesterday I spent time being "present" on campus. I noticed a distinct difference between the two days. There were significantly fewer students around on Tuesday than Friday, and they generally looked more stressed out. I saw several who were dressed up and reading through notes as they walked. It's finals week, so say a prayer for a student today!
One big task this week is to plan for Sunday's Young Adult/Grad Student BBQ. Katie and I have definitely learned some lessons about event planning. For example, we ended up scaling down the budget by about $100. We had to decide what would stay and what would go, which was a good experience for us. I've particularly enjoyed one aspect of the planning: the invitations. Last week, I sent a lot of Facebook messages to students and got few replies. Yesterday, I sent an additional message to all of the grad students on my list, inviting them to the BBQ. I got a few more replies from people who hadn't replied to my original message! I had been doubting that Facebook was going to get me anywhere, but now I have renewed hope that God has a plan for everything. One message didn't work for everyone, but for some, a specific invitation was enough.
This morning, we discussed the first part of "Permanent Revolution." As I mentioned in my last blog, this book describes the different attributes of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. I am primarily a shepherd/teacher mix. (That sounds like a dog breed. At least I'm not labeled a retriever!) Katie ranks high in the prophet category, while Pastor Jay is an apostle. If anyone takes the FiveFold survey and is an evangelist, please join our little group and we will conquer the world. (Just kidding... mostly.) It's great that we all have different gifts to share. My results didn't surprise me, but I think one important lesson I can take from examining the different gifts is that all are important, and I need to learn how to work with each one.
Tonight, of course, was our Vespers-that-isn't-Vespers. We had a delicious Midwestern-style meal of pork chops and mashed potatoes and studied the feeding of the 5,000 in Matthew 14. I really loved all of the different aspects of the story that were brought out in our discussion. We examined the event from all different points of view, from a bread seller in a nearby village to the people in the crowd to the disciples and finally to Jesus. I couldn't help feeling bad for Jesus. His cousin had just been beheaded, but he couldn't get away from the crowds to mourn. Instead of calling it a night when his disciples suggested the crowds leave, he showed his true compassion, despite his grief. He put his emotions aside and performed one of the more spectacular miracles of his ministry.
That's all for me, folks. I haven't heard back about my part-time job yet, but I have high hopes that I will have news by my next blog post. Sadly, I have no pictures this week; look forward to some BBQ pictures next week! I hope all is well with you, friends, wherever you may be.
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