There is a stark contrast between where I was a week ago and where I am now.
For one thing, I'm in Mishawaka instead of Walkerton.
And I'm not at church.
Yes, that's right. It's Sunday morning and I'm sitting at Starbucks.
*GASP* Is she even a Christian?
You know you asked yourself that question.
I have chapel three times each week (I know that chapel doesn't replace church.)
I have Shupe Group each week.
I'm in a discipleship group with a wise, learned, and well-respected professor, which meets every other week.
I have a Bible class and Senior Experience with Dr. Bob.
And I live in Shupe, where I get to pour out the knowledge that I receive.
I'm not lacking in teaching.
I'm not lacking in Christian community.
I get to make this decision for myself.
And I have.
I'm not saying that Sunday morning church attendance is necessarily a bad thing,
or that anyone else should base his/her decision on mine.
It doesn't work that way.
And I'm not saying that I will never attend church on Sunday mornings.
I have plans to go to several churches in the area.
It's my life. It's my relationship with God.
And it's not suffering.
So, this morning, I'm at Starbucks.
I have my Greek book to study, some essays to write, and this post to finish.
Worship with your mind.
And now I'll write something that relates to the title of this post.
(I write titles before I write the post.)
Last weekend was a whirlwind.
I had two retreats and they overlapped.
The first was a Student Council Retreat, which hasn't happened in the memory of any current Bethel student.
It's my fourth year on StuCo, and I'm the Shupe dorm rep.
A retreat was the perfect way to start the year. We got to know just about everyone on the Council, we talked about visions for the year, we did training on how to use MyBethel, we ate together, prayed together, slept near each other, learned about how we relate to others (because Tom loves personality tests), played Star Wars Mafia for hours, and inspired a Campus Activities event (NERF Zombies).
Usually, StuCo members have minimal conversation and feel uncomfortable during meetings.
This year I see things being different. Now that we're on our way to being friends, we can have honest conversation in meetings. We can better understand how to work together. We can actually get excited about going to meetings.
The StuCo retreat was from 5:30 on Friday until 1:30 on Saturday, and there was a dinner at the President's house in Michigan.
Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the dinner.
I left The Oaks (30 minutes south of Bethel) at 1:30, went back to campus to get my contacts case and glasses and use my last swipe on a raspberry mocha at SG.
Then I got a text from one of my fellow Anchored members giving me the address to the cabins at Swan Lake resort.
I plugged it into my GPS and was on my way to 24 hours of singing, laughing, sleeping, eating, and more driving with my Music Ministry Team family.
The second part of the weekend was incredible.
I missed a few hours of hanging out at Jill's and working on our combined song, but I didn't feel left out when I got there. I wish I could have been there, but the welcome I received when I arrived showed me that this year is going to be amazing. We love each other, all ten of us. We are brothers and sisters, and we don't have to know each other well to know that we are responsible for each other. We take care of each other. We support each other. We know that we will only be successful as a group if we work together to help each other be successful as individuals.
Sure, we joke around and make fun of each other. We laugh at each other. We get frustrated with each other. But at the end of the day we know that it's not serious. We're crazy about each other, and I am so pumped to see what the rest of the year has in store.
There is no way to say that a short amount of time is fine if it is used well. I don't believe in quality over quantity, except when it comes to junk food. Or coffee. I will drink a half cup of really good coffee over a full cup of cheap hotel coffee. Any day.
But when it comes to time, I think that both quantity and quality are important, especially when it comes to things like last weekend.
The difference between a few hours at Dr. Cramer's last year for StuCo members to get to know each other and sixteen hours this year was huge.
For the MMTs to get off campus and spend two days together gave us time to be together without rehearsing. We got to just hang out and have fun. (Not that rehearsals aren't fun. I think we proved that false.)
We need time. And we need to use it well. We can't just spend a few hours together each week and expect our relationships to happen. We made so much progress last weekend. We might not all know each other well, but we learned about each other. We are starting to understand each other.
Spend time together, my friends. Use that time to learn about each other. Find out the dynamics of your relationships. Take care of your friendships, if you want them to last.
This is what I'm learning.
For one thing, I'm in Mishawaka instead of Walkerton.
And I'm not at church.
Yes, that's right. It's Sunday morning and I'm sitting at Starbucks.
*GASP* Is she even a Christian?
You know you asked yourself that question.
I have chapel three times each week (I know that chapel doesn't replace church.)
I have Shupe Group each week.
I'm in a discipleship group with a wise, learned, and well-respected professor, which meets every other week.
I have a Bible class and Senior Experience with Dr. Bob.
And I live in Shupe, where I get to pour out the knowledge that I receive.
I'm not lacking in teaching.
I'm not lacking in Christian community.
I get to make this decision for myself.
And I have.
I'm not saying that Sunday morning church attendance is necessarily a bad thing,
or that anyone else should base his/her decision on mine.
It doesn't work that way.
And I'm not saying that I will never attend church on Sunday mornings.
I have plans to go to several churches in the area.
It's my life. It's my relationship with God.
And it's not suffering.
So, this morning, I'm at Starbucks.
I have my Greek book to study, some essays to write, and this post to finish.
Worship with your mind.
And now I'll write something that relates to the title of this post.
(I write titles before I write the post.)
Last weekend was a whirlwind.
I had two retreats and they overlapped.
The first was a Student Council Retreat, which hasn't happened in the memory of any current Bethel student.
It's my fourth year on StuCo, and I'm the Shupe dorm rep.
A retreat was the perfect way to start the year. We got to know just about everyone on the Council, we talked about visions for the year, we did training on how to use MyBethel, we ate together, prayed together, slept near each other, learned about how we relate to others (because Tom loves personality tests), played Star Wars Mafia for hours, and inspired a Campus Activities event (NERF Zombies).
Usually, StuCo members have minimal conversation and feel uncomfortable during meetings.
This year I see things being different. Now that we're on our way to being friends, we can have honest conversation in meetings. We can better understand how to work together. We can actually get excited about going to meetings.
The StuCo retreat was from 5:30 on Friday until 1:30 on Saturday, and there was a dinner at the President's house in Michigan.
Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the dinner.
I left The Oaks (30 minutes south of Bethel) at 1:30, went back to campus to get my contacts case and glasses and use my last swipe on a raspberry mocha at SG.
Then I got a text from one of my fellow Anchored members giving me the address to the cabins at Swan Lake resort.
I plugged it into my GPS and was on my way to 24 hours of singing, laughing, sleeping, eating, and more driving with my Music Ministry Team family.
The second part of the weekend was incredible.
I missed a few hours of hanging out at Jill's and working on our combined song, but I didn't feel left out when I got there. I wish I could have been there, but the welcome I received when I arrived showed me that this year is going to be amazing. We love each other, all ten of us. We are brothers and sisters, and we don't have to know each other well to know that we are responsible for each other. We take care of each other. We support each other. We know that we will only be successful as a group if we work together to help each other be successful as individuals.
Sure, we joke around and make fun of each other. We laugh at each other. We get frustrated with each other. But at the end of the day we know that it's not serious. We're crazy about each other, and I am so pumped to see what the rest of the year has in store.
There is no way to say that a short amount of time is fine if it is used well. I don't believe in quality over quantity, except when it comes to junk food. Or coffee. I will drink a half cup of really good coffee over a full cup of cheap hotel coffee. Any day.
But when it comes to time, I think that both quantity and quality are important, especially when it comes to things like last weekend.
The difference between a few hours at Dr. Cramer's last year for StuCo members to get to know each other and sixteen hours this year was huge.
For the MMTs to get off campus and spend two days together gave us time to be together without rehearsing. We got to just hang out and have fun. (Not that rehearsals aren't fun. I think we proved that false.)
We need time. And we need to use it well. We can't just spend a few hours together each week and expect our relationships to happen. We made so much progress last weekend. We might not all know each other well, but we learned about each other. We are starting to understand each other.
Spend time together, my friends. Use that time to learn about each other. Find out the dynamics of your relationships. Take care of your friendships, if you want them to last.
This is what I'm learning.
4 comments:
And we, on the same morning, are not in church either. We are taking care of friendships. And we love you.
Love the worship with your mind!
(And hanging with your parents.)
I absolutely know that it is not the same... and I look forward to being in your physical presence soon.... but you were present around our table today. And I love that when you write I get to read it.
Also, I am a moron when it comes to the captchas (sp). I will never admit how many attempts it took to post that comment.
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