Sunday.....Christianity.....To Those On A Great Campus!

I had the opportunity to leave some small cards with this web site's URL on them on a college campus today, and whenever I get to leave these cards I try to write on a topic for those who may visit the blog that day. And...this one (youth) is one of my favorite topics anyway. I can hardly express how nice it was to see the exuberance of our son's friends on the dance floor at his wedding this past summer!  There's an enthusiasm, an energy and an awe at this age that I remember very well. In my own experience, I misinterpreted that enthusiasm, misdirected that energy and never contemplated beyond that awe and excitement. Only God's mercy on the poster boy of immaturity permitted me to experience His blessings later on in life. So I come to you with that on my resume' and also this; I have distractions, but fewer distractions than I could have in viewing with concern this world that we live in. The sports page is started and completed in the drive-through line at McDonald's every morning. I haven't the slightest idea what the television show Lost was. My iPhone, my XM and my blog are the extent of my electronic knowledge of gadgets. I break away from this blog or a book long enough to watch Lawrence Welk and Middle every Saturday and Wednesday while old classic movies and Penguin playoff hockey can bring a sense of guilt. So I guess it's a rather weak resume' of only I've been where you don't want to go but I don't waste a whole lot of time today in trying to warn. I say this only to emphasize that there is only so much time in a day and what is lost, is lost forever. What do I do for real excitement? Well, I'll tell you, buckle your seat belts, for not only did I sow wild oats in my youth but I was a Johnny Appleseed of it, yet there is no excitement, no joy, no awe as great as the realization, and continued refreshing, of what happened on a rocky hill outside the walls of Jerusalem and in a cold tomb on one of its hillsides. There is no thankfulness as powerful as opening one's eyes every morning knowing that God has not abandoned you, no hope as sure as the strength of His grip, no love as strong as displayed by the one most deserving of praise on the one most deserving of forsaking. Remember that you have had only a few short years of navigating adulthood. Be wary in the realization that you are the target of many who want your services only to further their own goals. Consider the faces of old celebrities that often adorn the covers of tabloids at the checkout counter. They were young and beautiful not all that long ago. Time never stops. Fame is fleeting. Plead with God's Holy Spirit to show you your weaknesses, for if you are not aware of them you may fall victim to them. Thank God for for every glass of water, every meal, every breath. Never let a day go by without lifting up in prayer all of your brothers and sisters in Christ who are, at that moment, being persecuted, who are without at that moment, and who are crying out at that moment to the God who beckons you for your acknowledgement of and petitions for them. Do you think that you are relatively smart? Know this...there is one who wants your soul with him in perdition who laughs at your intelligence, and mine. You could not win in a fair fight and this would not even be a fair fight. There are traps all around you. Do not only acknowledge the perils but be sober-minded! Be vigilant, for as theologian Michael Horton warned, this Christian life of ours is not just another social networking. This is real, that is a farce. This has a cost, that is a wage. Press on!
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