Revival

Revival started tonight. It's a big deal here.
I helped set up chairs for it this morning and was up at the butt crack of dawn helping put things together with the steering committee to make it work.
I went tonight as a counselor. I fell asleep about five or six times. I won't lie about it. I was really wanting to get through the invitation as quickly as possible so I could come back to my room and crash when a friend of mine singled me out as he came forward and went to go talk to me.
That was fine. I don't mind talking to him. His intentions for coming down were a bit inappropriate. But, he needed some guidance and I tried to give him the best of what I had.
However, I have beef with revival. Serious beef. A whole cow, actually.
I think the tradition of a Big Tent Revival is antiquated and old. Don't get me wrong, I love that we have one, I think it's cute, but that's just it. It's cute. It's nice. It's traditional. How effective is it?
We are college kids. We are young adults. Revival is to revive us. The speaker was good tonight. The worship band was really good. I just think we should have something more. Something more intimate. Something more real that hits people where they're at.
I understand that the goal of every organization on campus is to reach the athletes and break outside of the bubble. And to be honest, I can see why Christians would leave this school because of that bubble. To me, it's as simple as a "good morning....hey what's up....need a spotter...whatcha doing this weekend..." Relationships. Relationships work.
Jesus didn't delegate His work to the church so it could be delegated down to a committee in charge of advertising and publicity to ensure that the seats would be filled. Jesus told us to go out and make disciples. To be fishers of men. Jesus went out and sought the lost and hurting and confused.
I see flyers and posters and sidewalk chalk and hear chapel announcements all the time. How many steering committee members do I see sitting with them at lunch? How man committee heads do I see spotting the athletes in the rec in the afternoons getting to know them?
You want to change this campus? You want to break through the bubble?
Make a relationship. Talk to them. Get to know their name. Understand where they're coming from. Don't advertise and put up publicity. Go to them.
Jesus didn't say to the disciples, "Go into the next town and put up flyers at the well and make an announcement at synagogue that I'm coming." He just went.

Past this, I think revival should be more mature. More in depth. If it is to truly revive us and revive our relationship with God, then let's do more than hire some speaker. Let's do more than set up a big tent in the quad. Small group sessions. Discussion time. Let's fast beforehand. Let's talk about things and live out the high the band gives us at the peak of music. Let's make it real. Testimonies and speakers and prayers and this and that are great, but man they've all been done before. We wouldn't have the same goal of reaching the athletes each year if we were actually reaching them.

Anyway. I've got a cow, like I said.

Up to here

This past week has been heinous. Maybe.
I've had to accept only sleeping 6 hours a night. It has been terrible. Going to bed at 2 only to wake up at 8. Going to bed at 12, and then waking up at 6, unable to go back to sleep. Terrible.
Tonight I hope to get some sleep. Last night I didn't go to bed until waaaaay late. It was around 3.
I've been kind of bothered by the fact that I don't get much sleep. The morning that I woke up at 6, I went for a walk around campus. Yesterday morning, actually.
My relationship with God was in disconnect. As I walked around, I realized that my life had become filled with things.
That's such a trivial, juvenile thing, too. Filling our lives with things. It made me angry at myself for being an idiot. But it also made me glad to realize that I just needed to prioritize.
Stunt Night went well. Sort of.
I got to see my parents this weekend. That was great.
I went to church with Landon in Georgetown this morning. Real odd. This guy, David Hocking, was speaking. He was crazy. Seriously crazy. I didn't really care for him.
I do want to know something, though. Did Jesus speak in Aramaic, or Hebrew? Because Hocking provides a completely different interpretation of Jesus' cry on the cross, "Eloi Eloi..." Apparently, it should be "Eli Eli...," Hebrew words instead of the Aramaic.
I don't really care. I just want to know. If Jesus spoke Greek and Aramaic, then I know that this guy really is crazy. If Jesus spoke Hebrew, then I might want to look him up.
Anyway.
This coming week is Revival. I haven't been to a revival since Nolan Mueller punched my lights out around 6th grade. I've mixed feelings about revival. But...I'm ready to see what will come.
I hope to have a good week.

Proverbs 29:18

I've been working pretty hard on this event called Stunt Night. It's sponsored by the sophomore class. The idea is that each class gets together and puts on a 15 minutes skit with a 5 minute song and dance.
The freshman class has had some struggles. At one of the first meetings, one of our directors gave out some ideas and the other director said that they were stupid. The first director saw no reason to stick around if his ideas weren't going to be appreciated, so he left, leaving only the second director to do it all.
After about a week of practice, one of the guys acting in the skit asked me to take his place. I did. Since then, it's been ridiculous. I'm enjoying it, I'm loving that I get to work this much with everybody and get to know people better, but it is bordering on the edge of organized chaos.
We have too many chiefs, and not enough braves. And the truth is, most of our chiefs would be better braves and vice versa. It's coming together, but it's a painful process because two or three girls are trying to take charge, but a few of them lack the vision and understanding of how much work it takes to make it solid.
Tonight, for example.
We were supposed to practice the dance. I wanted to hit the dance a couple of times for practice, and then get together with the four leads (myself, Garrett Smith, Katie Leibert, Autumn Woolsey) and run lines and talk about the flow of the show. Instead, we spent the entire time doing the dance at full speed. About half way through practice, I interjected and said, "Hey, let's stop this. Let's do the dance, but do it slowly. Instead of one two three four five six seven eight, let's go one.....two.....three.....four.....five.....six.....seven.....eight, without the music so we can get the mechanics down." We did this once and it worked, and then the chief took charge again and it wasn't good.
I'm stressing about a lot of this because apparently most of the people wanting to run the show lack the vision to make it work. I'm not saying that I have the vision and it will be glorious if everyone listened to me. I'm saying that it takes practice, hard work, and creativity to take what we've got and make it good. I don't want to be demanding and mean to everyone I work with, but I'm not about to put up with anymore crap from people who do not understand what's going on. I don't pretend to have all the answers, I just know what it means to have a vision, work hard and get results.

Want a better answer? Ask a better question.

Dr. Oldham, my New Testament professor asked us one day in class what was so significant about the Samaritans.
I said, "They're half-breeds!"
Dr. Oldham, "Well, yes Geoff, they are half-breeds, but why? Where are they from?"
"SAMARIA!"
"Uh...well, yes Geoff, you're right. You did answer my questions, thank you."
"You want a better answer? Ask a better question."

Okay so maybe I didn't let him hear that last remark, but it's definitely stuck with me. In life, when we don't get the answer we want we get disappointed. However, I'm not convinced that every time we ask a question, we're asking the right one.
I'm not a guy who has all the answers. I'm not somebody who pretends to know everything. But I have been lucky enough to realize that life isn't about the right answers, it's about asking the right questions.