I'm using a different version of my favorite font (Bradley Hand ITC TT-Bold) simply because this computer HAS it!!! YES!! I went on Microsoft Word the other day (yesterday, I think) and wanted to write something in a different font, and this computer had SO many of my old favorite fonts from Grandpa's computer!!! YAY!!!!!! That SO rocks!

LOL. Is "nerd" written on my forehead?

Um... Anyway... I really came in here to write some deep spiritual observations.

No, actually, I did. :)

Today we had Freshman worship, and our chaplain asked for prayer requests at the end of his (GREAT, as always! I absolutely love our chaplain!) message--which--okay, I have to halt a moment and describe his sermon/message thing, because I really like everything he says. He is just a great chaplain.

Okay, you know how (well, some of you do) at camps, in Sunday School, on retreats, absolutely everywhere you go, they preach messages on Matthew 6:33 ("Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you" [KJV]), and the message is always to put God at the top of your list? Well, today Gene gave us a different idea. Picture this in your mind. Erase God off the top of your list. Put the important things NOW in the necessary order below it. For example, this week for me at the top of the list is "STUDY FOR THE BIBLICAL STUDIES EXAM!"

Now, get a big nail. Write "God" on the head. Put your list of stuff-that-needs-to-get-done on the wall and nail it up with that nail.

God should not be at the top of our list. He should be holding up the list.

"In Him all things hold together"--Colossians 1:17.

SO! Now you know the great message. Maybe it didn't have such a great impact on you as it did on me--who on earth can preach a sermon the same way he heard it preached?--but I hope it kind of makes sense to you.

So, onto the deep spiritual insights. :) Gene asked for prayer requests after the message, and people said the various norm: family members going through physical struggles, people needing to be saved, friend trying to adjust, etc. This is all good--I do NOT condone praying for things as such! But one guy's prayer request stood out really well to me. He mentioned how we don't speak about the belief we all share. He mentioned how hard it is to talk about God.

Might I remind you, I am at a Christian college. Of all places, a Christian college should be a place where it's easiest to talk about God, right??

Gene agreed with him: "If you really want to go all out for Christianity, you really want to go for it, the best place for you to go is a nonChristian college."

And I agree with them both.

Now I'll stop typing madly and slow down a little.

There is an atmosphere at a Christian college that keeps people from talking about God. See, everybody assumes that everybody is okay. If they weren't--why would they be at a Christian college? Right? They must be really close to God.

Alors, no one speaks about Him. We're all okay. Why should we need to talk about Him?

A prime example of this is just last night. No, it was the night before--the night I realized how great God is because of this book, Daddy-Long-Legs. :) I came to God after reading it, just praising Him and saying, aloud, "God, You are so great! You are so awesome! I can't believe how much You love me!" I felt His arms around me and was just loving being in His presence, and expressing it and all...

And then my roommate walked in.

And all that confidence I felt disappeared.

I was afraid to praise God in front of her, because I've never heard her mention His name. She would think I was weird! People don't talk about GOD as if He were some everyday Friend!

Isn't that awful?

And struggles? Who ever heard of Christians going through struggles? We're all okay! That's the idea here.

But there ARE people who are going through some really tough stuff here. There ARE people who are feeling way alone, and are even having a tough time even believing that God loves them. I witnessed this today in the prayer chapel. A girl sat at one of the altars there, crying for... I don't know how long it was till I got up the courage to go over to her. :( It must've been 20 minutes, at least. I finally did get myself to go over to her and ask, "Can I pray for you?"

She accepted it very willingly. Afterwards she gave me a hug and thanked me. I'll be praying for her all this week.

I have made a goal this week to mention God in casual conversation whenever He prompts me to do so. It'll be hard. I know there's gonna be pressure to keep my mouth shut. People will give me weird looks. But this college... this college full of Christians... needs to start confirming what we all have in common.

Disclaimer: "I'm part of the problem, I confess, but I gotta get this off my chest: Let's extinguish the anguish for which we're to blame, and save the world from going down in flames." (Relient K, Anatomy of the Tongue in the Cheek, "Down in Flames.")

-Stephanie