My oldest daughter is slated to return to her college dorm later on this afternoon, now having accomplished her initial 3-weeks as a freshman (& being home for this long holiday weekend). I had breakfast with her on Sunday morning, and she let me know how surprised she was to experience a community of students & faculty - at her chosen university - that was so very (relatively) pagan.
Her response instantaneously returned me to my freshman experience back in the fall of 1990, and back then, I was also "being educated" at a public institution here in Mississippi.
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Arguably, the college experience's biggest liability is the spiritual vacuum students are so often faced with. And I'm not referring to curriculum or campus life. I'm referring to the true influence - peers, professors, etc.
This is, of course, unless the student respectfully recognizes and subsequently maps out her situation, knowing full well whom she belongs to all the while.
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For Rob, it was the architecture school professors, whom I respectfully yielded to, that surprised me the most. Their outlook was always so clinical and devoid of any sort of eternal perspective. As such, I would especially appreciate those who'd make a point to smile and crack jokes in order to lighten the ever ominous (who's going to change majors / "double D" next?) mood.
I remember - particularly as a freshman - feeling like I'd been caught up in an entirely different world. A world of ever present academia, amongst leadership that was far more knowledgeable than anything I'd ever witnessed.
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But then there was marching band. What a godsend it was. I played clarinet and marched with hundreds of other students - every late weekday afternoon for practice and at most weekend football games. The band directors were down to Earth and no doubt Christian. Polar opposites of the majority of my professors.
It was there that I could simply exhale (literally) each and every day, no longer having to take notes, worry over project deadlines or professors' expectations. Instead, it was simply a maximized (massively scaled up) experience of high school band which is where I'd felt most comfortable simply being myself during the previous five years of my life.
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Samson Society is a similar reprieve for me today. Tuesday evening (tomorrow night), I'm anticipating attending (for the first time) the Pruitt Baptist Church meeting. Especially from the standpoint of me not having the honors of facilitating the meeting.
It's nice having that reprieve. That opportunity to exhale. Especially when you're subject to - as we all are - the real world. A world where there're so few Christians. I am so thankful God ushered me into this community of men.
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