March 31st, A Thursday

For nearly four years, I have been in a worship service at a church on a thursday night. There are very few thursday nights in my entire college career that were spent otherwise; the ones that come most readily to mind were nights spent working on projects or something related to school. These worship services may have originated as my wanting to be part of a larger community, maybe finding more friends, maybe more so because I have been raised attending services and sought to bring the regularity about by my own choice. The last option, at least partially in truth, is what it is now. DIVE has been a constant throughout these four years of schooling. Designing shirts, bulletins, announcements, drumming (and lots at that!!)... It is truly my community group, my family, my friends i look forward to most. It is where I met my fiance, it is where i have had my faith sharpened many, many weeks. It has challenged, encouraged, loved, and taken care of me. DIVE has also fed me, which is a pretty big deal in college :)


In a few weeks, this will no longer be my "home" the way it is for other students, mainly because i will no longer be among their numbers. I will be a man in the world, working for my existence amidst billions doing the same, following a God that millions also follow. DIVE will be a memory, it will be behind my footsteps. I plan to remain involved as much as possible, helping lead bible studies and make sure that students make their lives about God and not about anything else short of Him. I feel like i have a grain of understanding of how Jesus felt leaving His disciples, looking at them and seeing the future. They were young, anxious, restless, full of questions still, not unlike my freshmen bible study or my 9th grade d-group.


And maybe, while typing this, the real challenge, as always, will be letting go. Footsteps point forward. If one stands too still too long, muscles go into atrophy. Legs lock, become numb, bring more pain than good. Ever forward, ever onward.


But into what?