Mid-Semester Review

So now that midterms will be done after tomorrow (once my dreaded Greek III final is done), the first half of this semester will officially be over. Sometimes it feels like I just got here and other times it feels like it's been years since I pulled up in my Altima and met the guys in Keller. Anyway, I figured it would be a good time to look back on what's happened.

Eight weeks ago I can honestly tell you that I wasn't crazy excited about coming back to Harding. I was coming off of one of the best summers of my life after a fantastic internship in Huntsville and a 3 week tour of fun in Kingsport. I was sure it would be a good semester and I'd have some fun, but there wasn't much waiting for me in Searcy. Little did I know then that in the next eight weeks a 38-year-old burnout preacher, a felon awaiting trial, a book by an ethics professor from Lipscomb, and some soccer with some kids in the "shady" part of town would turn my life completely upside-down.

Coleman had told me about meeting Jimmy over the summer and all the ministry plans they had. For those that don't know, Jimmy is a former preacher, who moved to Searcy a few years ago and is perhaps the most idealistic man I have ever met when it comes to spreading the love of Christ. I know that I'm not going to learn anything in any of my classes this semester that will come near to what I'm going to learn from Jimmy. It's really nice to have a good friendship with a real adult here (something that I never managed to get in my first two years in Searcy). I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen with Jimmy and Coleman's plans, and neither did they, but I knew I wanted to be a part of it. By the second week of school, a group of us had our first meeting talking about how we could get involved with the disenfranchised of Searcy. The next week, we had our first Wednesday Night "Bible Study" with the slogan of "No More Phase One!" (Phase one is the act of sitting around and TALKING about how important serving and being missional is, but without actually doing anything). The next week, we had already planned out how we were going to get involved in a neighborhood on Woodruff Street (if there's a "bad part of town" in Searcy, most residents would point to Woodruff Street). The next week we were playing soccer and football with the kids in the neighborhood and starting to build relationships, and we've been doing that every week since. Now we're planning on adding more time in the neighborhood and service projects on Sunday, and our plans are only going to get more and more exciting from this point on.

Another exciting aspect has been the opportunity to get involved in Jail Ministry again. Coleman and I got to start our "Batman and Robin of Jail Ministry" routine again. By our third week, we had a completely new batch of guys, who are by far the best group I have ever had in jail. These guys come excited every week, come up with harmonies for our old-school "I'll Fly Away" songs, get totally involved in our lessons, and will spend hours just talking to us afterwards about their lives and spiritual journeys. Their stories break your heart and then lift you up again. I couldn't have asked for a better experience.

Meanwhile, I have been going through a pretty significant worldview shift over the past few weeks. I've been having many long conversations with Jimmy, Coleman, Colby, Jon, Jesse, and many others about taking our faith in a more radical direction. The book we've been reading Mere Discipleship by Lee Camp and the conversations and ideas sprouting from that has added gasoline to this fire. Now, my dreams of comfortable suburbia have been replaced by dreams of communal living (possibly sooner than later) and minimalism. Mr priorities of girls, sports, sleep, X-BOX and my desires for my comfort are being pushed back. New ideas are continually coming and will probably continue to grow exponentially.

In past semesters, I would have mentioned a lot of other things first in a mid-semester review. I guess they don't seem as important. Classes are good, boring but good. My friends are good. I'm making new friends, and my older friendships with some are strengthening while some have lessened, but it's all good. All in all, things are going great! Exciting things are happening and exciting things are on the way. God has really blessed me this semester more than I could possibly imagine. It's only halftime, and hopefully this semester can be like the Cowboys and be really strong in the second half (I think the Cowboys have outscored their opponents by something like 989-3 in second halves this season). I'm excited by what God has in store. Let's go!