crazy love

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook version of Francis Chan's book Crazy Love. Being an avid lover of annotating anything remotely inspirational and aha-like, I had a hard time bringing it all together. It definitely means I'll be reading it in paper one of these days. But I did learn a lot. It really brought out  the notion of what Christians are called to, selfless love. I've heard this before, but so often it's tied too much to theology or a collection of rules. This was simpler, but much more difficult.

Jesus' two commands are to love God with and to love others as you would yourself. Chan combined those to say that we should love others as much as we would love God. This is just as Jesus mentioned to his followers about treating the least of these. The book mentioned how difficult it is to actually live this way. He and his wife downsized their home so they could give more away. He spoke of a man who lives in his car so that he can make food for surfers on the beach in Newport, CA. He spoke of many elements of living a Crazy Love lifestyle, so many stories, stuff that seems so different to comfortable suburban Christians and even to a soon-to-be 25 year-old dean living amidst the wheat fields of eastern Washington.

All this brought me to my knees. Where do I need to be next year? I've been making plans and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but I continually have to ask, "God, where next? Please guide my life" and to seek out as many opportunities to serve. I'm thankful I live in a dorm. There's so much I can do to give back. Now for the outpouring of God's crazy love...

what i do

This year, I've been getting asked a lot about my year at UCA. Are you loving it? "Yes," I say. "Tell me about deaning," they ask next. I never know what to say. Deaning consumes my life. I work long hours and I have trouble recounting what I do on the fly. It's so busy and stressful all the time, but I love it.

Here's a bit of what I do:
- put kids on sick list
- give meds
- monitor desk workers
- monitor janitors
- keep dorm clean
- handle discipline
- checks. all the time. worships. study halls. etc.
- attend faculty meetings
- chat with guys (the best part!)
- talk with parents

The list may not sound like much (I'm sure there's more), but it adds up. With 96 guys in our dorm, and only 3 full-time deans, it's constant. There's always someone who needs something and I feel like many good kids slide through without much attention because they're where they need to be are getting good grades and not pantsing kids in a classroom or calling a girl a "hippo" (those are sadly real examples). It can be overwhelming.

Add to my current schedule the occasional substitute teaching and coaching both varsity and JV volleyball and I'm swamped.

But it's Sabbath. And I've had SO many good conversations lately. With my RA's. With random sophomores in the cafeteria. With fellow staff members. I have so many reasons to be thankful. But, like most times I'm asked what I do, right now I'm just thinking about my pillow... Goodnight!