Junior Year: Intentional Community

Two years have passed and yet another has just begun at this great campus that I have grown to call home. It is only the second week and already I have been filled with ideas, passions, and great memories that will only continue to build as the year progresses. From the first week, training to be a small group leader, I felt a call to minister to the local community here this year. How often do college students go through college staying in their little "bubble" of campus and neglecting the neighborhood that surrounds them? Or how often do we take the opposite approach and focus our entire thoughts and actions on leaving the country and getting away from here? Why is it that college students seem to have a problem with being content with where they are? Now I know this is a general statement, but overall when people are in college it's always for something else: to get that much needed degree, to climb the ladder of success, to get that dream job, the fill up their resume, to prepare themselves to leave. Whatever their reason for being in college is, it is likely not to help the community flourish. Why is that? How much better could we make the world if we focused on the community we were living in for the 4-5 years that we are there? I feel called to get to know the neighborhood, visit the farmers market, help support the local economy, and do what I can to minister here. If we, as college students, are going to be living in an area for a select number of years the least we can do is help usher in Gods kingdom to that community through our acts of love, simplicity, and sustainability.

It could be easy to read the above calling and assume I am going to invest all my time in the community and neglect campus life to fulfill that passion; however that is simply not the case. Like everything in life there has to be a fine balance and order to how you do things even if your personality is one that dislikes routine. As important as it is to invest and support your local community it is also important to support the campus you attend which is what I will be doing. When I go into work in the mornings I go in with a positive attitude hoping to show love to those that I come in contact with. When I hang out with friends I am intentional about what we do and talk about. When I ask professors how they are doing I genuinely want to know more than the typical "great" answer. There are so many ways that one can invest in their community and really get to know the people you are living with; but it all has to do with being intentional. Once a week my apartment has decided to have "Bro Time" at a set time and place; not because we all love routine--because we don't--but because we want to be intentional about growing together as we live communally.

I share these thoughts not to show off my calling or all the "great" things that I have done, but to show examples of how I think the college years can effectively be done. I know, as I am prone to mistakes, that there are many other ways to fully embrace your communities while you are in college. I also believe there are some ways that may work better for some people over others. When we are living our lives whether it is in college or not, we need to ask ourselves if we want to live lives of love that promote simplicity, community, and sustainability or apathetic lives that promote consumerism and individualism. As I journey on in my college life I hope to reflect this life of love, simplicity, and sustainability with each relationship I develop.