Frosh Con.
Frosh Conference: now I understand why all you older folk were so excited. Thank you to all who played a part in it. You rocked my world and blessed me in more ways than I can eloquate. And I had an amazing weekend, filled with good people (sisters and brothers in Christ: can we say a 1:45 am serenade that is still making me laugh? Thank you guys!) and life change.
So Jesus taught this radical message: love one another as I have loved you. Notice how none of the following are meant by the previous statement:
1. love one another as you feel like it
2. love only those who are lovable
3. don’t go out of your way to love people
4. love doesn’t mean sacrifice in any way, shape, or form
5. loving people won’t (and shouldn’t) hurt us, ever.
And yet we as Christians are guilty of loving exactly like that! I am guilty of loving conditionally. Is that what Jesus meant for His redeemed to do? No. I am guilty of the apathy of Christianity in America today: convenience Christianity. I don’t want to live in apathy anymore. I cannot set myself as pure and blameless before Christ and still hold true to those guidelines of “love” that isn’t really love at all!
So what does it mean to love like Jesus? We took a hard look at social injustice (or as I hear it, only the beginning) this weekend. At how as UCLA students, we’re born into privilege. I used to argue against this, using my own life as an example. I’m fully on scholarships and financial aid, and I hardly considered that privilege. Yet when I saw a room full of UCLA students, over 30 people, who each paid $20,000 per year just to attend school, who all own a computer, who all own more than 5 pairs of shoes, who have driven cars in their lifetime (if not owning one as well), and in the context of our conversation, it hit me that I am privileged. Consider how many talented people cannot go to college simply because they are restricted by their upbringing, or a lack of communication. It’s disgusting to think that I thought it was injustice that some students didn’t have to worry about money and I did – but I’m privileged to be attending college at all! And college isn’t even the worst of it – some people consider privileged having a dry place to sleep at night!
We visited South Central, an extremely ghetto part of LA. Trash litters the streets, tagging is everywhere, and gang wars are routinely fought in front of families’ homes. Children are kidnapped and go unreported. Children cannot get a good education because the neighborhood schools have no money, and even if they did, the children’s parents can’t afford what they need for school. The language barrier puts some at risk for extortion by heartless con artists. Most parents work in sweatshops, being paid under the counter and well below minimum wage. This is reality! This area is literally a few miles from Beverly Hills, and we don’t even realize it exists. It’s easier to remain ignorant and have a clear conscience than to have to deal with those unpleasant feelings of guilt and embarassment, is it not?
Consider this: those people I met in South Central, all unique and lovely children of God, are privileged when compared to the “untouchables” caste of people living in India. We watched a documentary on Mother Teresa – a woman whose superiors said “she wasn’t anything extraordinary” and was even “mischievious.” That was the beauty of it: she trusted Jesus and followed His call to love radically: not in the world’s system, but in His system. She touched the untouchables. She loved the homeless, the lonely, the sick, the mentally ill, the orphans, the damaged. She loved. She loved those that we’d consider privileged as well because she saw every person as Jesus. I had always thought, yeah, Mother Teresa’s a nice woman. No. Mother Teresa was a faithful woman who allowed God to use her. She sacrificed her life of comfort and boldly followed His call. She made a statement that blew me out of the water:
“Calcutta [India] is all over the world. You just have to have the eyes to see it.” She compared the physically/financially poor of third world countries to the emotionally/spiritually poor of the western world. She said that the hunger for love is just as malnourished as the hunger for nourishment.
So what does this all mean for me? I don’t know yet. But God is slowly revealing Himself to me. I thought about the physically hungry I meet every time I go into Westwood or go to PATH (People Assisting the Homeless). I thought about the financially hungry students here at UCLA who have to work just to get by, and those who couldn’t afford college at all. I thought about the emotionally and spiritually hungry people all around me. Lonely and desperate, they sit in their dorm rooms. Waiting. Wanting.
I thought I had nothing to give. But the one thing of value I have, Christ, is the only thing worth giving. So why don’t I give? How can I change the ways that I love? I certainly “love” like 1-5. Jesus, what are You calling me to? Would You teach me to respond? Would You teach me to love? What do I have to sacrifice? How will You make me uncomfortable? How will You teach me to take risks? Thank You for loving me enough to continue to teach me even when I screw up. Even when I’m too afraid. Even when I tell You know. I’m sorry for telling You no.
Currently Playing
The Ultimate Collection: Stand by Me/Best of Ben E. King/Ben E. Kind with the Drifters
By Ben E. King & The Drifters
Stand By Me
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