The Rise of the Juniors

It's a scary thought to think that soon we're going to be the upperclassmen. Where has the time gone! I remember first coming to CBS, going over to Caleb and Richard's to play some Halo before I knew the people here. It's so funny to think about the way I viewed the junior class back in the day.

They seemed so distant--like older (at least to me) and I thought it would take a while for me to be like that. And here we are...we're about to become juniors, and it's a scary thought. Soon freshmen are going to be coming in, and who knows what they're going to expect. I know that I thought the upperclassmen knew so much. I expected them to be done struggling with a lot of issues, to have things figured out. When I got to know them more my sophomore year, it was funny to see a lot of the same struggles that I go through, though a lot of growth as well. I realized that we weren't so different in the end, just trying to love God more and trust in Him past our fears.

I guess there are a lot of fears for this coming year that I have because I know there are a lot of sins that I wish I had stopped struggling with by now. There's a lot of love lacking in my heart. And I wish I could be that great older brother with a lot of answers to life's questions.

In some ways, to be sure, I think we've all grown in God. We've experienced a few more things and can share wisdom on some stuff that we've gone through with the freshmen and the sophomores, but it's still a daunting task because we are all still so weak. And I guess that's the way it should be. We don't stop struggling with sin, we don't have the perfect prayer life, or the perfect trust in God, and it's probably still hard for us to know what God wants us to do. We probably don't change that much in 2 years. But the way that I have changed, and possibly you too, is actually pretty simple. It kind of seems small when I think about it now. I guess I kind of imagined that by now I would have like matured/grown to the point where I could fight off lions or something (something like that).
But instead, looking back, I think all that I can think of right now is that I've learned that God is greater, more powerful, good-er, and needs to be more important than I knew before. God's been slowly destroying a few idols in my heart that I didn't really think were all that big of a deal. And in their place, God has put more of Himself. I've learned what a joy it is to get to love and know God, and I've learned how great it is that God has placed us all in a body together.


After one felly dinner, I came to my conclusion that ultimately what CBS is meant to teach us is how good God's love is. To be sure, we as brothers and sisters fail each other, but there are times when you can really feel the love (I think), and it comes clearest to me during the felly dinner times. The love we have for each other is just a small portion of how good and how big God's love is for each one of us, and God is teaching us about His love in our fellowship, so that when we all leave from here we can help other fellowships to experience how great a blessing God has given us through the body-life. That we can show God's love to other people, and show them that it's more than just being in the same building together on a day or two or three, but being connected in our lives to one another. That's why I think that I'll miss everyone here, and the times we had at CBS (hopefully we stay in touch though!), but I also think, the best part of CBS is God's love, and we can take that wherever we go.