College Life

85. The percentage of college students that change their major at least once throughout their college careers. 4. The typical amount of years it takes one to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. 7. The amount of years it took me to graduate with a bachelor’s degree. The reason for this simple statistics lesson? Chances are, the career that you have picked out for yourself right now will probably change 3 or 4 times before you complete your college education.

When I was a junior in High School I already knew what my career was. I knew without any shadow of a doubt that I would be an architect. I loved the idea of designing various building for people, plus the money is pretty sweet too. I also thought it would be my way of stamping my legacy on society. I liked the idea of having stuff named after me so after I was dead, people would comment on my work and appreciate it. I enrolled at ASU and went through my first semester with flying colors. I was a week into my second semester when the realization hit me that architecture wasn’t for me. The program was extremely competitive, and while I was interested in architecture, I looked at the other “nerds” that made this their lives and realized I would probably never make it. I spent the following 2 years completing general classes and finally this spring I received my bachelor’s degree in Psychology, not architecture. If you had asked me 7 years ago if I would become a youth pastor and preach every week to a group of teenagers, I seriously would have called you crazy.

So what’s the point of my little statistics lesson and my story? You might have an idea of what you want to do with your life now, but that may change. I think as we grow and mature, our motives for things also grow and mature. A lot of times we choose career paths based on a pay scale rather than our level of happiness. As we grow up, we realize it should be the other way around. I may never make “architecture” kind of money by being a Youth Pastor, but I wake up everyday excited about what I do. I genuinely love all of the students I get to hang with while I didn’t plan my life this way, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t plan ahead and start thinking about what you want to do. There is no excuse for being lazy and uncaring about your future. That is the truth path to living an unsuccessful and unfulfilling life. As we talked about on Wednesday, it is vital to be prepared and focused on the future as well as the present. But as important as it is to be prepared, you must also be open to what God wants to show you and teach you. As much as you may not want to admit this, God knows you far better than you know yourself. In the book of Revelations, Jesus says “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and eat with him and him with me.” It is incredible to me that we are constantly trying to get through this life alone when the very being that created it is there waiting to help us out. I really hope and pray for all of you (and myself) that we can begin to open that door and allow Jesus to enter our lives. If we can begin to trust in Him and allow Him to guide us through our lives, I have no doubt that we will know what to do with our lives, and we will be the happiest we could ever be. I love you guys and I can’t wait to see you guys this Wednesday!

Bumper Stickers

I really hope I don’t burst anybody’s bubbles this week, but I have an incredible piece of news for you all. Recently I have discovered that while some might view me as somewhat prestigious because of the position I hold in our church (I am being a bit sarcastic here), I am in fact not perfect. I will give you a few minutes to catch your breath because I know that just about knocked you off of your comfy computer chair. But seriously, I am not perfect. I realized this the other day while I was driving on the freeway. I am rarely in a hurry (as evident by the fact I am generally ten minutes late for virtually everything) but at the same time I enjoy going my 8 mph over the speed limit (I’ll show those tricky radar cameras). I was just driving and minding my own business when a car speeds up and proceeds to cut me off and then immediately slow down, leaving me startled and forced to take off the cruise control. All of my “Youth Pastorianism” jumped out the window as millions of angry thoughts ran through my head. I thought I would first tail gate him, then I decided I would speed up, get in front of him, then then throw a little smirk into my rear view mirror as I slow down to 45 mph. As the moment arrived where I was to carry out my plan, I noticed the lovely 105.5 K-Love window decal along with the Christian “Jesus Fish” sticker next to the chevrolet decal. Within an instant my anger was gone! I was laughing at this point of the obersity of treating another Christian in such a manor. He’s in the club!!!

This really got me thinking… How many of us share in these same experiences? We all walk around with our angry, bitter faces, then put on our happy “church” faces when we around Christian people. There is something comfortable in being around another Christian. For one, they already know Jesus (presumably) so I won’t have to argue with my small knowledge of the Bible. Two, I don’t have to worry about any sort of rejection.

Towards the end of Matthew, Jesus sends out these group of guys to share His love with the world. He tells them to “Make disciples of ALL nations…”. In order for them to complete this, they are going to have to venture out unto unknown territories and be around weird people. In looking at Jesus, He was painfully honest at times, but also beyond sympathetic and he never gave up on anyone. These are great characteristics of a friend, but these are insane characteristics of a human being. Jesus didn’t exude these characteristics to just His disciples, He acted this way to every person He encountered. He would show love to His disciples, but also to the town prostitute that everyone wanted to kill. In the world that we live in, people are skeptical of religion and tired of the facades. This world is not much different than the world Jesus walked through. Jesus was crazy and revolutionary! He would walk past the stuffy religious people to hang out with the mentally ill and the lepers. Now I believe that church is an amazing place for encouragement and everyone should be plugged into one, but that shouldn’t be the only place we carry our Bibles and say Jesus’ name.

The term Christian can be translated to “Christ-like”. I want to challenge everyone who calls themselves Christians (me included) to step out and begin to act like it. We all have friends and neighbors who are literally dying daily. People without any hope for the future. The suicide rates in this country are beyond evident of this. Jesus encountered these people and didn’t just tell them about hope, He gave them hope. Let’s show this world true love and let’s be the same revolution that Jesus was and still is. This world doesn’t need religion. While it can be important, this world doesn’t NEED you to have a Masters in Theology as well as the Bible memorized in 15 languages. This world needs love. Love that doesn’t come with a price tag or stipulations, but love that is unconditional. You can be the one to save a life today. Let’s all step out and love people today regardless of their window decals or taste in radio stations.

So with all that said, I have a challenge for you. I will give a Starbucks giftcard to the first person to e-mail or text me a picture of a K-Love or Air1 bumper sticker. You have until Wednesday so hurry! My e-mail is bavina@parkwaychurch.com or text me at 480.228.6135. See you guys Wednesday!!!

-Bobby