Sometimes, right after Christmas break I will hear students gently complain with words like, "My break was too long." I sort of get that. Sort of. After a long break from our normal routine (like Christmas) I am almost always ready to come back to a regular schedule. Almost.

But then the harsh winter months of late January and February hit... and I find myself incredibly antsy for Spring Break. I ache to see the sun shine--really shine--not the milk-glass- cloudy-grey sky that forms a gloomy canopy over our heads for all the winter months. I long to feel warmer breezes--not steely- knife-edged bitter chills that stab through skin, and bone, to marrow. And my nose yearns to inhale fresh earth, new grass, budding and blooming flowers--not the seemingly innocuous, odorless "non-aroma" of dirty snow or the acrid chemical smell of road salt and the diesel fumes of snow plows.

And so, here we find ourselves, precariously perched between the glory of a Christmas past and the enticing hope of a full-blown- full-bloom Spring. We are... "In Between."

I don't really have any plans for Spring Break. Typically, I am indoors a lot... doing my taxes. Ironic that I would so look forward to a break that drags with it the stresses of winding up a year's worth of family finances. But... every chance I get during Spring Break I play hooky from the drudgery of paying my pound of flesh to Uncle Sam.

And I escape. Like a bird from a cage, or a torrent of water flooding from a broken dam, my life bursts into the outdoors to enjoy, absorb, and revel in a change of season that somehow almost miraculously brings to an end the drudgery of winter and ushers in the re-energizing, reviving power of change. Yes, I have been known to fire up the motorcycle and feel the wind in my face--a face with an uncharacteristic smile as big as the Cheshire Cat's.

So, if you are like me... stuck in the land of "In Between"... be patient. Spring Break is just around the corner. Just don't waste it doing your taxes.

Over the past couple of weeks I have personally observed an inordinate number of wacky driving practices. Just last Tuesday night, on my way over to CCH for our late-night leadership- meeting-marathon I experienced FOUR brushes with driving infamy.

First, as I drove south toward CCH on one of Charleston’s unlit streets I was met head-on by a car driving without ANY lights. And yes, it was pitch dark. Then, as I approached the intersection of Garfield and 9th street (where 9th street is now one-way going south) a young woman in an SUV heading north (toward Lincoln Avenue) ran the stop sign (accelerating) and swerved around the “ROAD CLOSED: ONE WAY” barricade and sped through the one-way construction zone to get to Lincoln. I could barely stand to watch her as she successfully, but dangerously made it through the construction zone. Then, as I made a right turn onto Roosevelt from 9th St., I met a pickup truck, head-on, yep… driving without lights. As I approached CCH on Roosevelt and came to a stop at the intersection at 4th street—a car heading north on 4th street stopped dead in the middle of the road as if the intersection were a four-way stop (even though there is NO stop sign for northbound traffic). The other four cars that had met at the intersection were gridlocked (and perplexed) by this quirky driving practice of stopping for “phantom” stop signs. Horns honked, and everybody survived.

And of course, we all have our own stories about people texting while driving, reading while driving, eating and drinking while driving, applying makeup while driving, typing on a laptop while driving—or horror of horrors—doing them all at the same time while driving.

Oh, and I can’t leave this one out. On Thursday, I was driving on a very busy Lincoln Avenue as I approached a young woman riding her bicycle in my lane (thankfully in the same direction)… she was weaving erratically. As I cautiously passed her I beheld an amazing sight: she was riding her bike—hands free—and texting with both hands (in traffic). Oh, yes, and she had her earphones in her ears listening to her IPod… so I doubt that she ever knew I was even there. Scary.

So, what does all of this have to do with your “Spiritual Life?”

Well, first of all, and probably the most obvious is… the world is a dangerous place, and your life might just be shortened by one of these dangerous drivers. So, you should probably be sure that your seat belt is buckled, and that your life is “right” with God before you start the engine of your car. And I am not joking about that—especially the latter of the two.

Second, who among us has not been guilty of doing something really dumb behind the wheel of a car (or on a bicycle)? I know I have plenty of sorry stories I could regale you with about my own carelessness. And I have, so far, escaped without incident—maybe you have, too. So, the fact that you and I are still here, in one piece, speaks volumes of the grace and mercy of our God. (Some of you may think it is sheer, dumb luck. But I would like to think God has played some role in protecting us from our own poor choices at least some of the time.)

And third, the lessons we learn from this—well—they definitely issue a CHALLENGE AND A CALL on our lives… If the quality of our driving practices in any way reflects the quality of our spiritual lives—we should probably get busy earnestly working on both. There is good reason why the apostle Paul warned us to… “work out [our] salvation with fear and trembling.” “Fear and trembling”… yep, that just about covers it!

Here I sit in my office on what I consider to be a very unique day. Today, Wednesday, August 18th marks, in essence, the borderline between the end of Summer break and the beginning of our Fall Semester and new school year. Today is our “COM Day.” We are meeting all day with our new COM members (student leaders) to prepare ourselves for what is to come over the next few days. Tomorrow is Thursday—freshman move-in day—and that is when this town begins to reel in a whirlwind of craziness. There will be traffic jams, and long lines at all the stores and restaurants. Parents will be frantically looking for places to park while they unload their student’s belongings and move him or her into their residence hall. Students will be scurrying to textbook rental, and all the other important last minute appointments they must make to get fully settled in to the new school year. Yes, the theme of Thursday will be “chaos.”

More importantly for us… Thursday is the first day of “BASH WEEK” as we kick off the new school year with a free “Ice Cream Social” Thursday evening for all the new and returning students. My prayer is that Thursday’s theme for us here at the Campus House will be “hope.” That is, hope for a great year of ministry to the students of EIU. Hope for God to work through us with a heart of outreach. Hope that God will use this ministry for the next nine months to challenge and change the hearts of young people who will eventually become the “movers and shakers” of this culture.

And I will take “hope” over “chaos” any day.

Summer break has begun. The campus is pretty much empty of students and faculty. There IS busy-ness on campus, but it is from the High School Girl's State Track Meet and Guy's State Track Meet. There will be more camps to come all summer long, so the campus will be buzzing with activity.

Summer provides a different pace for us in campus ministry. We still have plenty of work to do, but, rather than being the frantic "gotta-get-it-done-because-the-deadline-is-here" type of activity...it is more the "planning-for-the-next-school-year" type of absorption in preparation. Regardless, I think all of us on staff enjoy the shifting of gears that the summer schedule provides.

One of my favorite activities of the summer is our annual Campus Ministers' Retreat, held at McCormick's Creek State Park near Spencer, Indiana. Next week a hundred or so campus ministers from across the nation will gather for four days of rest, worship, learning, reminiscing, and sharing the vision for our unique niche in ministry. I look forward to getting together with some of the guys and gals who have been in campus ministry for decades. We have weathered storms together. We have raised our own children in campus ministry. We have shared many of the same struggles, and many of the same types of blessings. We share a solidarity that only comes from occupying the same corner of God's kingdom.

I also look forward to seeing the new faces--"newbies" in campus ministry all full of hope and excitement. It energizes me-- no, THEY energize me. And their presence shows me that the future of our unique ministry experience is in good hands.

So, think of us, and pray for us next week (June 1-4) as we gather to recuperate, regenerate, and re-focus.

Have a great summer,

I could easily have blogged about the beautiful blue skies and the puffy white clouds making our spirits soar on a chilly Monday morning. But, instead I chose something “heavier” to blog about.

In case you haven’t noticed, we live in a culture that possesses an odd relationship with “knowing.” Philosophical types will refer to this an “epistemological” problem. Whether in politics or pop culture, relationships or religion… we struggle with certain categories: What we know and what we don’t know; what we can know and what we cannot know; and how we know what we know. The problem is, our culture has confused or blurred all the categories. For example, a few years ago a popular stand-up comedian quipped, “We live in a strange world—a world that is firmly convinced that God is dead and that Elvis is alive!” O.K., so the people who still believe that Elvis roams the earth incognito may constitute the lunatic fringe, but they are not alone. For instance, even many well-pedigreed scientific minds firmly believe in the existence of absolutely unprovens such as UFO’s and aliens. For many of these academics, from a presuppositional stance, God cannot possibly exist, but, on the other hand, because there are so many cosmic entities in the universe, the probability of other intelligent life out there is (according to them) nearly statistically “certain.” Really. Or should I exclaim, “Really!.” Or should I question, “Really???”

If you are a “Christ Follower,” to survive in this topsy-turvy intellectual climate you MUST know WHAT you know, and HOW you know, and WHY you know. You must also know what you DON’T know, and whether what you don’t know CAN OR CANNOT be known. I know this may sound like a boring exercise in futility, but in reality it can prove to be quite stimulating—really. It will also help you come to a firmer grasp of who you are as a “Christ follower.”

In addition, in your study of the Bible, this can become quite a freeing exercise. There are certain items about the Bible that I know. I feel pretty good about those. There are also many items with regard to the Bible that I either do not know, or once knew and now have forgotten. I don’t feel so good about those. However, I am intrigued about the categories of Biblical “stuff” that I might LIKE to know, but that I CANNOT know. You know, there ARE categories like that… continued in pt.2