Fratting with Faith

           

This is a post that’s been on my heart to write for a month now—with all the new men in the Greek system, I wanted to write a serious blog about balancing faith and fraternity life.

                I want to start with a disclaimer however: This post is not criticizing Greek life. I am very fond of my university’s Greek system, and I believe it produces excellent men and women.

 This is encouragement and advice to Christian men who are unsure how to balance fraternity life with faith—and I hope this is how it’s seen. There are four major topics that I want to hit on: women, representation, involvement and the big picture.

Women

The first lesson I learned in college: there are so many attractive girls. Even girls that I had known before college suddenly seemed more attractive. Girls, girls, girls.

 Now, I love girls.I’ll be the first one to admit it. However, all the beautiful women and the freedom freshman experience can lead men down a path of lust that’s hard to get off.

The most important thing to remember is respect. Women are beautiful— that’s the way God designed them— but they aren’t objects to desire after.

In The Five Love Languages, Dr. Gary Chapman warns single adults of the consequences of leading a lust oriented life.  When you start treating women like objects, it leads to a dangerous and unfulfilling lifestyle.

“Men—and women—who devote themselves to unrestricted physical satisfaction do not attain happiness and very often suffer from neurotic conflicts or symptoms,” Chapman says. “It is not only not the basis for happiness, it does not even guarantee sanity” (Chapman 104).

Representation

One of the first things you will hear in pledgeship is how important letters are—don’t do this in letters, and don’t do that. Letters are important because it affiliates you with the house, and your actions will have a positive or negative effect on your house’s reputation.

You’re relationship with Christ is like wearing a second set of letters— and sometimes it can feel just as restrictive. Don’t say this,don’t do that, don’t, don’t, don’t. But try seeing it this way—

You get to be a representative for Christ 24/7. You get to be a spokesperson, trendsetter, and example of what Christ’s love should look like in a man. Your pledge brothers, classmates and professors will know you’re different because your actions will hold you to a different standard.

With this privilege comes the responsibility of integrity—you can’t “take a day off”. When training his student staff for Camp Crimson, Director Zac Stevens said be aware of your actions because “seven people are looking at you at any given point in time.”

People are watching—rep your letters well, rep Christ better.

(If you want to see what happens to people who don’t rep their letters well, just peruse any TFM Fail Friday.)

Involvement

This is my personal song and dance. If you’re asking why getting involved is a tip I give to men, then my explanation is through the lyrics of a Passion song:

“Let what we do in here, fill the streets out there”(Our Love is Loud, 2001).

Fraternities encourage their members to get involved out on campus, and Christian men should be the first ones jumping onboard the involvement wagon.

After college, very few graduates will ever have a chance to affect a network the size of their university. Seize this—do homecoming, attend mixers, go to club meetings, run for elections, try out different things and always keep an open heart. You never know where God wants to use you.

On a related note, involvement is a great way to build you as a leader, and the world needs more strong Christian MEN leaders. In John Mawell’s Developing the Leader Within You,Maxwell defines leadership concisely—

“Leadership is influence”(Maxwell 1).

Get active, get involved, get influence, and use it for His glory. Boom boom boom.

Big Picture

This is one I struggle with the most.

Greek life is great. I really, really enjoy Greek life. But Greek life is temporary.

For four years I’ll be an active member of my fraternity, and then I’m alum—there’s no re-pledging and doing it over. While my fraternity is a lifetime brotherhood, my relationship with Christ is eternal.

These four years should be used to strengthen and shape you into the man Christ wants you to be—and when I say man, I mean MAN. I mean a Godly man who is confident, a leader, and humble to know everything he has is God-given—which is an incredibly, incredibly difficult kind of man to become.

However, it’s a journey well worth taking.

It is my hope that men read this and find inspiration in it.While I’ve heavily condensed this post, this article came be summarized by four words from my roommate, the incredibly swole Tony Silva—

“Frat hard, praise harder.”

Enough said.

-Nathan Robertson