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

Adjusting to the Fall: Houseboy Life

If any of you have seen a tweet from me the past few days, it's likely been punctuated with the hashtag "houseboy life". For those of you who don't know what that means, I'm about to blow your mind.

But first, a little context.

My summer schedule is almost wrapped up. I only have one job left from the summer, and it wraps up Wednesday. While most collegiate students are in the holding tank between summer life and the fall semester-- a time where the most exciting thing to do is order textbooks-- I've jumped in early with my on-campus job. Or rather, on-sorority-row job.

That's right. I'm back on scene as an Alpha Phi Houseboy.

                                                                    Dad's Day, 2011

Located in the heart of South Greek, I've been working for the Ladies of the Ivy for ten months now-- and the most frequently asked question I get from the girls in the house is as follows--

"So, what do you actually do?"

Here's where the mind blowing begins.

My job, essentially, is that of a glorified dishboy mixed with a fraternity man's dream come true. With perks. A whooooole lot of perks.

I work, at max, maybe seven hours a week. Not only do I get paid for that, but I can walk in and eat in the house for any meal. I eat three square meals a day, every day, cooked by a professional chef, for free.

Did I mention it's in a sorority house?

That's right-- long gone are the days where I was selling sno cones to impatient children at the local Broken Arrow pool. I'm working, and dining, with some of the finest ladies at the University of Oklahoma.

                                                              
                                                                  Work Week, 2012
                                                 

And I tell you what, it sure beats the sno cone days.

However, from a deeper level, it's been a really awesome experience to watch the meaningful relationships develop over the past months. In a family related blog written by Leanne Ely, the dinner table was described as "a place of communion, fellowship, and reconnecting with those we care about most."

 And when I look at it, my job at Alpha Phi is serving me on all three counts-- communion, fellowship and reconnecting.

At Alpha Phi, four out of the five guys I'm living with this year are on staff. I eat with the girls regularly and talk about classes we have together, things that happened on campus and funny stories from their families. Mom Rose, the House Mom, has made me feel so comfortable around the house that I've started treating the house's kitchen like my own.

Working at Alpha Phi isn't just one of the best jobs I've ever had-- it's also given me a chance to develop meaingful and impacting relationships with people in the house, and create an OU version of "a home to go to" for dinner, studying...and yeah, getting paid.

We're just wrapping up rush week at the house, and it's been a blast-- it's got me pumped to start my own rush season, but also, it's got me excited to begin another year of relationship building for the glorification of Jesus Christ. Building relationships with the intention of loving on people is one of the best things I can do with my time at OU, and intend to do it.


  "Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." -1 John 4:11-12

And also, another year of awesome food. If you haven't tasted Blanca's cooking, you haven't lived fully.

Thank you for reading! God Bless, Boomer Sooner, and three days until the class of 2016 moves in! Get excited new Sooners!

Yours,

Nathan Robertson

Three Men of Note

Sometimes I lose things. It's not an intentional habit, but it is a habit that has followed me to college.

Most times it's something trivial. A pack of gum, maybe a couple of note cards. Yesterday, however, I lost my press badge-- one of the things I loved to wear the most this summer, more than a freshly dry cleaned seers sucker suits, with a cane to match.

My initial reaction was upset. That press badge had been with me the entire summer, through lazy weekends and Tuesdays where I had to cover three stories in one day.

However, as I wrap up my last full week as a media employee at the University of Oklahoma, it seems fitting that I lose the press badge at this time. It's sort of a symbolic transition doo-hingy.

That being said, I would like to talk about three people who I met along the way in my journey of reporting for three different media venues consecutively— three men who each impacted me in their own unique way.

First man: Kyle Butcher, Couch Center Coordinator. Kyle has been a very busy man this summer-- on top of his normal duties with Housing and Food, he has been organizing and preparing to launch a new transfer student organization that he will be co-advising with his wife, Kacee.

Kyle and I crossed paths at the transfer session of Camp Crimson in June, and we immediately hit it off. Not only was Kyle an alumni from the same fraternity and chapter as I, but we have the same UZoo combination-- porpoise, eagle, lion, koala.

That last sentence likely makes no sense if you're not involved in student life at OU-- suffice it to say, we had a lot in common.

I got the opportunity to sit down with Kyle a few weeks later in his office to interview him for a story I was running on his new transfer organization, and we ended up talking for nearly two hours.

Kyle was a transfer student to OU, transferring from a much smaller university. He transitioned well into Sooner life-- as one might guess since he is now on the Sooner payroll-- but he's keenly aware of the difficulties that many transfer students face.

“We want transfer students to see all the university has to offer," Kyle says. "We don’t want them going to their classes, and then going straight back to their cars.”

 Kyle is just incredibly difficult not to like. He's one of those guys that you want to partner up with, get behind and say, "Whatever you're doing, I want to be a part of."

And apparently, I wasn't the only one who thought that.

Kristen Partridge and Zac Stevens, well known faces in the world of student life at OU, handpicked Kyle for this organization. They recognized that Kyle was equipped and passionate for the job at hand, and put him at the helm.

 "He will be a voice for students and their needs as well as someone who can give us data about how transfer students' experiences are unfolding at OU," Kristen says.

In sum, Kyle is a big man who’s going to be doing big things on the transfer scene—and I’m no fortune teller, but it’s not a stretch to say “future dean of students”.

Second Man: Henry Neeman,  Director of OU OSCER, a branch of OU IT. I sought Henry out because I was doing a story on the supercomputer Boomer, the fourth and newest supercomputer in OU's history. Henry and I only spoke briefly, thirty minutes at the most, in his office-- but the talk was memorable.

Whereas Kyle is the passionate man bringing change on the campus life scene, Henry is a catalyst of change for the research campus, a segment of OU that remains a mystery to many OU students.

The conversation started on-topic, but within ten minutes time we were simply talking about all things innovation and technology-- including the up and coming Google Glasses (which if you haven't seen, you need to. Now.) and as we progressed in our talk, it became clear to me that Henry was just a huge fan of OU.

“What it takes to constantly move forward with research is cooperation between the administration and research community – which OU is really good at," Henry says. "I'm constantly astonished, but never surprised."

There are many well-known passionate employees at the University of Oklahoma-- but many of them have their offices in the Union's student life wing. 

What made Henry extraordinary is that, despite the fact that he’s not at the heart of campus going-ons, he believes in the vision that President Boren has laid out for OU-- better yet, he's intent on inspiring and pushing his fellow employees.

"One thing I ask our researchers is 'if you had an infinitely fast computer, what would you do with it? It gets them thinking beyond today," Henry says. "I want them to dream bigger."

While it's men like Zac Stevens that orchestrate colossal programming achievements like Camp Crimson, it's men like Henry Neeman that can keep Sooner spirit alive on a cold, wet February Monday.

And that's a hard thing to do, folks. I've tried.

Third Man: The last man I'm going to talk about is as different from Henry as Henry was different from Kyle-- and he's arguably the bravest man on this list. Since I don't know the man incredibly well, we'll dub him by an alias. The last man I want to talk is "Jeff"-- Jeff the security guard.

I met Jeff at Camp Crimson’s Retro Night when I was a small group leader. I was out on the Molly Shi Ballroom balcony, taking a break from the 700 person rave that had broken out inside. I struck up casual conversation with Jeff because we were the only two outside.

I anticipated small talk. What I got, instead, was an incredible story.

Jeff, who is nearly 60 years old, has been working in security almost his entire life. When he was younger he had manned armored cars for banks, but after raising his children he decided to go into a security service company.

Jeff is the kind of man you have likely seen wearing a yellow vest on OU game days trying to direct traffic and keep order-- with no gun or badge, to add to the challenge. 

He's dealt with every yelling, screaming, drunk 40 year old alumni who tries to park where they can't park, and he gets treated like the absolute scum by most of them.

Not exactly the ideal career for someone pushing 60. But that's not all he had on his plate.

 Jeff is raising several of his grand-kids, the oldest of which is has a tendency to get hot-headed.

Jeff's solution? He got the 14-year old into football, and cut him a deal.

Jeff is in communication with his grandson's coach, and he watches most of the practices. Any time his grandson gets angry, talks back to his coach or acts out, he owes Jeff 10 push-ups when they get home.

However, whenever his grandson gets through a day with perfect behavior, Jeff owes his grandson 10 push-ups-- a bargain his grandson holds him to every time.

"We'll get home, and he'll just look at me, and say, 'uhh...grandpa, you owe me 10," Jeff says. "I tell him to go take a shower, and he says 'I will, just as soon as you drop and give me 10."

Again, not the ideal situation for a someone entering their golden years. I had to ask him, how did he handle raising his grandchildren like that at his age and hold a job? Being an OU campus life/leadership junkie, I reflexively expected to hear things like "I set a goal, and made steps on how to get there" or "I set an example of integrity that I expect them to follow."

 His answer wasn't long, but it held power in it.

"Someone's got to do right by them," says Jeff, "And if it's me that's got to do right by them, I'll do right by them.”

I don't know where Jeff is right now. I probably couldn't even pick him out on the street. But his story has been in the back of my head for nearly three weeks now. His story is so powerful to me because there isn't a higher cause, there isn't an end goal, and there isn't anyone helping him out.

He saw a problem, he got invested, and sought to right the issue—even if that meant taking on the role of a father at 60.

And while that's a story I never found an excuse to publish in the Sower, Daily, or Yearbook, I'm glad I can express it through this venue-- because Jeff's story is the one I wanted to share the most.

 However, I'm thankful for the time I spent in OU media.

I was exposed to many people and attitudes this summer, and not all of it was great, but it's people like Kyle Butcher, Henry Neeman, and Jeff the security guard that remind me of something-- 

There are good people in this community, who are doing great things, for the right reasons.

So in short-- thank you.

And as always, thank you for reading-- Boomer Sooner, and God Bless! 

Post-Camp: Lessons Taught, Lessons Learned

I can unarguably say that this weekend has been the most taxing, and rewarding, experience of my summer. Therefore, I'm blogging about it.

From July 10-14th, I was on staff as a small group leader at the University of Oklahoma's Camp Crimson experience. And I cannot think of a better introduction to this topic other than the job was everything it cracked up to be and much, much more.

On July 12th I got my campers. There was one thing I told them from the get go-

"Some of you may have been Sooner born, Sooner bred. Some of you, OU may not have been your first choice, second choice or even third. OU wasn't on the map for me until April of my senior year. I guarantee you though, that by the end of this camp you will fall in love with OU -- and I want to thank you ahead of time for letting me be a part of that journey."

Which, in retrospect, wasn't the right choice of words.

Camp is very different from the small group leader side – Camp Crimson’s standard of excitement, energy and enthusiasm is set by us. And we have to maintain that level of energy for nearly 50 hours straight.

With over 620 campers, not everyone there was immediately buying into what was going on -- people were nervous. College is a big transition. And Camp Crimson can be, at first, very intimidating.

Within the first 12 hours, I already felt like I was running on "E". I was drained, exhausted, and impatient. In my mind, if all 620+ of them weren't chanting Boomer Sooner 24/7 there was room for improvement (an exaggeration, but still).

 I was talking with other campers outside of my family, and I wanted to see more excitement than what I was getting, more energy, more enthusiasm --

To put it simply, I wanted everybody to have as hoarse a voice as me.

But then a perspective change hit.

James 1:2-4 came to mind near the end of the day. It goes a little something like this --

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,^[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

 I stayed up for awhile thinking it through, trying to figure out how that applied to me.
That's when it hit me. It didn’t.

OU is great. I love OU, I want to get all that I can out of it in the three years I have left, and I want to encourage the class of 2016 to do the same. But OU, for students, is temporary. It's four years out of a full, healthy 80 years of life.

Right now, every incoming freshman is facing one of the biggest transitions of their life. It's big, it's scary, and it's a challenge that will force them to make some big, scary choices. The choices they make during their freshman year will influence the patterns of success and happiness for the rest of their adult life.

Dramatic, but for those of you who have been there, you know it's true.

My mission changed: I realized now that I was part of God's plan to equip these new Sooners with what they needed – which in most cases, was something more substantial than a new way to chant “Ellison”.

 It was no longer,

"What can I give my campers to prep them for OU?" but it was-

"What can I give my campers that will do them the best good?"

I realized I had answered my own question thirty minutes earlier, in the form of a late night tweet.

"You can't make someone love OU as much as you do. But you can love them, and that impacts their life in unprecedented ways. ‪#learningsomuch"

If any of my campers happen to be reading this blog, I want you to know this: I care about you. Not because of anything you said or did (though there were some very memorable moments with a few of you that are branded into my mind) but because I once had small group leaders too- and I know the impact they have. 

I think Zac Stevens nailed it during training when he said (and I paraphrase--)

"Some of your campers may get involved in organizations you're in. Some you may see a lot. Some may not respond to your emails. But to them, you will always be, firstly and fore-mostly, their small group leader."


As camp crimson progressed, the campers became as wild and pumped as I was -- they were all excited to be Sooners. One of my girls, Jenna Hinckfoot, said she was already gunning for a small group leader spot next year. And I'd like to think that's because of the impact I had on them in two short days.

And because of that, I want to be a part of your lives. There is so much I still want to teach you, but more importantly, there is so much I want to learn from you.

So, that being said, I would like to change the first words I said to my campers. Maybe they won't all be reading it, but you are -- and perhaps you can find something in in my words that God wanted you to find.

Some of you may be excited to be here. Some of you, this transition terrifies you, and you may be carrying baggage -- no one is coming in a clean slate, and that's okay. Baggage isn't a burden; it's a reminder of where we came from. I guarantee you though, that if you give this new experience a chance -- if you are intentional, seek out opportunity, and let nothing hold you back -- Camp Crimson, and this first year of college, will be the ride of your life. I can only hope I will be fortunate enough to be with you for at least part of your Sooner journey during the next four years.

And thank you, thank you, thank you for letting me be part of your journey these past few days. You've impacted me more than I can express through one blog post.

Thank you for letting me welcome you to your new home -- I think you all are going to like it here.

 Nathan Robertson


(p.s. -- Shout out to a camper by the name of Mark. I talked to you only in brief moments, but people were chanting your name all week, so you must be great. We're glad to have you here.)

Reflections Under a Firework-filled Sky

I'm an incredibly nostalgic person by nature, and holidays do nothing but intensify my desire to reflect on both the past and the future- Independence Day is no different.

Last night, on the 4th, I turned to my sister while watching fireworks and asked her if she remembered where she was at a year ago. She answered honestly.

"Probably watching fireworks."

I can't recall exactly what I did on July 4th, 2011, but I remember where I was at- not physically, but simply where I was at in life. I remember what I valued, what I struggled with, what made me passionate, and what I saw as important.

Looking back, I can see how far I have come in a full year. It make me all the more thankful for my freshman year, a journey that will always be remembered.

However, it would be boring if I only dwelt on the past. I also look towards the future, to where I'll be on July 4th, 2013.

I've had a seed planted in my mind since April now, and it's been growing. It started as a casual interest, a "what if", but now it's turned into something much larger. It's bold. It's big- it's Googley.

   


In the summer of 2013, I have a dream of being in Mountain View, California with Google on the Building Opportunities for Leadership and Development (BOLD) internship program.

Ideally I'd like to be placed in their Marketing and Communications department, but frankly, I'm not picky. It's California. It's Google.

Here's the catch though- like all things in life worth getting, it's going to be competitive out the whazoo. 

I'm going to be gunning against collegiate golden boys and golden girls from across the nation. Against people as ambitious, and FAR MORE ambitious than me. I'm going to be outclassed and outgunned, and it's going to be a miracle if I make it through the first round of interviews.

Which is why I've started preparing for the future now.

I began to hunt for recommendation letters two weeks ago- today I picked up my first from the far too gracious OU Vice President of Student Affairs/Dean of Students Clarke Stroud. I intend to collect on others in time.

More importantly though, I've begun to pray about it. After 19 years of living, I'm starting to catch on to the concept that my plan for the future may not always be the best plan for the future. So I'm praying.

 If this is where God wants me spending next Summer, I want him to fuel me, to push me farther than I think I can run and stretch me until it's painful so that I can become the man I need to be for what he has planned for that summer.

And if it's not what God wants, then I want him to shut the door. It'll be disappointing, but I've always managed to pick myself up. Regardless, I'm praying 'bout it.

If that's your thing, I'd appreciate it if you could too. I need it.

Because despite how much I tout my near 50 hour summer work week, dual minors and my professional demeanor and bla bla bla, I am still so very, very young- and gearing up for something like this will be one of the biggest mountains I've ever tackled.

But I'd rather tackle this mountain than sit at the base of it, complacent and wondering what could have been.

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." 1 Corinthians 9:24

The race has begun. If God is in this, then carpe diem, and #Google2013

Red Hawks, Insight and Camp Countdown

   I consider myself a Red Hawks fan. At least, as much as one can after only seeing two games. Today, however, the odds were stacked against me.


   You see, I did not drive up to see the Red Hawks play on a whim. Today was the Summerscope field trip day, so all of the teachers packed up 50 plus children on buses to watch the Red Hawks in a scorching day of minor league baseball.

   All that being said, I had a great time. I had to jump from seat to seat to stay in the shade, but it was a blast. And I had an incredibly interesting conversation with an eight year-old on the way there.

   I have a little girl in my class who has grown on me A LOT in the past weeks. She's cheeky, high energy, she loves to push my buttons every once in awhile- in other words, she reminds me a lot of how I was as a child.

   We sat together on the bus ride down. In the middle of conversation, she said to me-


"You know, Nathan, you were eleven when I was born."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I would have been in the sixth grade."

"Woooah, you were in the sixth grade! You would have been so little- I can't believe you're my teacher now. You used to be eleven, and I used to be a baby. But you know, God already knew we'd meet."

   I laughed at the idea but it gave me pause. Eight years ago, I was in the sixth grade. I was a short, buzzed-cut kid with thin rimmed glasses and a puffy vest that I probably wore twice a week. And now I'm a sophomore in college.

   Eight years ago, I couldn't wrap my mind around the idea of being a mentor to someone. But God knew when I was an awkward sixth grader on the edge of my teenage years that I was one day going to be having this conversation with a girl who was my responsibility- who I had influence over.

   Which brings me into my transition for Camp Crimson.

   On July 12-14, Boomer Session of University of Oklahoma's Camp Crimson orientation experience will go down, and I'll be right in the thick of it as a small group leader. As a leader, I'm going to be put in close contact with 20-30 incoming freshmen- who are as excited, revved up, and as uncertain as they'll ever be in their Sooner experience.

   I'm a big advocate of the idea that God is the ultimate networker- he brings people together in the right time, in the right context and for the right reason.

   Just as God knew I would talk with a little girl on a bus on June 26th, 2012, God knows the campers that are heading my way. He knows the introverts, the extroverts. He knows who are hopeful for a new start, who are afraid of the new start, who are excited to jump into campus life, who are still bitter about their high school experience, unable to mentally or emotionally move on.

   And based on the evidence in my own life, I'd like to believe that God is intentionally sending these Sooners my way because of the impact I and my Co-Leaders will have on them.

   Which is when I remember the responsibility and privilege I have with this opportunity to impact lives.

   And I tell you what- that kind of blows my mind every time I try to think about it.


  On an unrelated note, I had a great verse sent my way recently by Mark Cruz, a fellow Sooner and co-worker, when I felt pretty stressed by a God who was being too quiet- for those of you who are reading and are stressed or tired, I hope this helps-

Exodus 14:14- "The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still."

   His verse reminded me of a similar verse.

Psalms 46:10- "Be still and know that I am God."

   For those who made it all the way through this, thank you for your time- and as always, God Bless and Boomer Sooner!


Nathan

Free Time? Surely You Jest!

Hey bloggers. You know how in my last post I sounded very ambitious and ready to tackle the world?

Life Lesson: It's all good and well, but it's WORK. Allow me to elaborate on this very obvious statement with the experiences of the past few weeks-

Writing and reporting is a blast, and you better believe juggling two different venues at once is a huge learning experience- and it also means I'm usually conducting one or two in person or over the phone interviews per day.

Do not misinterpret me- this is GREAT experience and EXACTLY what I was looking for.

It's just a lot to juggle- but, of course, that's not all I'm juggling.

A third job, Chinese, exercise, Saxum Summership (which is AWESOME), the compulsive desire to learn how to cook, and rush work is keeping me in twenty different places at once.

Again, this is exactly what I've ask for and I'm thrilled.

I just also need a little more sugar in my diet to maintain my body. And by maintain my body, I mean keep myself from collapsing.

No coffee though. Never coffee.

God has been working with me as well- he recently brought these verses to me-

Job 33:28-30....

God has delivered me from going down to the pit,
    and I shall live to enjoy the light of life.’

²⁹ “God does all these things to a person —
    twice, even three times —
³⁰ to turn them back from the pit,
    that the light of life may shine on them.

I work with kids in the morning. Despite myself, I find it difficult at times to deal with a child who has three times, four times, ten times done the thing they know they aren't supposed to do, or TWENTY times ask the same question after I've given them an answer (usually, "no, I can't give you a piggy back ride right now...")

See, that's one of the great things about life though- God doesn't act like us. He drags us out of the hole we dug with our own hands, even though he's already done it 187 million times before.

Don't ask me why, he's God. One things for sure, if you ever question the love and patience that God can possess- these less commonly quoted verses offer a response.
 

And hearing God's love? Bueno.

Alright, I'm off bloggers. I have to interview some senior technicians, then set up an interview for a Miss America contestant, then go to a staff meeting, then edits....then a well derserved, quiet run in the park with my sister and some frisbee.

(But then after that, rush work. It's alright though- positivity always wins at the end of the day!)

Aight,

BYE BLOGGERS!

Nathan Robertson

Public Relations, Sophomore

OU Dailiy II Sower Magazine
Minors: Entrepreneurship, Chinese

Jeremiah 29:11

(^^^Check out my digital signature. I'm obsessed with it.)