Month: January 2012

A Poem About Grace

Praise Jesus,

There is no black and white,

There is grace.

From grace we repent;

For grace we act and serve;

By grace we are free.

Let not there be shame,

Nor guilt,

Only grace;

Only Christ.

~Andrew Gerdeen

Speaking to Strangers

Hospitality. Curiosity. Integrity. Service. Justice.

At our leader retreat that began the semester, we examined these concepts as the core values of our ministry. We decided that in order to embrace them fully, we had to embody them and practice them in our daily lives. But how?

We agreed as a group upon a series of actions to practice these values. The first: Introduce yourself to one new person every day.

For the past week, this has been my goal. It has proven surprisingly easy, and incredibly enjoyable. As I enter new classes for the semester, I encounter rooms full of unknown faces, all with a story and something to say. I have met more people than I can remember names, far exceeding my expectations of one person a day. And it has been quite good fun.

Often, I find myself all too content to settle into a chair in a lecture hall (preferably on the end of a row, nearer the back than the front) and spend the next hour or two speaking to no one. I wouldn’t exactly call it antisocial – if someone talks to me I’ll happily speak back – but more of a tired lack of effort. In a night class at the end of a long day it seems much easier to read the paper silently than to strike up a conversation with your neighbor.

What I didn’t realize was the number of people I missed the opportunity to talk to. Just in the past week, I learned about a classmate who had just gotten off a red-eye flight, heard a man’s story about his son’s struggles and triumphs, received wonderful life advice from a stranger, met a classmate from Egypt, a business major in a horticulture class, a fellow journalist student, a barrista in a coffee shop, and I haven’t even spoken to half the people in my classes, not to mention the flood of new faces I encounter each day.

It has been wonderful. These conversations don’t drain my energy, they give me energy. They make night class more enjoyable. They allow me to walk into a lecture hall full of a hundred faces and recognize numerous smiles by the third day.

And they make me more and more curious.

Being a journalism major has taught me that everyone has a story, but I somehow didn’t extend that characteristic to all of my classmates. Now I want to know the story of each person I sit next to, and in the five minutes before class starts, maybe they’ll share a tiny snippit with me, if only their name.

– Bryna

A Food Philosophy?

There is so much about food that is central to our life as humans, as Christians, and as our much smaller sub-set of the student community that meets every Sunday night at Grace University Lutheran Church for a dinner and discussion series called Bread and Belonging.

This Sunday, we’ll be cooking together using sustainable food, purchased from a local co-op.  Not only is it important, but also fun and life-giving to cook food that’s good for you, and good for the earth.

Interested?  Show up at Grace at 3:30 for Cooking Club!

In the mean time, I want to share with you some food philosophies that Lutheran Campus Ministry collected at the U of M’s Food Day in October.  We encouraged people of all faiths to think about where their spirituality intersected with their choice of what to eat and with whom they eat.  These are a few of the responses we received:

I feel that there is a sense of abundance around food in the world if it is all shared and dealt with responsibly.  I believe in eating whole, good for you, nutritious meals that sustain not only your body but mind and spirit as well.  There is nothing more fulfilling than having a good meal with friends, family or strangers. Food that is made from the earth and doesn’t harm it is the best for people and of course mother earth herself.  Sharing food makes it possible for community to form and lives to be transformed.

Food is life. Life is spirit.  When we create, consume and nurture homegrown, healthy foods we connect these – in a way that a wrapped-process-food substance can never do.

Food is here to keep us going.  We should only eat to sustain ourselves and the rest we should share, and help others who don’t have enough.

I believe that it is our responsibility to do right by each other and the Earth.  In doing so, we are making an effort to show our devotion and respect to God.  As such, we should grow and gather our food in respectable ways and offer meals to those who would not otherwise eat.

I think that food is always greater when shared with others.  My family always gathers in large groups and we all cook together.  We cook food that we grew or food from local farms when possible.  So much love can be shared through a meal – it’s a time to come together, enjoy one another’s company, all while filling our bodies with the beautiful gift of food that the Lord has given us.

I believe that food should not only satisfy our hungering bodies, but should also have a spiritual impact.  Our food should always keep us mindful of the blessings we receive from God.

I try to think about where my food is coming from – is it shipped or locally grown? Is it organic? I try to focus on cooking my own food rather than eating out and to make informed decisions while grocery shopping – as much as a college student on a budget can.  Doing so is a good way to care for creation.

I prefer eating with community whether that be with people I love and know or people I am sharing my time and energy with.  I also believe in eating healthy, natural, local food that not only nourishes our body and soul, but also our community.

I think that food is an essential part of everyone’s life.  We all need nutrients in order to live.  Jesus meant for food to be shared, a symbol of him, and understood as God’s creation.  It’s important to have community over food.  If we share in that, we will all knwo God a little better.

I believe that everything on the Earth was provided for us to use and preserve.  We were given the plants and the animals to flourish by, but in order to make the most of this gift, we must treat it with respect and not take it for granted.  We have been entrusted with the responsibility of sharing this gift with all of humanity, and also to not squander it.  We must conserve our resources and make sure that none of it goes to waste.  In this way we can thank God for the gifts He has given us.