Saturday, April 28, 2012

A Message to Women

The other night, with the help of some good friends, we put on an event for the women of Rockhurst. The men who put this night together want to take a stand against the way that women are mistreated in our world. The turnout was good, about 15-20 girls who shared their insight on the issue. After some discussion, we then showed a video that a few of us put together. The video can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OjKRmonPdU. Six other men who also wanted to address the issue were willing to stand up at the front of the room with a promise:
"I am a man. I promise to respect and uphold the dignity of women. I promise to view women as people rather than objects. I will enter into respectful relationships with the women in my life, striving always to have their best interest at heart. Furthermore, I promise to be selfless in my relationships, seeking out opportunities to serve women and not my own selfish interests.
I will not allow women to believe the lies held by society. I will not allow women to disrespect themselves through language, dress, or action. I will not stand by quietly while other men disrespect women.
I will not let this promise stop with me. Through my words and actions, I will seek to inspire others to share in this promise, and to create a world in which women receive the proper dignity that they inherently deserve."

We then passed out these Dove chocolates while the song, "You're Amazing" by Bruno Mars played.
The beginnings were small, but my hope and prayer is that the conversation from that night carries into the lives of those present and they can share that with more and more people. Wildfires don't start out as wildfires. They start small and spread, putting flame to everything they touch. That is what I would love to see this turn into. The event was the smouldering sticks and leaves...
Ah, and here are four reasons why this message is so important to me:










Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Reap What You Sow (or Knit)

Last week was my 22nd birthday. So many blessings came out of last week. I received the Hawk of the Year Award, was voted Greek god, and my fraternity won Greek Week. We got to celebrate at Winstead's afterwards. I got a couple of very special gifts from Colleen - a new "Justin Boots" hat, and a bottle for memories between the two of us over the past year and a half. This was undoubtedly the most cherished gift. Bottled memories that I will never forget.

I would like to share, however, about a gift that I received from Carolyn, from Sudexo. Flashback to first semester. Her brother had a stroke and so I told her that I would be praying for him and for her family. We spoke a few more times throughout the semester and she would update me on how he was doing. Carolyn, out of the great kindness of her heart, gave of her time and talent to give me a very special birthday gift. She knitted an entire blanket for me. I was extremely moved that she had spent so much time putting it together for me. She was so excited - she was telling me about it weeks before my birthday saying that she was making something for me. Now, not to say that I was ever expecting anything out of showing kindness to Carolyn to begin with - she was going through a struggle and I was happy to be there to comfort her whenever she needed - but this is a great lesson for me in how kindness pays off so greatly in the end. We reap what we sow sort of deal. I think that bad things still happen to good people, of this there is no doubt, but I also think that if we make the extra effort to help others in their times of need, someone WILL be there for us when we need it.

Carolyn, thank you so much for the blanket and your friendship. God bless.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

A Little Love Can Change It All

Entering into the final month of my senior year, I have been thinking a lot about what wisdom I would like to pass on to those behind me. I do not wish to share the wisdom because I think that it's better than what others have gained in their owns lives, in fact, I have learned a great deal from people who are younger than I am; however, simply going by numbers, with age comes life experience, with life experience comes wisdom. This wisdom is enhanced by reflection, something that I have become quite fond of over the past few years.

If I had to narrow my thoughts to share just one huge life lesson, it would be this: let my life serve as a witness to the love of Christ. I certainly will not claim perfection here. I want others to know that they are loved. Violence, depression, suicide, and other related issues are all effects that sprout from, I believe, the roots of people not feeling loved. I desire, in any small way that I can, to show people that there is SOMEONE who recognizes them and cares about their well-being. A little bit goes a long way. I know the difference that a small act of love makes in my life, and so I want my words and actions to provide that for others. And if they know that I can love them in some small way, I want people to know that that is but a glimpse of the love that Jesus has for them. If we all devoted half the time to this as we do to aimlessly complaining about everything that is wrong in the world, I wholeheartedly believe that we'd see a vast turnaround in the morale of the world. Small scale beginning with enormous potential.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Buoy-ya!

This weekend was densely packed with great memories. Every spring, my fraternity has a formal; for the past three years, that has consisted of renting a bus and having a dinner/dance in downtown KC somewhere. Fun, but overdone. This year, we changed it up a little bit. We got out of town for the weekend and took a road trip to Stockton Lake a couple of hours away where we rented cabins for the weekend. It was such a perfect weekend.

Friday night, we all ate dinner together (about 60 people in one cabin with all the guys and dates) then a bunch of us went up to the lodge, some for the hot tub, some for the putting green. Colleen, Paul, Matt, and I stayed on the putting green for hours, making attempts at all the different holes. The next day, a few of us got up to watch the sunrise over the lake. Then, after a mid-morning nap and breakfast, we headed down to the beach.














Arguably the best surprise of the weekend was the pontoon boat. Initially it was going to cost each person about $10 to go for two hours, which would have been great, but Jay Cross, the manager of the cabins, was so excited to get his boat out on the water for the first time of the season that he took two groups each for two hours FOR FREE!!! He took us to a spot where we went cliff jumping too, which is always awesome. It was Colleen's first jump, so she and I jumped together. Side note, my first cliff jump, I stood at the top for about twenty minutes before I finally got up the courage...Colleen showed no signs of hesitation. So brave, so proud!
Evening came and we had a barbeque for dinner (Jay was invited as a thank you for his generosity). We had a dance party and watched the Final Four games in the so-called, "Man Cave" cabin.

To sum up the weekend, I'm just so blessed to have the opportunities to live life to the full. My final semester here at Rockhurst is jam-packed with so many cherished memories I can't even count. In short, AMDG.