Danny ChaiSo it was a while ago, but I really enjoyed and was encouraged by the FiCS reunion, much to my surprise. To be totally honest, I wasn’t that excited about it going in to it.
I don’t know how to say this the right way, so I’ll just say it and you can rebuke me as needed. But going to certain Stanford weddings recently had depressed me a bit. It just felt like people weren’t Christian anymore, meaning the pursuit of Christ was way way down, maybe even gone, from the list of people’s priorities. I know that sounds awful. And honestly, I’m not making any judgments on people’s salvation, nor do I feel superior in any way. It just made me sad that people were missing out on the practical blessings that come from making Jesus the primary focus of your life.
There’s another aspect also that made me sad. And that was, in certain conversations I was made to feel bad for not being as career driven as others. A lot of this probably was just in my head. But it just felt like people were putting Jesus on the side for the sake of their careers, then looking down on me for not doing the same. And coming from fellow Christians, that wasn’t a good feeling.
So I think there was a side of me that, because of this, kind of dreaded the FiCS reunion. Just wondering in my head, how many people still care about fellowship in general and FiCS in particular and will show up? And when we gather, will it still feel Christian, or just like a gathering of any group of people? Will it be an encouraging or discouraging time?
So yeah, I was pleasantly surprised and blessed by the time. It was awesome to see people, the people in our class in particular. And, I don’t know how to quite explain this, but yeah, it “felt” Christian. We were just talking about whatever, but I came away feeling that Jesus is still is a huge part of people’s lives, and it was great seeing how he’s working in them. Like, Leo’s pursuing his MDiv. That’s awesome. Just in general, I got a feeling of God working in people.
I felt rebuked also, because some conversations I was encouraged by were with the same people I felt discouraged by before. The lesson: I was the one with issues, not them. Thinking they weren’t pursuing Christ anymore was inaccurate and judgmental. A good rebuke.
One last note. I really hate attention. So that whole Smurf dance thing in the Jeopardy game I pretty much completely hated. I played along for 2 reasons. One, my thinking is, if a situation calls for you to do something you don’t want, it’s lame to be a spoilsport, you just have to suck up and do it. It’s the same thing with like dancing at weddings. I hate it, I suck at it, but if it’s required to support the couple, I’ll do it. Second thing is, I’ve made Dave Call The Elders more than a few times in my day, so it’s not exactly unfair.
But I ain’t doing it again. Ever.