To Be or Not to Be...

The weeks have come and gone and it is finally fall in Greenville! The weather is getting colder and the leaves are falling. Today the wind is blowing leaving me with a definite desire to wear a wooly scarf and a sweater. I guess the joke around campus for the next few days will be that Dr. Bob has finally decided to turn the thermostat down here at the Bob, so that it could be fall. In all honesty, though, I love this weather. The crisp mornings, the crunchy leaves, even the grass that is brown...well it's supposed to be, it's always magically green here. Starbucks is bringing back its holiday drinks and boots are back in style. It's a time for change, and even though I just spent time writing a paragraph on the occurrences that have come about to bring on fall for us, that's not really what I'm writing about. I am going to write about change though.

For those of you who are somewhat familiar with Bob Jones culture you may know that we basically could write our own dictionary with all the terminology that we have coined here, like DFH, Artist Series, Triple Sticks, and even 'The Bob'. I suppose that one of the terms that we have that almost everyone on campus knows by the end of their first day here as a freshman is Boje. The definition of Boje is simply this...a person who is a literalist. They live by the letter of the law rather than the spirit of the law. They are the people who normally are not looked upon by most students as someone they would want to be BFF's with. To some they are the outcasts, the weirdos. Recently though, that term came to mean something different and it really gave me something to think about.

On campus there was a small group of students who decided that our campus desperately needs revival and it was time to do something about it. This group of students, who were also friends, started writing a secret publication that would put out a very strong opinion about some of the things that were breaking down our student body. On October 30th this publication was printed and sent out all over campus, the name on the front of the paper, in HUGE black letters was...BOJE. Everyone was shocked. To put that word on anything that a group wanted the whole campus to read was pretty daring. It put a shock factor into play and made everyone curious. After reading though your perspective changed and you saw the genius in the idea of putting out something like that. The perspective was this...there is way too much separation in our student body. We need to join under the common goal of the school to Build Faith, Challenge Potential, and Follow Christ. The point was that here on a campus of over 4,000 students, faculty, and staff, not everyone is going to agree, and that is ok because we are here on a campus where there is plenty of common ground. The first edition challenged us, as students, to make prayer group important and to stop putting ourselves against the faculty. It was a challenge that spoke to me and really made me think. It also took a term that was once used as a joke and made it something that defined anyone who chose to stand with the university and follow Christ, it suddenly became a term defined to unite rather than divide. So then the question is posed, am I a Boje? Yes! I am and I am proud of it. I am proud to stand by the side of Bob Jones University and stand up for what is right and honoring to my Lord. To the students who chose to stand up and say something, thank you, you have challenged me in a way I have never been challenged before.

That's just whats been on my mind for the past week. So with that I will sign off for today, I suppose. I do want to end this post and challenge you, my dear reader, change your perspective. What can you do to be a better influence for Christ?Is there a change that you may need to make? Only you can choose to be or not to be one of those who makes a difference. Put yourself in places that challenges your potential, builds your faith, and allows you to choose to follow Christ. Stand up for what is right, and be the one who chooses to honor Christ in ALL that you do!