Call Me Ronahldinho

Once again, it's been a little while since I've written. So for the two of you that read this, I apologize. Things are getting into full swing at Ozark. I'm very, very glad to be back. I think this semester will be really good, and I'm excited about my classes.

Today in chapel, Kevin Greer spoke on community. Last year, Charlie and I had a discussion on how it seems like people here often have their bit of theology or doctrine or whatever that they get especially passionate about. We decided that for Charlie, this would be the cross. For Tom, it might be the kingdom. For me, I think it's fellowship and community. Which may sound odd, since I probably don't act like I enjoy other people very much, but it is something I do think about often, so I was especially interested in today's chapel sermon.

The community at Ozark is the greatest that I've ever been a part of. In high school, I kept to myself much of the time. Most of my friends were from youth group, and I wasn't all that close to anyone in my school. So when I first came to Ozark, it was refreshing to be in a place where I had a lot in common with so many people, and where everyone seemed friendly and anxious to build a relationship. In a lot of ways, we really do live as a giant family at Ozark, and I love it.

At times, however, I wonder how our community can be improved. Even at Ozark, it seems that people tend to divide themselves up into groups. Whether it be by dorm or floor or small group or church or age or whatever, we associate with a select group of people and don't make enough effort to include others, or to branch out ourselves. We may only play cards with certain people, or we only invite certain people to play volleyball or videogames or whatever. We even go to lengths to insure that people we don't want to be a part of an activity don't find out about it. And as a result, some people feel excluded, and we end up pigeon-holing ourselves and may miss out on benefits of the larger community. And I do this more than anybody.

I guess some of this is out of necessity. Obviously, a game of sand volleyball doesn't work out too well if 274 people show up to play. But I think the community at Ozark can do a little better sometimes at living as a family.

Sidenote: Yesterday, I played in a scrimmage game against the girls' soccer team. And one thing that I realized is that I am not in shape for soccer. It's a lot of running, and I'm not diggin' that. I'm not a soccer fan. I like to see the highlights and scoring plays during the World Cup, but outside of that, the game kind of bores me. But I give props to people who can run for 90 minutes without dying of heat stroke. They're almost as cool as people who play other sports.