Intern Mondays // How Hulu+ Could Teach Me Patience

Have you met the interns yet? They're pretty amazing. The following post is from Nick Holmstedt a recent graduate of Hamline University. He has a knack for making friends easily and even though he doesn't really like coffee, we try not to hold that against him.

I was agape!  What frustration, what inconvenience!  To be riddled by the cacophony of putrid voice acting that permeates the advertisement industry as I attempt to watch the most recent episode of White Collar.  Yeah, you know.  Hulu Plus.  We have been treated to the delicacies- Netflix, Amazon Prime.  Oh, their functionality just oozes with scrumptious mindlessness.  My mental attendance is allowed tardiness as I dangle my feet off the couch, head back and hoisted by a plush cloud of pillowy goodness. 

Oh no, Hulu Plus could not offer the sweet seclusion of fiction (or non-fiction for you documentary types) alone.   Instead it blunders its offer with boisterous… advertisements.  I shudder at the word.  Advertisements.  Brr.

If I can say anything serious, I should wonder about our patience.  I look at myself and see my aggravation with a simple 2 minute break: a disconnect from something entirely unimportant (in and of itself) anyway.   I could even make use of that time: do something as simple as grabbing a glass of water or doing some pushups (because I do those all the time). 

Maybe we could do with an extra dose of focus.  We are distracted by advertisements but so often television itself is the distraction.  It can be relaxing or it can serve to rest our busied minds.  If our focus is its content, we have to be careful, though, not to fall into the pit of escape.  In my impatience, I would rather dwell in the laziness of fiction than engage in the deep rest of prayer.  Don’t mistake that I am suggesting TV is of the devil and must never be viewed.  It’s what you make of it.  However next time you see an advertisement, try to pull out a Bible verse or two and enjoy the company of God.  Who knows, it could be more exciting than the newest episode of Lost.  Wait, that’s not on anymore?  Guess it really got lost in the times.

Intern Mondays // All-Nighters & Procrastination - What's the Faith Impact?

Have you met the interns yet? They're pretty amazing. The following post is from Becca Pugh, our happy-go-lucky intern from Pittsburgh.

Habits greatly influence our relationship with God, and our emotional and mental health.

The way we work and take care of ourselves has a direct impact on faith because it affects our perspective on God, life and ourselves.

The amount of sleep we get affects our mood, emotions, stamina, and productivity. When we don’t get enough sleep, we ignore a large part of our calling as God’s children. The psalmist writes in Psalm 127: “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for He gives to His beloved sleep.”  The psalmist writes also in Psalm 23: “He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” Our bodies are designed to spend one-third of their existence in suspended consciousness, with a relatively inactive nervous system, eyes closed and postural muscles relaxed. God designed us that way. Sleep reminds us that we are limited.

When I don’t get enough sleep, it’s easier for me to react to things instead of responding. If I make a mistake on a project, I immediately feel like a total failure and become overly anxious about what people think of me. It’s easier for me to panic instead of turning to God because my ability to process things is weaker than when I’m functioning on a full night’s sleep. When I’m run down and short on sleep, it’s easy for me to forget who I am in Christ: loved and covered in grace.

Maybe you’re like me; you love sleep and wish you got more of it, but it seems like you end up in the library at 10:00pm, coffee in hand, starting that ten-pager due the next day on a regular basis. If you’re like me, you board the train to Procrastination Station when you have work to do. You stay there for several hours watching YouTube videos, stalking people on Facebook you’ve never even met before, calling your best friend who you haven’t talked to in three months (but it’s imperative that you talk to her the same day you have to write a twenty page paper), eating even though you’re not hungry, and reading about fifty BuzzFeed articles almost unconsciously. Five hours later, you panic and grab a taxi back to reality. Your paper is still due tomorrow, and you still haven’t written any of it.

I usually procrastinate because of an underlying fear of failure. The more daunting a project is, the more I procrastinate. The problem with this is that I end up exchanging my trust in God for fear. When I procrastinate, I am letting fear take hold of me. And how many times does God tell us not to fear? A lot of times, that’s how many (somewhere in the ballpark of 300 I believe). Jesus says not to be anxious for anything (Matthew 6:25-34). The added problem of procrastination becoming a habit is that I procrastinate even when I’m not afraid of failing. Then I have become a slave to it. I can’t even start a project on time that I know I’ll be good at. When I procrastinate, it feels like freedom because I’m controlling my time, but it actually takes me captive.

I’ve heard it said that the only way to break bad habits is to begin good ones. The good habits will create change, and replace the bad habits. A good place to start is getting enough sleep no matter what.

8 Things To Do On A Snow Day

AUTHOR INFO Written by Blane Young exclusively for DC Chi Alpha and AU Chi Alpha. You can connect with him via Twitter or Facebook. 

1. Watch a Movie on Netflix! If you don't have an account, borrow the login info from a friend or sign-up for a free trial. Plus, websites like Wired.com & Huffington Post both have articles on the best streaming content that you may not know about. Even better, watch with a friend (or your entire dorm)! 

2. Journal! Whether you currently keep a journal or not, a day like today (with minimal distractions) is a perfect day to jump into the habit. You can use lists to recount your best and worst moments of 2013, jot down people that you'd like to pray for or simply do a brain dump. It's cathartic, we promise! 

3. Call Home. Yeah, we're going there! On days like today (and especially if your family lives far away), you can be sure that the 24-hour news cycle has been feeding them images of the city that make it look like a scene from The Day After Tomorrow. Set their fears at ease, ask about their week and for once, call without asking for money (or at least, too much money). 

4. Register for Winter Retreat. Like most students we've talked to, you're planning on going but you have yet to register. Isn't that true? Well, it help us (your beloved staff) to know whose coming so that we can have as much time as possible to plan transportation and logistics. As if that's not enough incentive, this event usually comes scarily close to selling out and let me just say, you're not going to want to miss it. (xawinterretreat.com) 

5. Watch A Sermon (or 5!). Whether you want to catch up on what you missed during Christmas Break from your church (like NCC or Capitol Life) or find a new Podcast Pastor - today is a great day! And in case you didn't make the trek to Texas with us last year, all of the messages from The World Missions Summit 3 are now on YouTube! 

6. Pray for 20 Minutes. We know, it sounds simple but usually isn't what you'd call exciting or engaging. Think again, folks. We've found some great tips on this interesting site. 

7. Read A Christian Classic. This is a great one to start with and it's totally free! It's called The Pursuit of God and it was written by A.W. Tozer. We promise, you'll thank us. 

8. Throw Snowballs at People. It's helpful if you know them already, but usually fun either way! 

Add Your Thoughts

What are your favorite activities on days like this? 

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Intern Mondays // Surviving Roommates

Have you met the interns yet? They're pretty amazing. The following post is from Natalie Hill, a recent graduate of American University and one of those people that has a knack for nearly every instrument ever invented.  

My mom is the cleanest, most organized person I know.  Well, aside from her mother, who yells at me when I mess up the placement of her refrigerator magnets.  When I was younger, I had a habit of leaving the basement door open, and my parents would say, “Do you think we live in a barn?” 

Now, my parents and grandmother aren’t oppressive.  They just value cleanliness, and they’ve taught me well.  Needless to say, it rubbed off on me, and I’ve inherited some of my mom’s OCD tendencies.

When you’ve grown up living with the same people your whole life, adjusting to having new roommates (who are oftentimes strangers in college) can be difficult.  I learned quickly that not every parent is as clean as mine are.  Some people don’t get anxious when their beds aren’t made or when the desk chair is unusable because of the pile of clothes sitting on it.  And it’s not just cleanliness.  Different people just have different habits.  For example, I’ve always been early to bed and early to rise (another inheritance from my mom).  It seemed like my first college roommates’ days started at 10pm, while I was falling asleep.  Buying groceries together is hard too.  I’m pretty sure all of the roommates I’ve had loved yogurt and always asked for it when we went grocery shopping.  But I never eat yogurt.  Some roommates want to spend hours watching Gilmore Girls or Doctor Who when all I want to watch is a sad or intense movie like Finding Neverland or Pan’s Labyrinth. 

What I’m saying is that everyone is different.  Sometimes this can be really beautiful - combining ideas and creativity and interests.  And sometimes it can cause a ton of tension.  Living with roommates can be super fun.  I’ve done so many weird, random, great things with my roommates.  In college, you can get away with pushing all your beds together and calling it The Superbed or setting up the camping tent in the middle of the living room to watch Toy Story 3 in it.  But other times, there are disagreements or frustrations that arise when you’re living in such close proximity with other people.

I’m nowhere near the perfect roommate, but I think I’ve learned a few things from living with other people for about five years now.  First, I think we need to go into our roommate relationships with a servant’s heart.  That sounds cliche, but it’s important.  If we posture ourselves to serve the people we live with, it cuts down on the frustrations.  Just because your roommate was the last person to put something in the trash, that doesn’t mean you can’t empty it.  Sometimes, you’re going to end up doing dishes you didn’t create.  That’s just how it works.  And I’ve found that people are more likely to serve you when they’re being served too.

I’ve also learned that you just have to meet each other in the middle.  Set up ground rules and be clear about expectations while also understanding where they’re coming from.  My roommates probably won’t agree to vacuum every other day, even though that’s what my grandma does.  Being realistic in setting expectations is important.

Living with roommates is one of the most fun things about being in college.  It can also be one of the most frustrating things.  Coming into a roommate relationship with a servant’s heart will eliminate a lot of that tension. 

Then just make the most of living so closely in community with others.  Because it only looks like this for a season.

Intern Mondays // An Easy to Neglect Spiritual Discipline

Have you met the interns yet? They're pretty amazing. The following post is from Bonnie Duncan, who likes making Texas-shaped food and has never seen an impossible race she didn't want to try.

So like all mildly-tragic stories it is best to start at the beginning. I lost my headphones last night. Even worse than realizing my headphones were lost was walking to work with nothing but the piercing silence of my poor life choices.

My hand kept compulsively reaching for my phone (three times to be precise) to change the song. But there was no song playing. Only a reminder that, just as when I left my home, I still did not have my headphones.

My mind began to wander. Is this how it felt to be a caveman? I wondered. Doubtful, I concluded. Considering I just left my heated apartment, wearing a winter coat, and was pontificating these thoughts while composing my morning Tweet about the issue at hand.

After I came to the point of accepting that despite my ability to walk and search through my backpack at the same time I was not going to find my headphones, I finally considered that maybe God could use this moment to teach me something. I should be still and know that he is God, I said to myself.

Unfortunately, this revelation came after the moment of defeat. The moment where I had exhausted all of my resources and gave up hope of an alternative. The moment where God became my backup plan. And it was in that moment that I realized that I struggle with the discipline of silence.

Psalm 62:5 says, Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. It is in these quiet moments that perhaps we are able to hear the voice of God the best. But in a whole that never stops moving, never stops speaking, never stops achieving, it is not the noise that is my hindrance, but rather my impeccable consistency in not remaining still long enough to hear the voice of God.

Full disclosure I have never heard the tangible voice of God. I used to hear people talk about being silent to hear the voice of God. I would think, wow. You talk to God? That’s pretty cool. But the silence is less about waiting for a sound, and more about living in a moment. A moment when the sunrise stops you because you see its beauty again. A moment when you notice a group of deer hanging out in the woods and attempt to stop by for a brief chat (don’t judge, you know you want to talk to the deer too).

On my way to work everyday, the sidewalk presents two views: to the right, a highway; to the left a forest. Where I choose to look is often more reflective of my soul than I realize. Often, I trade the solitude for the hustle, and the silence for the bustle. But even in those moments of choice, God is there. I simply need to be quiet enough to be reminded of his presence.