Challenges & Growth

I was able to go to the conference this weekend. I dug up the money and Kelli came with me. We were able to go to three plenary sessions and three different track sessions. The first plenary session was Lee Stroble on apologetics. He gave a defense for the defense of the faith. Many people think that apologetics is a useless tool, because no one ever comes to belief in Christ through apologetics. Stroble presented counter arguments for this. William Lane Craig was the first track session we went to. Someone else was supposed to do the session on the Kalam Cosmological Argument but fortunately, Craig did and this was the only opportunity we had to hear him. He presented different theories of how the universe may have come from nothing and then tore them all apart. It would take more faith to believe the theories he preesented and he said that the most logical conclusion is that with a big bang, there must be a big banger. That big banger is necessarily God. Another track session we went to was Francis Beckwith on homosexuality. Beckwith was a great orator. He is very witty and quick on his feet. I have heard him speak at my church before with Greg Koukl on their book Relativism: Feet Firmly Planted in Mid-Air and I enjoyed him as much now as I did then. I wish that I could take a class with him, my last semester but unfortunately, that will be impossible. The whole conference closed with Greg Koukl giving tips on how to use all of the information gained throughout the weekend. He also preached at my church Sunday morning, but Kelli and I had to leave Saturday after the conference. Most of the topics discussed were review for me, but it was still a good review none-the-less. I know I didn't give much info on the actual topics, but I don't think that my readers are as interested in them as I am. If you want more info on it, come chat with me.

Thus far, this post has had nothing to do with the title. I titled it "Challenges & Growth" because being at this conferences, and more than anything else, being around Rob (see previous post) reminds of how much I grew as a Christian when I was under the constant discipleship of Rob. Since I have been at Baylor I have not grwon as much or been challenged as much as when I had Rob in my life for more than just a phonecall a month and some e-mails and snail-mail in between. Rob knows how to get under your skin and lay on a convistion for doing the things you know you are supposed to be doing as a Christian. He knows how to build "disciplined followers of Jesus Christ." I don't know how to explain how he does this. The only thing that I know is that I am not currently being challenged in the way that he challenged me. I know that this is in large part my own responsibility to do. I have to cultivate the discipline inside of me and not always rely on someone else to do it. Rob trained his youth to be spiritually disciplined. It is certainly not easy to sustain this though. I have done my best to surround myself wth friends and a church body that can help me in this growth, yet I still hunger for more. The hunger is never satisfied and it seems like the more I am able to fulfill the hunger, the more I long for it. This is what is supposed to happen though. This is kind of what the title of my blog refers to. In the chapter on Hope, in Mere Christianity, C.S.Lewis discusses the quote on my blog. I'm not going to go into it right now (because I don't have the book with me here at work, so read it soon. Read the whole book. It will change your life if it hasn't already.

Being around Rob this weekend was like a breath of fresh air. I sometimes think that the foundations that I was raised on are so different and foreign to other people that I wonder if I am doing this whole Christian thing the wrong way. I can be very cynical about the way other Christians live their life as if I am the one who has it all figured out. I realize that I still could be wrong about a lot of things but when I get to talk to Rob or am around him, I don't think that I am crazy anymore. I think i'm on the right path.

This post was all over the place, so don't think you're missing something if you didn't understand it. There's not much of a conclusion either...so here is the end.