This past Wednesday my Bible study met as usual at Plaza 900 (the "suave" dining hall) for dinner. It was such a nice evening that we decided to have Bible study on the Quad. On the way over, four of the six of us decide to take a detour through Conservation to visit the restroom. In the typical misadventuring spirit, we entered through a door that led either up, down, or through a locked office. So we decided to risk the ascent to the second level. Of course, this being a science building, all the doors had red "Warning: Hazardous Materials" signs. Such a fun place to be after hours. (One door even had a sign saying "Beware of Attack Butterfly." Brrr. Gives me shivers just thinking about it.) After this side trip (and looking suitably impressed by one members lobster red sunburn), we tramped off towards the Quad.
But the quickest way around Jesse hall was barred by some weird circus/play people, so rather than barge through the middle of whatever it was they were doing, we meandered around and cut through Jesse. We realized afterwards that just going around the other side would have been a lot faster. Oh well.
Finally arriving at the Quad (and skirting the typical guys playing football), we caught up with the other two girls and sat down. For a while, we focused on study (apart from the normal distractions: me tying grass stalks into a string, another girl slapping at a mosquito, etc.) All of a sudden, a girl stops her bike and comes to talk to us. She introducers herself, and after a bit of conversation, told us that she is a new Christian, but is intent on starting a huge revival at Mizzou, and were we interested in joining people in prayer. We all talked a bit more, and she left. Well, I for one raised my eyebrows, and we started discussing revival. Most of us were skeptical, but also felt a bit chastened that she, a younger Christian, was being so active. I'm still not sure that you can just start a revival that saves half the campus, but I suppose I should be the last one to say that's "impossible."
During everything that had happened, we had also noticed some other interesting characters wandering around on the Quad. This guy wearing a red polyester outfit was filming stuff while balancing on a Segway (one of those electric scooter things). The guy he was filming was ambling around, strumming his guitar. Not long after our first visitor left, they come up to us and say hi. He asks if he can sing a song for us, and we kind of dampened his hopes by replying that we're having Bible study. So he asks if he can sing a Christian song. "umm, okay" we tell him. 'Do you know 'By the River of Babylon" by Sublime?" he asks. We all just kind of stare at him, with a few chuckled mutters at "sublime" (I've never heard of that group before). We told him we didn't know that song, and there is this long silence. He walks back to the guy filming, and says to the camera in a dejected voice "they don't want to hear anything." By this point we're all kind of laughing quietly, but we can't really explain that we aren't laughing at him; we're laughing at his friend in the red suit. We look at each other, and decide that we can't be that mean; besides, we might not be showing good Christian behavior. So we say "Oh come on. you can play a song for us." We listen dutifully, and clap at the end of the song. Then they ask us, "hey can we have your permission to use you in our movie?" We give our consent, and they walk off to the other side of the quad.
Then Andrea looks at us, and says "You know, we have no clue what kind of movie they're making." This starts to sink in, and we have another discussion, where our imaginations jump to all kinds of horrible conclusions (rolls eyes).
A bit later, they are leaving and walk past us again. So we work up our courage, and flag the guy over. "So. . what's your movie about?" we ask slightly nervously. He graciously takes time to tell us about it. It's an independent film called "Homecoming," about 3 guys who graduate from Mizzou and come back five years later. "I play the failed musician" he tells us with a grin "So your reactions were great." Happy to oblige, we tell him. The rest of our time is spend talking about how we'll have to see it when it's shown on campus next year ( a big possibility).
I wonder if this happens to all Bible studies on the quad?
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2 comments:
Lee Anne-- you're right. YOU can't start a revival that saves half of the campus.
But the Holy Spirit can!
:) Yup, I most certainly know that. But it seems kind of arrogant of someone to assume that a revival will start on their campus. I mean, I know it has to start somewhere, but can you just announce that you're going to have a revival? What I'm more concerned with is the problem of revivalism; how often does a revival like this start that actually is from the Holy Spirit? I could maybe see a "revival" happening on campus, just to end up being some emotional party. But maybe it's skeptics (in regards to this principle, not Christianity) like me who hinder such a happening. The last thing I want to do is set up road blocks for the Holy Spirit. But I don't want to lead people off a cliff, either.
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