......newness.....

With the start of school, I thought you might enjoy the following list showing the difference between freshmen and seniors:

Freshmen: Are never in bed past noon.

Seniors: Are never out of bed before noon.

Freshmen: Read the syllabus to find out what classes they can cut.

Seniors: Read the syllabus to find out what classes they need to

attend.

Freshman: Brings a can of soda into a lecture hall.

Senior: Brings a jumbo hoagie and six-pack of Mountain Dew into

a recitation class.

Freshman: Calls the professor "Professor."

Senior: Calls the professor "Bob."

Freshmen: Would walk ten miles to get to class.

Seniors: Drive to class if it's further than three blocks away.

Freshmen: Memorize the course material to get a good grade.

Seniors: Memorize the professor's habits to get a good grade.

Freshman: Roller skates to class.

Senior: Roller skates instead of going to class.

Freshman: Knows a ton of useless trivia about the university.

Senior: Knows where the next class is. Maybe...

Freshman: Shows up at a morning exam clean, perky, and fed.

Senior: Shows up at a morning exam in sweats with a cap on and a

box of pop tarts in hand.

Freshmen: Have to ask where the computer labs are.

Senior: Has "own" personal workstation.

Freshmen: Worry about the last freshman composition essay.

Seniors: Worry about the last GRE essay.

Freshman: Lines up for an hour to buy his textbooks in the first week.

Senior: Starts to think about buying textbooks in October...

maybe.

Freshman: Is proud of his A+ on Calculus I mid-term.

Senior: Is proud of not ~quite~ failing Complex Analysis mid-term.

Freshman: Calls his girlfriend back home every other night.

Senior: Calls Domino's every other night.

Freshman: Is appalled at the class size and callousness of profs.

Senior: Is appalled that the campus deli closed down.

Freshman: Is excited about the world of possibilities that awaits

him, the unlimited vista of educational opportunities,

the chance to expand one's horizons and really 

make a contribution to society.

Senior: Is excited about the new dryers in the laundry room.

Freshman: Takes meticulous four-color notes in class.

Senior: Meticulously quotes professor when he says something funny

in class (when awake in class and not skating).

Let's face it. Something begins to happen after the first semester when everything is new and exciting (even a little bit frightening). After a while, the newness wears off, the excitement is gone, and everything becomes rather mundane. The same thing can happen in the workplace, in a marriage or.......even in our Christianity.

Can you remember that exhilarating feeling when you first came up out of the waters of baptism, a new creation? The start to your Christian life was new and exciting (even a little frightening). But after a while, Christian living can become mundane if we're not careful. It can even develop into a ritual of going through the motions, just trying to get by until we "graduate" to something better.

"Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works...." (Rev. 2:4-5a)

It is important that we remember and recapture that excitement of being a child of God -- the feeling of being cleansed of sin, the desire to share our excitement with everyone else we know, the intention to do everything we can to serve the One we love with all our hearts.