Hey friends,
Happy Spring to you all. I'm loving this weather- where I can wear shorts and sandals all the time! It's been in the 80s in Champaign. Crazy.
I've felt like a Debbie Downer on here, sharing difficult things about life on campus and the dark world we currently live in. But the examples keep popping up each week for me.
I apologize that this week's update again isn't a bright one. But it's a true one. Many of the ideas on campus are ideas that will be or already are influencing society at large.
Let marriage be held in honor among all... -Hebrews 13:4 ESV.
It's no secret that marriage in our culture is on the defensive. We see this as the debates rage over public policy and laws relating to marriage. But at the root of these debates are questions to relating to marriage itself and its purpose and place. And the view of marriage held by many of tomorrow's leaders doesn't paint a rosy picture. I happened to pick up the student newspaper and read an article called "With This Diploma, I Thee Wed" about students getting married before graduating. I'm not permitted to print the contents of the article here, but you can read it yourself for free by opening this .pdf file (page 6A).
In short, the tagline under the article's title is this:
"Getting married early may seem controversial, but for some couples, it is the mature decision." (emphasis mine)
Controversial? Really?
So apparently we live in a world where it is now considered normal not to get married, and controversial to get married, at least while you're still in college.
To many of today's students, marriage is scary and uncertain (half of their parents' marriages have ended in divorce), and actually seen as a hindrance to a full life. This is reflected by the views in the article.
So they settle for hooking up, or cohabiting with a girlfriend or boyfriend. Brokenness almost inevitably results.
Check out the article, and let it motivate you to pray. Pray that marriage would be held in high honor among our students, that we would teach about it faithfully, and that we would model to our students a godly, healthy, and fulfilling marriage relationship ourselves.
The darker it gets, the brighter the light will shine. Pray for God to move mightily here!
-Noah
