"Christ says, 'Give me all. I don't want so much of your time and so much of your money and so much of your work: I want you. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don't want to drill the tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: My own will shall become yours.'" — C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
Hello out there. My name is Jay, and, as the title says, I am a Christian collegian. Or I will be, at least. In less than two weeks, I'll be starting a new chapter in my life, and, to be frank, I want to bring as many people along for the ride as I can.
I'm from the great state of North Carolina, and I'll be attending UNC Wilmington. It's an excellent school (five minutes from the beach!), and I'm looking forward to my experiences there. Yep, I'm hoping for the whole shebang: learning, meeting new people, and maybe a little partying on the side. But most of all, and most importantly, I want to use these next four years as an opportunity to share my belief in Christ with others.
That's one of the purposes of this blog: to chronicle my experiences as a Christian guy on a college campus. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that colleges are atheistic, liberal cesspools where I'm going to be persecuted for my faith (though a lot of conservatives do think that way). Nor am I saying that my being a Christian is going to set me apart from most of the student body. I'm just saying that college is a time when a lot of kids are finding themselves and their place in the world, and a lot of times they can be led astray. I want to chronicle my everyday musings as I meet a variety of people, the likes of which I haven't been exposed to in my current sleepy farming community. In all honesty, I'm looking forward to it. There's a lot to learn out there, and I hope I can teach as much as I am taught. In the end, I want to be as Christlike as possible, which is why I chose the C. S. Lewis quote to open this post.
Now, about me. I'm 18 years old. I have brown hair, astonishingly blue eyes and... Oh, wait, that's from the personal advertisement I just put in the paper. Whoops! I'm a pretty average guy, or at least I think so. Some of my friends might disagree. I was raised a United Methodist, though I think denominations are rather pointless. I consider myself a follower of Christ above all else. I definitely have my demons, though. I've struggled with unwanted same-sex attractions since, well, puberty. Seeing as I don't believe homosexuality is part of God's plan, it is something that I've had to struggle with in the past and will struggle with in the future. Though I don't intend this to become one of those "ex-gay blogs," you can bet that there will be regular posts about gay and ex-gay issues.
But probably not as many as there will be about political issues. I am definitely a political pundit, though don't affiliate me with people like Ann Coulter or Al Franken. For one, I'm an independent. Though I do tend to agree more with the conservative side of things (I think most Christians do), I utterly abhor partisan politics. Trust me: I may be young, but I have plenty of opinions on these things.
Well, I think that's it for the first post. You'll find out more about me, my family, and my life as we go along. It should be noted that all names (including my own) are pseudonyms used to protect the real-life identities of the people mentioned in this blog (unless, of course, they're already public figures). Everything else, however, is real. I am definitely open to debate and people who disagree with me. Comment all you like about how wrong I am. Just keep it clean, folks. I hope to post regularly, and these first two weeks will be mostly about my own personal history, not to mention that wonderfully stressful time of preparing for college!
