Definition of college: where you can do things, hope your parents never find out, and then wonder in later years about your own sanity in doing those things. 🙂

I used this definition yesterday and told a personal story to illustrate it. Jo and I started college our freshman year (1970) at a small college in Grayson, KY. The college was near Carter Caves State Park in Carter County. CCSP offered something neither one of us had ever done before: go caving (spelunking is the $10 word). I grew up near Pittsburgh and unless it had a baseball or a basketball involved I didn’t take part. That includes hunting and fishing. And I can guarantee you that caving was not on the list of things to do. I would never have even considered it until college friends (although I just met them) said, “Hey, let’s go caving!” In all fairness, I did not know it was frowned upon, i.e. illegal. (At least the first time). Long story short, we spent multiple Saturday afternoons crawling through caves. Bat cave, (Yes with bats hanging from the ceiling), where neither Jo nor I gave any thought to what we were crawling through. Squeezing through holes that were so narrow I wonder how I ever got through (and guarantee that would not happen today). And dark? Black? Caves so dark and black that I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. Once some of the guys found the light switch used for tours and turned them on and the cave lit up like a Christmas tree. But that was short-lived because we had to turn them back off.  I was glad we had flashlights with fresh batteries. 

I was reminded of our escapades as I studied yesterday’s sermon where Jesus said, “I AM the Light of the world.”  There is no question we live in a dark world. The protest in a Minneapolis church yesterday (where the consistently irrelevant Don Lemon was involved) and where the pastor was misidentified as an ICE agent is proof. (I smell a lawsuit coming). Jesus is the only ONE who can bring light into the dark and change lives. If you know the Light, shine it. If you don’t, follow the beam to the true Light.