What is it like to put your fingers on the pulse of Auburn University? To deeply see and know the actual humanity that flows in and out of the school buildings?

I don't think you can find the heartbeat in the student center, where most everything is covered with a veneer- where people gather to look good with friends and sip lattes. This is just a vessel in the body. But if you really want to get beneath the skin of Auburn, this exterior we are all presented, I think the best place might be Haley.

Haley, a big and ugly building where things don't quite match up to the pictures on the glossy brochures. But the inside of the people that are inside the building is worth coming inside. Haha.

Humans are much messier than perfection. But in a cracked and scarred way, like an old barn, each soul is beautiful. Starlight in watery eyes kind of beautiful, laugh on a wrinkled face kind of beautiful, heartfelt conversation kind of wonderful. Real.

This life stretches us to mix the unseen and the seen in our perceptions, to embrace the spiritual and the physical.

The real and beautiful heartbeat of Auburn includes us all and our souls as well as our bodies. The pulse does not include just the photogenic ones or the popular ones.

It's a swirling, crazy mess of different that reflects the awesome complexity and creativity of our Creator.

This is a piece of what I saw today as I sat on against the wall, Chick-Fil-A biscuit in hand on the bottom floor of Haley. Myriad shapes, sizes, colors, personalities, humors, each person with a different laugh and smile and perspective. Each soul with a different story. And none better than the others, but each invaluable, bringing some special gift to the table of this body of students.

I'd like to point out that this opinion is not logically supported by the atheistic worldview of contemporary culture, though they often borrow it. All this talk of the individual and finding yourself all while trying to turn everyone into clones with the same ideas. All this talk of uniqueness and individual value while holding the idea that we are all just animals until we are dirt again.

Purpose that lasts is found in giving yourself away to God, by taking your hands off the equipment before you screw it up worse. He'll take over from here if you'll just let Him.

And Yahweh is parodoxical. His word says that only when you sacrifice yourself, do you find yourself. He created us to flourish when we seek the good of others first. Giving rather than devouring. In helping others, you help others and yourself. Since we are made in God's image, we brokenly reflect His nature of love and charity.

Just as the heartbeat of Auburn signals life, it also signals the risk of death and vulnerability. The blood can bleed out.

Life and relationships can be so hurtful and harsh. Living is risking death, that's why some people never truly live at all. But I would encourage you to embrace the fear by embracing others, to put your fingers to the erratic and bleeding pulse of Auburn and love it. Not because you "believe in Auburn" as the creed says, but because you believe in God.

Be a place where people can rest and be honest about their brokenness, where they can reveal their wounds without danger. After all, we can love others who have made mistakes and hurt us because we follow the example of Jesus. He died for the salvation of those that slew him. He! The maker of the universe and the shaper of the Roman soldier's souls. Jesus is so much more than even the King willingly stoned by the beggars. What excuse do we have with our peers? Our High King that we killed calls us sons and daughters and knows us by name.

I took a CPR class this week and learned some helpful stuff.

We can keep calling for help at our school, calling for change in the lives of our peers, just like you might call EMS. But God put us on the scene to help the lost cause, the unresponsive person. It's our duty and our joy to breathe life and love into this school, just as a first responder gives all their strength to revive what seems dead. Jesus is sort of like the EMS. He'll offer permanent hope and healing once we've done the loving, the breathing.

So... because I believe in God, I believe in and love the broken men and women of Auburn, including myself. Broken, but not without hope... because HE lives. AMEN!