This summer has been one of getting old in a good way.  I guess a better way to say that is maturing, or seeing the world from an adult’s perspective.  At college, I’m a student surrounded by other students and no one who I routinely interact with is over the age of 25.
   Without a doubt, I have some great influences at college, with almost all of my close friends attending church and being members of Campus Crusade for Christ, but for the most part all of us are still figuring out our faith.
   The biggest difference between people who are “figuring out” and people who have “figured out” is the amount of joy and encouraging the latter group has. I’ve noticed that in a company of peers and peers only, I feel like we are all on a journey, looking for the path, following the big, eternal compass in the sky.  There is a massive difference when there is someone who has already traveled down that path, looking back and telling you to continue, you are headed the right direction.
   A certain type of joy comes from having people ahead of you on the path, and those people, themselves, have a different type of joy.  Together, with a bunch of people headed the same direction down the same path, each joyful in their own way, there is a great community that develops. It’s only found in the church.
   I’m glad that I got to spend this summer with the pastoral staff, who is ahead of me on the path looking back and telling me which way I’m pointed. It’s been uplifting for me and will allow me to start looking back at others to point them in the same direction as well.  That’s the adult perspective that I gained this summer.

--Brandon Buller