Buffalo

Recently my good friend, Benjamin Robert Taylor, asked me to guest lecture in his class about the Foundations of Christian thought. But then he punked out on me and only gave me seven minutes. He told me: "Convince them to make the most of their Taylor experience, suck the marrow out of the bones of it and use a piece of bread to sop up the leftovers at the bottom of the bowl."

Poetic

So I kinda rambled about some stuff but reflecting on the experience has lead me to a conclusion.

Make a buffalo out of everything that happens to you. For those of you who didn't take Ohio history in forth grade and learn about the Adena and the Hopewell Indians (the mound builders) some of you may not know that when the indians killed a buffalo they used every single part of the animal for something. Nothing went to waste. Not a single sinew or hair. Although they also worshiped trees and junk so we should take whatever the Indians did with a grain of salt.

I had a great Taylor experience. I did all the stuff that you are supposed to do to be the stereotypical student and get pictured in the brochure. (Though I was never actually IN the brochure, try as I might) But I had some hard things happen to me, while I was in college and I didn't have your typical "Taylor home life."

My older sister didn't have a typical Taylor experience. She didn't really experience the "community" we brag about. And come to think of it I can remember a lot of people with different stories who didn't really enjoy the school in the same way I did. But we all had the opportunity to learn something about ourselves and about God though the experience if we wanted to.

The problem is a lot of people didn't take advantage of that. Even the people with the "typical experience" didn't really reflect on it. They had fun and they moved on. But that's a choice. And a bunch of different stuff happens to all of us. A family member dies, you get a promotion, you have a kid, you lose a kid, you move to a new place, you have lots of job stress, you are lonely, you are happy, you feel like God is far away etc... But you can choose to take every element of that experience and honor God with it. Asking him "how can I learn from this?"

Taylor is just one example. We kill buffaloes every day. Don't waste them.