Be True to Your School...Hail Purdue (or IU)

 The Beach Boys have this song called, “Be True to Your School”  What is school really about?  It was a learning experience, sports, socializing, and it was friends.  What is life really about?  It’s a learning experience, sports, socializing and it’s about friends (besides work).  School is for a lifetime.

Sometimes in God’s family, at times, you sort of loose the “team spirit” and I see that many people forget whose side they are on as far as knocking other Christians and what they do because they don’t “follow our way of thinking.”  Everyone thinks “their church” is the best church or their Bible study is the only Bible study that has a handle on the truth.  Jesus disciples tried to “keep a handle” on the truth which was just with them and Jesus said “don’t do that…don’t knock them if they don’t join you.”

Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." Do not stop him," Jesus said. "No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, Mark 9:38-39

I went to the same school all my life, and attended all the high school football games while my brother played tight-end.  Also, was in a cheer block for my class.  Most women I know like to cheer for a team when they know at least one player in the game.  Cheer blocks were more focused and strict back then they are now.  Many times when I go to a game now the students don’t cheer with the cheerleaders, just the parents.  Where I attended school at Pike High School we did not have a winning football team.  I was mostly cheering for a losing team. They did better my junior year with basketball.   

For me. I lost the loyalty to my school because of fashion police and then walking in the front door and someone telling me, “She is talking about you again.” It’s a person who was supposed to be my friend.   It sort of got to that point like Bonnie Raitt’s song, “Let’s give them something to talk about.”  I had problems with two close friends who lied and stole from my parents and me.  It takes the trust out of you.  Same with church, there are different things that can happen in a church or in a marriage that takes the trust out of you. 

We can lose the loyalty to our school by moving around to different schools. It is the same with friends, I’ve lost friends in leaving Indiana and traveling for two years around the U.S. than to Florida, and then back to Indiana.  Many of my friends in Florida have moved to different states.   

I gained my loyalty back through high school reunions. The first time was the 20^th high school reunion with some former students but there were still a few other “offended” student who were holding grudges about some of the behavior that went on back in school. One of the things I’ve noticed is it’s important in life to be true to my friends that God has given me in life and to pray for them.  Job was true to his friends.  They are far from perfect.  The ones I had in high school were far from perfect, but I had another friend who attended two reunions with me and enjoyed her company.

After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before. Job 42:10

When my children went to Ben Davis, my daughter was a cheerleader for a while so my husband and I went to several high school games, and it was hard to decide when we were playing Pike High School who I really wanted to win.   Ben Davis won a few state championships when my daughters were in high school –some were competitive and some it was no challenge at all.  I personally like to watch a more “competitive” game.

Who side am I on?  Sometimes in life it comes down to that when cheering for a team, people, and friends it gets a little confusing. I did not attend a regular college like Purdue or IU because I went to University of Indianapolis (CIS), Ivy Tech (CIS) and IUPUI (Purdue School of Mechanical Engineering).  You sort of loose the team spirit with no football team. My husband went to Purdue in Lafayette and he got free tickets to the football games so we attended those regularly.  He was a loyal supporter of his college team. I work for Indiana University and my children went to Indiana University (half tuition off) so when Purdue would play IU – that was confusing on who I wanted to win!

We are all looking for unconditional love from our parents, friends, a mate in life, and our brothers and sisters in Christ, but many times we give and get conditional love.  We are to point the direction of “knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent John 17:3,” but to do this, it really requires we take people “just as they are / just as I am” and it’s not something we within ourselves are not capable of doing.  Unconditional love comes from our new divine nature that we have received.   We are only capable of loving someone who loves us back or goes along with our way of thinking to some degree. 

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 1 Peter 1:4

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. Romans 15:7

Loving a person unconditionally comes through the divine nature of Christ and realizing that we are “accepted of God” unconditionally.  We have this tendency if someone kicks us, we want to kick back.  A person talks about us, we want to talk back.  Many people don’t truly love themselves or understand the unconditional love of God.

To the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He did make us accepted in the beloved (given us favor), Ephesians 1:6

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Luke 6:35

Our Banner is the Blood stained banner!

We are soldiers in the army
We got to fight, although we have to cry
We got to hold up the blood stain banner
We got to hold it up until we die

Hail Purdue…Boiler Up!

Hail, Hail To Old Purdue!
All Hail To Our Old Gold And Black!
Hail, Hail To Old Purdue!
Our Friendship May She Never Lack.
Ever Grateful, Ever True,
Thus We Raise Our Song Anew;
Of The Days We've Spent With You,
All Hail Our Own Purdue!

Be True to Your School!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6LkGxF4ims