In my honest opinion (or IMHO as some say), Netflix has started something really important for our time.

Of course, there are many different outlets for watching and keeping up with movies and shows (Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.) Yet, Netflix has changed the game for everyone and everything, and as I sit here and think about it, I wonder why.

Then I come up with this idea – Netflix is very much about togetherness. It provides a selection of movies that is suitable and versatile for any group of people and their individual tastes. It houses thousands of episodes of shows that are important to people – shows that are part of who we are. It has a wide selection of documentaries about real life issues and situations that other streaming portals have not made available.

And if that’s not enough, Netflix is bringing back things that are nostalgic to us. For example, Full House is a part of my childhood that is unforgettable to me. I used to feel pretty validated in the fact that I’ve seen every episode of the show. All of a sudden, Netflix has brought it back to me in the form of “Fuller House”. Even if the cast is not necessarily filled with good acting and funny punch lines (as I used to think Full House was), I still appreciate that they are bringing me and my friends and anyone else together who used to watch the show. Now, we all have something that we experienced separately to reminisce about and participate in together.

Netflix has become so common that it is now used as a verb. Oftentimes, when asking someone what they did over the weekend, they reply “rested, Netflixed, etc…” With having entire series of shows and no commercial breaks, it is difficult to not become engrossed in shows, thus becoming a part of the show’s community.

As a millennial who loves Netflix, I examined what I enjoy about it so much so that I can see where else it fits into my life. And this is what I’ve come up with – Netflix is mostly meaningful because it involves us in something that other people are involved in, and from there we can all be a community. Taking this to my job and my life in general, I see how vital it is to life to be involved in communities. With community comes a feeling of belonging, and that’s what we all seem to be searching for when it comes down to it.

I applaud you Netflix, and thanks for all the movie nights you have supplied me with.

Unfortunately, in the Christian sphere, rap music gets a bad wrap.

I’m not really sure when this “rap is bad” stigma began in the church, but I do know that if you Google “first rap song”, Rapper’s Delight by The Sugarhill Gang (1979) pops up. Google (aka Wikipedia, aka a very trustworthy person) tells us this about Rapper’s Delight: “While it was not the first single to feature rapping, it is generally considered to be the song that first popularized hip hop in the United States and around the world.”

Basically, Google is telling us that rap began in 1979. “Christian rap/hip hop”, after researching, began in the 1980’s. Stephen Wiley released the first full-length Christian hip hop album Bible Break in 1985. With the words “Praise the Lord for goodness’ sake, we’re all about to take a bible break!” the Christian rap game began, as well as a lot of controversy.

I haven’t really been around long enough to know the progression of how rap in general got a bad stigma in the church, but I think it’s a major bummer.

This is a bummer to me because I feel as though rap is important, and it is important because it has shaped a culture. There are more recent rappers such as Kanye, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar, who are known not only for their music, but for who they are as individuals, what they wear, what their music videos are like, etc. Their music has progressed a movement that rappers throughout the past few decades were the catalysts for (i.e. Snoop Dogg, Tupac, Notorious B.I.G.). Because of past artists, more recent artists have shoulders to stand on, therefore all of the aforementioned artists have had some sort of influence on what our culture is today.

When discussing recent important rappers, the Christian artist Lecrae cannot go unmentioned. Over the past decade he has won two Grammys and seven Dove awards. Along with those, he is the first hip hop artist to win the Grammy for Best Gospel Album and the first rapper to win the BET award for Best Gospel Artist. With these awards, Lecrae bridges a gap between the often negative Christian perspective on rap and the possibility that rap in all realms is not only relevant, but vital to our culture’s growth.

And this is where my mindset has to be challenged. As a “young person” and especially as a Christ follower, I cannot ignore the fact that the rap industry is influential. I don’t necessarily have to love it or believe in it, but I do have to try to understand it rather than shy away from it because it may be a little out of the church’s comfort zone. By listening to it and engaging in any kind of rap from time to time, we (believers or non-believers) have the ability to see its influence on anyone.

The whole point of this blog post is to say that rap music does not have to be seen as “bad”, but instead, it should be understood. Rap is not all sex, drugs and money – the genre is filled with lyrics about social issues and life in general. Rap may not be your cup of tea, but it is not something to look down upon either. It’s important. It’s a part of our lives.

That’s a wrap.

R.I.P. Tupac (but we know you’re still out there).

“If my childhood, teens, and twenties were about wanting people to like me, now I want people to know me. So, this is a start.”

So ends the introduction to Why Not Me?, the 2nd book by author Mindy Kaling. It foreshadows her book that is not only filled with hilarious anecdotes, but also openness and honesty throughout each chapter.

When Kaling’s first book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) was published in 2013, the response to the book was not entirely positive. Some readers found the book to be a bit much when it comes to blunt, straightforward advice, but this is why I believe Kaling thrives as a writer in television and her autobiographies. Kaling is not always polite in the way that she gets her point across, but this is something that many readers appreciate as well. It is nice to read a book written by an author who has no reservations in her writing.

Again, in Why Not Me?, Kaling shows no hesitancy in sharing her thoughts, as crass as they may be. In this book, Kaling writes about her life as a sorority girl in college, some halfway romantic stories, and her job as a writer and producer of The Mindy Project, which is the Fox and Hulu sitcom she created. Kaling masters the art of coming off as real, honest and open, while also still leaving a mystery that causes the reader to close her book and think, “How does she do it?”

As a female writer and entertainer, Kaling is one of the most important of our time. Not only was Kaling an executive producer, director and writer for The Office, she also was the voice of Disgust in the 2015 film Inside Out. For Why Not Me?, she won the Reader’s Choice Award for Best Humor Book in 2015. This may be because she is a hilarious writer, but it also probably has to do with her humility as well. With chapter titles such as “(Minor) Fame Has Changed Me”, “Unlikely Leading Lady”, and “How to Get Your Own TV Show (and Nearly Die of Anxiety)”, it is easy to see that Kaling is humble about her experiences and her place in life.

I would argue that Kaling’s voice should be heard by many. She is down to earth in her writing style, causing many of her readers to say “I want to be her best friend!” I cannot disagree with this, as reading her works have made me feel inspired to not only be like her, but also to set goals and reach them as a writer. If you haven’t read Kaling’s books yet, I would recommend that you grab both of them and find a comfy seat, because once you start reading her works you will not be able to stop yourself.

“Music is my religion,” said Jimi Hendrix, or at least that quote is attributed to him. More likely, this is a bumper sticker-quality distillation of a longer quote from Jimi about live music performance:

“When I get up on stage – well, that’s my whole life. That’s my religion. My music is electric church music, if by ‘church’ you mean ‘religion’. I am electric religion.”

That is arguably the most late-60’s, psychedelic rock thing anyone has ever said. It is also the type of quote that Christians tend to respond to with either pity or indignation: either a feeling of sadness that this was the best “religion” he could experience, or taken as an affront to Christianity as true religion. Either reaction is understandable to a point, but taken even at face value, I think his quote is quite close to the truth. It says as much about the transcendent nature of music and the power of a live performance as it does about Jimi Hendrix’s beliefs.

Approximately how much of your day are you listening or connected to music? Just observing the number of people walking around wearing headphones or with earbuds plugged in, the answer is probably “around half the day”, after subtracting out time spent in class, sleeping, and eating. That degree of musical connection is less like listening and more like soundtracking, with the songs you play functioning as a score and your everyday life is the movie. But is that much music really a bad thing? No, unless it is a ploy to avoid talking to other people. Music affects us so deeply, we want to be near it as much as possible. It is simultaneously comforting and enlivening, reaching into the deepest parts of our being, and at the same time, carrying us somewhere outside and beyond our immediate existence, and this is what undergirds Jimi Hendrix’s quote.

It is understandable, then, why he said what he did about live performance, which is where I think this should ultimately lead us. Whether or not he meant any hostility toward “church” or “religion” (I doubt that he did), the sentiment pulled from his statement is often used that way now; music is the anti-religion religion, and concerts are the non-church church. But even trying to distance oneself from religion by way of music and the performance of music requires the use of religious and spiritual language. Jimi Hendrix professed no particular faith during his short career, but had to use such language as a comparative point to what he did and experienced on stage. Author Chanon Ross speaks of concerts as revealing a “profound longing for transcendence, ecstatic experience, mutuality, and even incarnational metaphysics”, experiences most Christians (hopefully) seek and find in the local church. I think everyone wants that kind of connection or experience, and concerts are the closest thing many people will ever get to it. Music is a gift, but the live music experience makes it a gift in a truer sense: it becomes a shared experience between the maker of that gift and its recipients, and a way for those recipients to share in the experience together.

I am not advocating here for live music as a church substitute. But consider this an exhortation simply to pursue the live music experience. As a Christian, you are able to see it for what it is, a gift, and able to understand the spiritual depth of that experience, without needing it to be a substitute spirituality.

At Student Activities, this is a big part of what informs our decision to bring in artists, both large and small, and we hope that you will participate in our concert events. Check out all of our upcoming events and be sure to follow us on Twitter for concert announcements and information.

Approximately how much of your time listening to music is spent in discovery or exploration? That is, how much time do you give to listening to artists or genres with which you are unfamiliar?

There is a certain stigma that comes along with living in Lynchburg after graduating from Liberty. For some reason, it seems as though if you’re not moving somewhere and acquiring a full-time job the second your graduation cap falls to the ground, your choice is in question. Yet, I’m still here, and I’ve never felt surer of a choice to stay.

At the end of this past summer, I had two opportunities: one was to work in Washington, D.C., and one was to come back and work as an Event Supervisor for Student Activities. In the moment, it seemed like the most difficult choice of my life, but I think I knew all along that I had unfinished business here at Student Activities and in Lynchburg in general. As I moved back, I had to fight the fear of not having enough of these words: success and adventure.

Of course, “success” and “adventure” mean different things to different people. For me, both of these words mean not being stagnant. If I am always growing into a person that is more like the Lord, constantly being pruned and growing and then being pruned and growing again, I will be successful and I will be taken on the greatest adventure wherever I am at that point in life.

Yet, for some reason, it seems like D.C. or New York City or any other big city that I am so drawn to holds more “success” and “adventure” than Lynchburg does. It’s easy to idealize these places into something greater than they already are, making little ole Lynchburg seem somewhat insignificant.

When I graduated from Liberty, I did not know that my journey of growth here was not over. I needed to come back and endure a hard year in a place that is the same yet so different from what it used to be for me. Moving back made me realize that at this point in my life, this is where I need to be.

I’m learning that maybe it’s not the place that determines the degree to which you are experiencing success and adventure; instead, it’s your outlook on the place. A place is made by the community it holds and the growth that this community spurs you on to, and right now, Lynchburg is that place for me.

What is your “place” at this point in your life?

I was once a CFAW.

I remember standing in front of my red-cushioned seat, looking around the half golf ball-shaped building, wide-eyed and wondering where this place would take me. I was singing the words of old and new hymns along with Justin Kintzel and the rest of the campus band. I recall closing my eyes and asking myself, “What would you do if you made it here? What if this were your life?”

My journey at Liberty University began in the fall of 2012, after I graduated from high school and left everything I knew in Fleming Island, Florida behind. Before I moved to Lynchburg, I had visited Liberty twice for College for a Weekend events. Both CFAW’s that I visited made me desire more and more to come to this place that seemed so different from the rest. Liberty is the only school I applied to; it was really the only school I cared about at all. That was all because of CFAW.

Now, my life at Liberty looks extremely different from the life I experienced when I came to CFAW, or even my life freshman year. I am an Event Supervisor here at Student Activities and I have no residential classes, so I spend most of my time on campus at work. Because of this, I feel a little disconnected from the student body. At Student Activities, we work so hard to make things great for students that sometimes it’s easy to forget what it’s like to have the wonder of being a student.

Last week, we had a CFAW concert in the Vines Center featuring Citizens and Saints, Kings Kaleidoscope and John Mark McMillan. I spent the day doing laps around the building, making sure everyone was taken care of and generally happy. At one point in the night, I made my way to the floor and looked around for a few minutes. I saw how absorbed in the concert the students and visitors were; whether their eyes were open or closed, they were soaking in every moment, just like I did when I first visited.

It’s so easy to be caught up in the lives we have found ourselves in here at Liberty. We get into a routine, it feels monotonous, and we forget why we chose to come here in the first place. Seeing those thousands of students at the concert made me regain perspective. It made me stop for a moment and remember that I’m here because I know I’m supposed to be here. It reminded me to find the joy of every moment here, so that even in the everyday, routine moments, I will remember to be thankful.

A few weeks ago, Student Activities took a large group of students to Wintergreen Resort on a Saturday ski/snowboard trip. We were able to spend all day on the slopes and I loved it! The air was cold, the snow was fresh, and much to my surprise, the selfies were unceasing. I was really taken aback by the phones, cameras, tablets and GoPro’s all over the mountain. They all seemed to have one purpose: snap pictures of the shooter and upload it to the nearest social media platform. #selfie #skiing #snowboard #liveauthentic #snow #fun #cold #gooutsideandplay #adventure

But, why the selfie? We live in an age that claims to value authenticity. We have so many outlets to prove just how authentic we are. In fact, some of the most popular hashtags have to do with living “authentic”. Yet, at the same time, we post selfies and other pictures of us doing things all over the internet. My question is this: If we are living authentic lives, why do we need to incessantly post pictures depicting who we are? I would just like to propose a disheartening answer: because we are not truly living authentically.

According to an excellent podcast titled “The Art of Authenticity”, Dr. Maria Sirois explains that true authenticity involves both self-authoring and self-measuring. One must be the complete initiator of their lives and also be the tool used to measure their own progress. For example, this means that you decide to go for a hike without any influence from your friends. You don’t choose to hike to impress anyone or to gain credibility. You also decide for yourself whether and to what degree the hike was good, fun, and worth taking. Living authentic means that you don’t use anyone else’s input to decide if your hike was valuable. I see an irony in the selfie. Are we posting pictures of ourselves to live a more authentic life? Or, is there a sinful nature in us that yearns for the approval and admiration of our peers?

The danger of seeking more attention from our posts or photos is that we find our identity in that attention. If our identity is bound by the opinions of others, we will change the way we live to honor others’ expectations. At this point, we lose our own identity completely. What if we don’t find our value in the number of likes our recent post gets? Would that begin to make us more authentic? I wonder if our feeds would have fewer duck faces, selfies, or humblebrags.

Maybe next time you are out doing an awesome thing, take the picture just for you, or maybe share it just with your closest friends. Living authentic doesn’t mean that we impose our personal feelings, actions and emotions onto others. It is simply living them out. True authenticity doesn’t come from a selfie; it certainly doesn’t come from being on a mass media platform. Instead, it can be something you carved onto the handle of a nice walking stick, scratched into the bottom of your skis, or written onto the roof of the tent you use stargazing. It should be personal and memorable. Authenticity is for YOU. Selfies are for… well, I honestly don’t know the end to that sentence…

Be the author and the measurer of your life. Take a picture of that beautiful mountain sunrise and place it on your desk, or snap that hilarious picture of your friend drooling in her sleeping bag for your private album. Take these pictures and use them to remember the moments, because YOU know they are worth remembering.

Don’t take a picture to prove who you are, live it.

ICYMI: The 58th Annual Grammy Awards were this past Monday. This may be the only fact of this entire piece – the rest will be my thoughts and opinions, however widely-accepted they have become. I must admit, I was a little disappointed with the night as a whole. There were some highlights, some shots fired, and lots of lip-licking by LL Cool J. Here are some of my takeaways…

• Taylor Swift swift kicked off the show with a huge version of “Out of the Woods.” It wasn’t bad…it also wasn’t great, definitely not T. Swift’s most memorable moment from the show. What I remember most were her over-the-top reactions when winners were announced. This seems to be a trend with her…she reacts the way I imagine I would if I won the lottery. If this is the way she reacts to an (arguably arbitrary) award, what do you think her legitimate surprised reaction looks like? I imagine it looks something like those fainting goats.
• Kendrick Lamar’s performance was straight fire emoji. No…literally…there was a giant bonfire on stage during his set. I must admit, I’m not a huge hip-hop fan, but I like Kendrick. He’s like Kanye, but better, less pretentious, and he actually smiles.
• The Weeknd’s hair made another appearance. What is going on there?
• The highlight of the show to me was the James Bay + Tori Kelly collaboration. Bay’s “Let It Go” is one of the better songs from last year, and Tori Kelly is arguably one of the best female vocalists in the room. If you missed it, watch it.
• Adele…poor Adele. If you didn’t see it, you missed what sounded like a cat pawing at a guitar during her performance of “All I Ask”. What was supposed to be a powerful, low-key moment turned into a head scratching and disappointing 3 minutes. I’ll admit, I muted Adele. God forgive me.
• There were several performances in tribute to David Bowie, B.B. King, Maurice White, Lemmy Kilmister and Glenn Frey. No disrespect, but they were mostly forgettable.
• While some performances were meh, others were just downright not good. They are as follows: Little Big Town, Justin Bieber, Carrie Underwood/Sam Hunt, Pitbull.

Much more happened during the two-and-a-half hour long broadcast, but #GRAMMYs on Twitter was far more entertaining to me for much of the show. Let us know what you thought of the show!

For some people, it’s a sport. You step onto the field that you hold so dear and you feel different than you did before – it’s like something is awakened inside of you. For some, it may be painting or some sort of art that can be created with your hands. When you hold the paintbrush, you let go of all tension or stress that you may be feeling. Whatever it is, there is something that we all need to make us feel like our truest selves.

For me, I need words.

It’s the way that I see love and feel able to give love. As an English graduate student, I have decided to dedicate everything to a future of writing and reading – essentially, a future of words. My love for words began at a young age (four years old, to be exact) when I learned to read and Dr. Seuss became my favorite author (and the only author I could really read). The older I became, my love for words in stories became more and more noticeable to me and to my family. I wrote a chapter of a book at age seven and another one after that as an eight year old.

All of this is to say that words have been very important to me ever since I can remember, and now I am the type of person who feels a lot of built-up emotion and tension unless I can write words down about why I feel a certain way. Writing about it is sort of like having a rough draft of words that express everything you need to, just to yourself or to whomever you desire to share it with.

When I open a book or have a blank piece of paper and a pen, I feel at home. I’m lucky that this is what I’m passionate about in life – not everyone can carry around what makes them feel at home in their bag.

Words are important, and I have seen this in the books I read and the way I express myself through writing. I also see it in conversation – there is something about spending an hour or two in a meaningful chat with a friend that can change everything about your life. Words are everything, and the more we see their value, the better we can be at relationships in general.

I’m a lover of words. What are you passionate about?

The big day is finally here! It’s the day to show someone how important they are to you by planning a killer date. Do you want to knock the socks off of your boyfriend, girlfriend, or that guy or girl in your brother/sister dorm that finally said you can “hang out”? The following steps are 100% tested, tried and true when it comes to planning a great date.

Step One: Whoever is picking up the other person for the date, make sure you are playing love songs that are by extremely obscure artists. If the song has ever seen a top chart, it should not be playing in your car (don’t even think about playing Bieber’s new(ish) album!!).

Step Two: If you’re a guy, make sure your dashboard is lined with an appropriate amount of trendy plants (succulents, anyone?) for when you pick her up. If you’re a girl picking up your guy, then this should already be checked off the list.

Step Three: Make sure your outfit complements the VSCO filter you have chosen for the night. If it does not complement the filter well, you should both take the time to change your clothes if you care anything at all about how creative people think you are.

Step Four: Boots. It’s February, and you need to make sure boots are included in the outfit you have chosen to run with. And if you’re not cuffing your pants, you aren’t doing it right.

Step Five: Make sure to stay away from “untrendy/ungrammable” foods. You want your Instagram to scream trendy, not trying. Make sure you stand on some sort of chair or booth to get the full effect of the photo.

Step Six: After dinner, it’s obviously picture time. Don’t forget to grab a few selfies, awkwardly ask a stranger for a picture of the two of you against a rare brick wall (which the stranger will definitely not capture the way that you want them to), and take a “follow me” picture. If you need help knowing how to pose for this picture, simply make sure that there is a good background and your significant other is walking in front of you. If you do this, everything in your life will be okay.

Step Seven: Netflix. And chill. Not the phrase that refers to something that Liberty students would never do, but actually kick back, turn on the series you are going through together, or start a new one. Just make sure there is room for the Spirit (and also Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) on that couch. Whatever show you choose, remember that it will be vital to the growth of your relationship, since you’ll be watching it together often.

Honestly, if you follow these steps, you will have a pretty good time. And not only will you have a good time, but you will show everyone how great of a time you had. What could be better?

Well, there is one simple step that could help you enjoy your night like never before:

Step One: Unplug.

Put your phones away and enjoy each other’s company. I promise you, your night will be much better than you expected. Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone.