The Lily Letters

Give back this Christmas by preparing a OCC shoebox for a child in need across the World. Drop off centers are likely located at your local church this November/December.

 --From SAO Alumna Brett Wilson's Blog, A Man Worth Writing For . When the leaves fell from colors in the sky to colors on the ground, three years ago, I realized that life would always be different from outside of the collegiate Christian community. See, just a few months before, my girlfriends and I whipped the Barney-purple graduation caps (mortar boards for those who are interested) into the air. We were a streamline of celebration: complete in adulthood. All grown up, all set and all-knowing. But the zeal toward life, particularly life as a Christ-follower, began to simmer as soon as our diplomas were hung on the walls of our childhood homes and graduation checks stopped coming in congratulatory pieces of mail. And a few of us were convinced that the pictures in our graduation albums wouldn't have been littered with such dazzling, hopeful smiles if we knew what was going to happen just a few months later... We soon realized that college was what the wor

70 x 7 = 490. Literally speaking. But we all know that's not what Christ meant here: "Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”   Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." - Matthew 18:21-22 In comparison, that is, for us to forgive our sister and then for God to forgive us, God shows way more in "amount" of forgiveness. He is so much greater and forgave so much more of our iniquity. Who are we then as His people to deny forgiveness?  Why is it that we as Christians still find it so hard to forgive? Is it because we hold each other to a higher standard that we forget that we are destined to fail now and then? Is it because we want to forgive but expect reciprocation on the other end until we feel it's truly done and over? I've been trained in the Art of the Grudge by many women in my life. Don't get me wr

(sung to the tune of "22" by Taylor Swift) "I don't know about you, but I'm feeling like I'm walking through gluuuue!" It is October and I already feel like this year has taken its toll. But, I have good news! While we may feel drained completely, we have an infinite supply of Living Water in our God! We are all thirsty--whether spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically, the list goes on--and people in our lives continue to disappoint. We even disappoint ourselves! Yet Jesus Christ is the sustenance we need to endure this world's hardships. Jesus invites us to follow Him, and while we are sure to find even more obstacles as His flock, we can be confident that we will be sustained, for Jesus promised, "Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:14, NIV). As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects t