Nightlife As An NCF Member

    Thursdays are the most exciting nights for an NCF member! All-day I complete my mundane duties as I await 9 o’clock for some worship and community at Fusion. Around 8:50, my friends and I rush through the Bear Cave doors and are greeted by some NCF executive members with smiles on their faces. We then shuffle over to our seats and meet up with some other friends to catch up on the past week. Soon enough the count down on the screen reaches 10, and we all stare at the stage as Ashley, one of the worship leaders, makes her way to the front during the last few seconds. Ashley opens up with a few jokes and informs the rest of the members about upcoming events and bible studies.

 

    After she finished the PowerPoint, she introduced the game for the night! Tonight we played hide and go seek. Yes, you read it right, hide and go seek: college edition. And yes, it was so much fun! Picture a bunch of college kids running frantically trying to find hiding spots, ducking behind the tech team, and even squeezing into the closet to avoid being caught. After the game was over and we finally finished laughing, the worship team began playing some amazing music. We sang our hearts out to a few songs and simply worshiped God as a community. 

    After the music lulled, Matt, the lead singer, prayed over us as we settled into our sermon. This week, we watched a clip from the Passion conference in 2022. The sermon was directed toward college students and really spoke to all of us in attendance. The pastor explained how in our day in age, distractions are everywhere. Social media, school, and friends can all be very positive things, however, they are often rooted in some of our greatest anxieties. These anxieties serve as a distraction from what is really important in this life. The Pastor shared Matthew 6:34 with us, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” As I looked around the room, I saw my fellow NCF members grin, knowing that their anxieties often distract them too. This verse from Matthew tugged on my heart and reminded me that God is in control of my future, I do not need to be distracted by the worries of tomorrow. My new challenge is to turn my distractions into devotions. To am thankful I have the opportunity to learn rather than stress about the grade I got on last week's quiz. To not be distracted by how many likes my last post got, but rather read a bit of scripture and find my worth in the word rather than the world. To be thankful for each of my friends and appreciate our differences rather than focus on the things we disagree on. 

    After the preacher finished, we all stood once more together and sang our praises again. We said one last prayer and exchanged goodbyes. Yesterday’s Fusion left me with a heart full of love and a mind determined to not be distracted by the negative things of this world. After I left the Bear Cave, I walked back to my dorm and crawled into bed. I quickly fell asleep, not worried about the anxieties of tomorrow, just thankful for another wonderful day as a member of NCF.