Week 1

Hey Nathan,

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond; between reading works from Auerbach, Nietzsche, and Stoker (among a few other literary contemporaries) and looking for different fellowship groups on campus, these first two weeks have been quite busy here at Cornell! But I am thankful that amongnst the business, I have the opportunity to sit down and begin these series of letters with you; I am so thankful that despite distance and time, we have been able to maintain and keep this friendship. Though a common love of hip-hop/rap and jazz music may have served as some initial building blocks, I am happy that it is ultimately upon the foundation of Christ, that we can have this friendship. I pray that your move to Stanford will be great one and that you can continue to know the character of WHO God is. I feel like this has been the biggest thing for me: who is God? More specifically who is God to me? With the Church situation, I totally understand your feelings; there were many moments where I too had doubt and struggled with what was going on. I would ask: God, why is this happening? Though it really is a multitude of factors, thank you for your devotionals.
To realize that I truly am the broken man on the road has been sobering. At college, the primary mode of having fun is drinking and partying, and since that is not my scene (I'm definitely more of the collecting action figures and eating good food kinda person) I often times feel one of two things: either upset/lonely or a sense of pride (like haha I'm not getting drunk but I'm doing homework etc.) I would think that I'm "better" because I didn't do those activities. Thus this would lead to contempt for my peers who would participate in these activities. But I am reminded that I too am broken and in need of God's grace. I need to be reminded and convicted of my sin, but also know that God is greater as well. One thing that really struck me was that in a devotional that Trip Lee gave at the Legacy Conference. He said that God has made everyone in his image; I shouldn't view people with contempt but instead with the eyes of God. I've really been wrestling through with this, and hope that you too can know and see everyone through God's eyes.

I'm excited to see what our future conversations will hold; este es solamente el empiezo.

Zachary Lee