Crossroads

By Kent Brindley

The religious authorities on campus are convinced that true Christianity is addressed best in repentance and personal living. The students of Crossroads University are convinced that true Christianity is best represented in acceptance and support of ones neighbor. Can the two very different worlds meet on one middle ground?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Inspiring Voices
• Release date: Jul 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781462402427

Kent Brindley

Kent Brindley was born and raised in West Michigan and has always had a desire to write fiction. He is a recent graduate of Grand Valley State University with a Bachelor of Arts in Writing. Sword of Salvation marks his second self-published title.

Book preview

CONTENTS

For all that is in the world- the lust of the flesh and eyes and pride of life- is not of the Father but of the world ¹

Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanliness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies…²

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. ²³

For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. ⁴

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him ⁵

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting…⁶

Judge not lest you be judged. ⁷

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love⁸

The time for his departure has come. He has fought the good fight and finished the race.⁹

ENDNOTES

For family who has been placed in my life to help motivate me in my Christian calling of personal responsibility for my own shortcomings; and my friends who have motivated me toward the Christian values and virtues of acceptance, Thank you can only say so much.

For all that is in the world- the lust of the flesh and eyes and pride of life- is not of the Father but of the world ¹

The unusually frigid winds that mid-October afternoon would have normally sent students and staff alike scurrying for the nearest cover in search of warmth. However, the peculiar cold snap falling over Madison, Ohio was almost laughably appropriate for the air in the middle of the traditional Crossroads University. The local campus chaplain, an amiable if stern minister, Father Robert De Guile, stood beneath the bell tower, beating his bible against his open palm and gesturing violently at student passerby. Most students generally congregated his weekly messages and regarded him with a sense of respect. Now, students and even some members of the faculty flocked around the sideshow spectacle in the middle of campus to mock and challenge the man whom they usually genuinely respected for the reason that, for 358 days of the year, they realized that they had his respect and understanding in all that they went through.

However, all of his respect, care, and understanding could not dismiss his drastic role reversal for one week each year. For that annual week, spurred into action by righteous indignation and a few realizations about the behavior plaguing the youngest generation, Robert De Guile left the chapel on a mission in the middle of campus to be frankly honest with his students. His students, in turn, responded with frank honesty about their opinions of his fire-and-brimstone approach to theology. An avalanche of angry and emotional calls and responses was the result. The administration affectionately referred to this annual event as Accountability Week and stood behind the cause with their full support. The students called it something else altogether and dreaded Accountability Week for the fact that it brought out the least reasonable behavior in not only the minister but their fellow classmates as well. De Guile was trying desperately to make himself heard over the hoots and hollers of the students, vaguely aware that he was widely regarded as the sideshow freak of the week by the students who normally flocked to his sermons out of respect. As he gestured at the crowd while condemning the death of the body through smoking, he wound up with a face full of the damnable smoke from a group of students looking to prove a point. De Guile coughed and wheezed in the fog and picked up a new list of complaint where he had initially left off.

You students go to your classes all week and choose to leave God at home; even as you swallow the empty philosophy of your professors… he bellowed.

The faculty, though being at the traditional Crossroads University, cheered at the recognition and jeered at the intended message behind it, successfully outhollering the one-man lynch mob standing before them.

…You go out to your weekend parties with your alcohol, your (hack, hack, wheeze) smoking, and your random relationships. You leave God at home then too, even as He is replaced by your local sports teams…

Now, it was the student athletes’ turn to interrupt the proceedings in a fit of whoops and hollers that was torn between being proud of the recognition and disagreeing with the gist of Father De Guile’s message.

…Students of Crossroads University, this is not a message of hatred; it is a wake-up call that Your Lord and Savior cannot be restricted to Sundays!

Therefore, God gave them up to uncleanliness in the lusts of their hearts to dishonor their bodies…²

Brian Joseph sat on a grassy knoll, a bit out of Father De Guile’s eye-line. From his perch, he was witnessing the same performance and hearing the same message as everyone else; and though he took particular exception to its delivery, he just wasn’t in the mood to participate in the circus sideshow designed to make a blatant mockery out of a man whom the students all knew in their hearts that they could trust to deliver an honest message. The third-year student merely lit a cigarette to calm his own nerves rather than as an affront to the minister’s message and reclined on the hillside directly behind the female object of his attention.

Katie Willis, the sorority president and reigning member of the dance team, took a long swig of water from a beer bottle that had been recycled from a weekend party. Still, it was apparent that she had more in mind than to recline on the hill just outside of Father De Guile’s vision and nourish herself. Every time De Guile bellowed about reckless alcohol consumption, Katie mistook it as her cue to raise the bottle in a toast and drain some of its new contents. Brian wanted to say something to her; he always wanted to say something to her. He and Katie were pretty close as friends, it was true. Still, when the subject turned to theological truth, there were other subjects that he would rather raise with any woman. For all of the work that Brian was doing trying to come up with a suitable icebreaker before telling Katie that it was not the best idea to be drinking in public as a personal affront to a minister whom she could normally at least feign respect for, however, she did the work for Brian and shattered the silent distance between them.

Crazy week we’ve got ahead. She observed, twirling her blonde locks on a finger of her free hand as she took another swig of water from the offending bottle.

Brian, having known Katie since middle school, had the perfect response. It was a suave, debonair one-liner to reveal interest in his friend’s words without revealing too much interest in her just yet.

Yeah; he murmured, puffing away on the cig if only to puff away some excess frustration at the preacher’s message and the antics of his classmates, Crazy week; same as every year.

Katie could only nod and pull her clothes even tighter around her body.

The weather’s getting colder. Brian observed, adjusting his own jacket.

Uh-huh. Katie conceded.

Instantly, the opportunity to spring into action hit Brian like a stroke of genius and he proceeded to offer his jacket to gracious friend. Even as she accepted the jacket, Brian wanted to do more. As was usually the case, it occurred to him at the last minute that doing more would only lead to more trouble than it was worth and he satisfied himself in settling back to enjoy what remained of the show. Between Father De Guile’s rampant tirades and the shouting match that answered him, this really was the most entertainment that was about to find the traditional campus of Crossroads University. Brian did all that he could to conceal a smile at the antics of the adults around him, failed miserably, and puffed away a few stray nerves on a new cig stick. The message of the week, the antics of his fellow Christians, Katie; it was just too much stress for Brian to strain against without his smoking habit.

Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves. ²³

Father De Guile, while not slowing down in his annual less-than-subtle message of damnation, was starting to speak a bit less vehemently. He was getting a bit tired. Still, as he glanced away from the jeering, bitterly disagreeable crowd for a moment, he caught sight of the silhouettes of the young male and female on the hillside. The pair was maybe the recommended two inches apart but not by much. Furthermore, one of them was smoking while the other took another celebratory gulp from a glass bottle! Father De Guile needed some place to vent his mounting frustration and wouldn’t abandon the crowd long enough to march on the hillside alone. He did, however, point out a slightly young intern of his, resting up against the bell tower and maintaining as much of the peace as possible. In truth, Jon Carlyle didn’t want to be doing his duty that day and had to avert his gaze from his fellow classmates out of embarrassment. True enough, everyone knew that Father De Guile was a good man at heart but, when spurred by the unfortunate mix of emotion and righteous indignation, he became intolerable. Carlyle was snapped out of his thoughts as Father De Guile towered over him, glowering at him instead of the crowd in accusation.

Can’t you see those two on the hillside smoking and drinking? he demanded, indicating Brian and Katie with an all-encompassing sweeping gesture of condemnation. The fact that it was a guy and girl sitting together away from the crowd was another problem for the priest but it was barely worth mentioning.

Yes, sir. Carlyle confirmed, Brian Joseph and Katie Wil…

"I know who they are! De Guile fumed, Get up there and personally tell them to straighten out their sinful lives! Maybe they’ll actually respond to one of their enlightened peers."

Father, they are students of faith. We used to all show up every Sun… Carlyle began.

I have warned you countless times about ’24-hour-Christianity,’ son. De Guile interjected, Honestly, how could my intern be such a lax Christian…?

In one motion, Father De Guile faced the crowd again to continue his tirade against the lack of morals even on the traditional campus of Crossroads University. Jon Carlyle was left ignored by his boss and rolled his eyes to himself before collecting his bible. With worn down strides, he trudged over to the hill as if off to the frontlines with his two closest friends as enemy combatants.

The cig was just burning out and Brian was removing it from his mouth when Jon Carlyle, a recent local graduate turned seminary student and Father De Guile’s intern, approached the pair on the hillside.

Hey, Jon. Brian greeted his old friend; then, to Katie, indicating the empty beer bottle with his burnt out cig stick, Hey, may I…?

Katie lazily held up the empty bottle and Brian ashed out and dropped the stick inside. Carlyle could only gaze apologetically on the forms of his old friends as he fingered the weather-beaten cover of his bible.

I’m doing alright, Brian. He replied; then, on to more pressing concerns before his boss got involved, Drinking, smoking, and sitting too close to the opposite sex during ‘Fire-and-Brimstone’ week? You guys are really making me work for the next paycheck.

Look, we’re away from the crowd, we’re outside of church, and, last I checked, mommy and daddy were at home 50 miles away! Katie finally retorted, I don’t need anyone looking over my shoulder right now.

Carlyle was slightly taken aback that such barbed, ugly words had left such beautiful lips as Katie’s. As was the effect that she had on most guys, he had no choice left but to back down in his initial reasons for having approached his two friends for a conversation that he had wished he wouldn’t have to have. While Father De Guile was absolutely right that moral standards in the youngest generation were on a downhill slide, he was incorrect in painting any and all of his students with the same brush. Beneath their struggles, most students at Crossroads University, just as any other Christ followers, were good and well-meaning people.

Look, I know that you guys are both good, well-intentioned, well-meaning people and Father De Guile knows it too. he pointed out, Just, for everyone’s sake, try to keep the ‘bad’ behavior to a minimum during ‘Fire-and-Brimstone’ week.

Sure, buddy. Brian replied; then, as two old friends: How’s seminary going?

Carlyle glanced back over his shoulder at the wildly flailing hands in the middle of the hooting, disrespectful crowd of rubberneckers and prayed that Father De Guile was too busy to hear what he said next.

A lot better than my internship. He murmured, his face flushing red, Look, for now, Father Dee sent me up here to set you guys right. If you don’t listen to me, then there’s a good chance that he’s going to be having a personal convo with you in his office during Fire and Brimstone week. None of us wants that.

Sure; thanks for the heads up, Jon. Brian replied, packing up to leave the spectacle, then, to Katie: You want me to walk you back or anything like that?

That’s alright, Bri; thank you. Katie declared, tossing the jacket back to its owner. I’ll just wait up for Dan out here; enjoy the show for a little longer, you know?

For some reason, Brian shuddered at that. The answer was the same as usual and, if Brian had been using his head, he would have realized that it would be forthcoming. Still, it always managed to slip his mind. While he and Katie had nearly a decade of amiable friendship to fall back on, there was one thing standing in Brian’s way of taking relations any further than platonic. His name was Daniel Hawkins, the school’s head quarterback, fraternity president, unofficial gynecologist, and Katie’s on-and-off-again boyfriend. The problem was that everyone, with the exception of Katie, knew about Daniel’s philandering ways. However, no one would do or say anything about it; particularly not Brian. First of all, Daniel was the head quarterback and student senate president, granting him a lot of political leverage on campus. Secondly, Katie was a very popular girl and any effort to warn her about Daniel would be only misconstrued as some vile, jealous plot to separate them.

In Brian’s case, it was a well-documented fact that his interest in Katie expanded the realms of friendship. Still, his hands were hogtied and he left well enough alone, fighting his way through a barricade of belligerent students and some faculty to join the gathering line of people who were tired of the message at hand and more so of the response that it was drawing. Freeing himself of the lynch mob of students and faculty waiting out Father Robert De Guile, Brian Joseph trudged back to his apartment unit alone. Still, he was barely at the