Our first entry of the week is from Almost an M, the author behind almostm.com: Thinking - Unthinking - Rethinking - Making Disciples in a Post-Christian Context.He's a great friend who has served overseas and may wind up back there some day. Now, he and his family are living missionally in Dallas, TX. I'm grateful for his perspective and creative thinking about the church.

Thanks, JourneyGuy, for letting me have some fun with this. I loved me some college days and all that came out of that, but here are 5 things I didn't learn while at university.

1. How to tell a difference in "flavors" of ramen noodles - in spite of a good, collegiate try, I never acquired this skill. I could see the differences in color, but the taste was always some similar salty, noodly combination. Perhaps you can do better in this area, but I hope you have a little less frequent opportunity in this area than I had. (BTW - I did learn that 4 ramen meals in one day has some pretty negative side effects.)

2. How to dance - if by dance one means moving to the beat and / or in some graceful way, this is something I did not learn to do back then--or since.

3. How to count - of course this skill I mastered in kindergarten.

4. What to expect when parenting offspring - this didn't even cross my mind.

5. How to drink coffee - needed to do this. Wanted to. Tried many times, but it was just too bitter. Have since gone to a couple cups a day, but it was not a part of my academic regimen. That ate uptake may have cost me a tenth or more of a point on my GPA.

6. How normal and weird a transformed life could be - while at university, I am sad to write, churched people were both more likely and comfortable to be around me than were those that were not regular church-goers. Since those days I have done away with a good measure of piety and really begun to seek out those that are without Christ. This seems to be so much more in keeping with the life of Christ, but a little bit awkward for some that would prescribe a life of retreat from the world.