J-M-U Cruuuuuuu

Today is not only ground hog day, but it is Thursday. Thursday means several things here at JMU. Sadly, to most of the student population it means the weekend has officially started and it is time to get wasted. Wooooo. But to about 350 (a rough estimate....) students, Thursday is about one thing. Cru. So far in my life I have yet to find such a lively group of people, who gather together everything Thursday evening (whether it is raining or not- a reference to freshman year, when it rained every thursday!) to praise God with such enthuasism and passion. It is simply impossible to leave Cru without a tune in your head, a smile on your face, and love in your heart.

Now lets take another little trip down memory lane. My first invite to this truly lovely madness was from my awesome friend who we like to call "Rock" (because "Who Rocks?!") when she told me... "Come! We sing fun camp songs! And there is a dreamy keyboard guy!" Oh man, who can say no to that combo?? Seriously. Does anyone remember the emcee we had for freshman and sophomore year? Man... every week now when they go into the mission of cru (win build or send lost students into christ centered laborers) the only thing I can think of is "Wibuse"... just once I would LOVE for matt to bust out "Wibuse" or the good old hand signals Will would use... ya know where at the end you would say "Send. Who-aaaaa"..... Fun times. Oh Freshman year, I was hooked... however I won't lie, I wasn't the biggest fan of sitting on the floor. No Offense.

Skip forward several years, a few months, and a couple days later, and it is ground hog day, 2006. (today... yeah you are catching on now...) Its 545pm. I just got out of an exam, and I am exhausted. I walked into that ballroom not really feeling the whole thing, but once the music kicked in I completely forgot about that random idea of wanting to be anywhere else in the world at that very moment. The only thing going through my mind was how blessed I am, to be surrounded by such godly people on a college campus when alot of times these people are so hard to find. We sang songs of praise, and thanked God for his love.

Honestly, my favorite part of cru (other than Jesus) has to be the music. This year we have an amazing band... (by the way, we took a vote... they need to make a cd for all of us who will be graduating..... ya know.... so every Thursday I can play it a pretend I am back at JMU). Tonight, the last song that we sang was "Sing to the King". This is an amazing song with incredible lyrics.... but the best part about it, was looking around the room and seeing people singing to the Lord, and cheering when the verse "Satan has vanquished and Jesus is King!" was sung. Gotta love it..... Oh man. It just makes me smile.

Sing to the King, Who is coming to reign

Glory to Jesus, the Lamb that was slain

Life and salvation His empire shall bring

And joy to the nations when Jesus is King

Come, let us sing a song

A song declaring that we belong to Jesus

He is all we need

Lift up a heart of praise

Sing now with voices raised to Jesus

Sing to the King

For His returning we watch and we pray

We will be ready the dawn of that day

We'll join in singing with all the redeemed

'Cause Satan is vanquished and my Jesus is King