Since 1998, Ron Nief and Tom McBride of Beloit College have released their “Mindset List.” The Mindset List offers insight into the world of the high school grads entering as freshmen in the nation’s colleges. McBride and Nief first created the list to help professors craft better lessons and communicate more effectively with incoming freshmen. But the popularity of the list has grown and now each year it is published nationally, highly regarded for its insights into the worldview of college freshmen and the engaging style in which it is presented.
Bob WeathersThis year’s Mindset List inventories 75 items for the class of 2014. For instance, in the class of 2014, few students know how to write in cursive, most find e-mail too slow, and few have ever used snail mail (USPS). In their world, John McEnroe has never played professional tennis, “caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo, Russians and Americans have always lived together in space, and all computers have had CD-ROMS. And the class of 2014 has always known Clint Eastwood as a sensitive director, not “Dirty Harry,” the angry, violent cop.
That’s right. Two very different views of the same man. But which is accurate? Dirty Harry, taking the law into his own hands? Justice with a .44 Magnum? Or the intellectual, tolerant, sensitive man behind the camera, evoking from actors award-winning performances?
That dichotomy is not much different from the way Americans tend to view God. To some he is a judgmental Tyrant in the sky, whose only job seems to be to keep us from enjoying life. To others, he is a loving Parent, whose kind, tolerant nature refuses to judge anything we do and who always approves of what we want for ourselves.
Of course, neither is accurate. While we live under the unwavering wrath of God, who judges our sin in holiness, we are also embraced in Christ when we repent of that sin and surrender to his love (John 3:36). He is neither a distant Director nor the great Cop in the sky.
In his nature are both love and judgment. He is God. And we know him in Christ. May the class of 2014 know him just as he is.