Yesterday, as I was walking to my dorm, a boy — let’s call him Tim — smiled gently and said, “Good afternoon. How are you doing today?” As I had never met this boy, his personable salutation caught me off guard. “He’s weird,” I thought to myself. Perhaps, though, this guy got it right.

Like many students at Biola, I do my best to balance school, family, friends, boyfriends/girlfriends, homework and a part-time job. When I’m at work serving hungry, impatient yogurt customers, it’s easy for me to notice the few who stand out from the vast majority. When I get a “Tim” at my store, I look up from whatever I am doing and take a heavier study of their face. Do they care? Are they just being routine? They change my mood and sometimes my day.

Christians are supposed to impact the world for Christ, right? Would Jesus ever have been too busy to at least make someone feel loved? I believe Christians’ lives need to be relational like the God they worship. The apostle John writes,“Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.” People say college is the perfect time to “reinvent” yourself, so why not make yourself someone more people can confide in, relate to and love?