Normally, we wouldn’t intentionally go against the words of Jesus, but we might just have to for this project. In the Gospel for Ash Wednesday, we hear, “But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door, and prayer to your Father in secret… When you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to be fasting.” We’re going to need you to forget about that for a moment.
TJP is launching a new challenge for college students1 called Do Something Worth Talking About. And we need you to not only talk about your praying and fasting but to share it with the whole world. Every couple of weeks we are going to put out a challenge for students. Instructions are below. After we get the videos, our minons at TJP will put the videos together and you’ll go viral.
Challenge #1: Screen Free Day:
You may use your computer or other device for homework only. You may speak with people over the phone. But no twitter, facebook, hulu, Netflix, gaming, texting, television, etc. If you need e-mail for school, you may use it, but you can’t read or respond to any messages that you know are unnecessary. This is from the moment you wake up until the end of your dinner together. If you slip, don’t quit. Just double down on the effort. If specific questions arise about what is allowed, the group should decide together (by speaking in person or over the phone).
Our friends at Saint Louis University were kind enough to test it out for us. Check them out to get a sense of the project. Even though they joked about it, we’re pretty sure the biggest cross was going without TJP for a whole day.2
Interested? Here’s what you should do.
- Get a group of friends who are ready to do the challenge. You can even use our comments section to find people on your campus.
- Do the challenge on the same day.
- Have a relaxed dinner and discuss your experiences.
- Take 5-7 minutes of video reflecting on the experience and your conversation. We suggest wearing some gear as a subtle way of showing off your school.
- Upload your videos to dropbox and share the folder with [email protected]
Deadline for the Challenge #1 is March 4th. Let’s get rolling.
Questions? Comment below or e-mail us at [email protected]
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- While the challenge is geared toward college students, we’ll be happy to accept submissions from any group of TJP readers. ↩
- No seriously, we are just that vain. We’re convinced it must be the hardest part of the challenge 😉 ↩
