Luther is a definitely a place of high priorities. We pride ourselves on excellence and achievement not only in academia, but also sports, music and community. We prioritize learning and service. We focus on learning to give back, being aware of our place in the world. Pretty impressive, don’t you think? Not bad for a small private liberal arts school.

Sometimes, though, I really question if the Luther community has its priorities straight. Take last week for example. I, like what seemed to be the entire rest of the student body, attended the Ben Folds concert March 3. It was a great concert, despite the girls in front of me who refused to sit down, the try-too-hard alumni beside me who still apparently have not moved on from Luther’s bubble and the screaming kiddies behind me who apparently thought that Ben Folds would honor their song requests if they continued to yell all the way from the back of the CFL. Ben Folds is undoubtedly a great artist and the show he put on was great. Judging by the extreme number of Facebook status updates after the concert, most everybody else agreed.

The scene was entirely different Tuesday evening however, when not even a fourth of the CFL was filled to see John Bul Dau, the keynote speaker at the Farwell Distinguished Lecture. Dau was one of the “lost boys” of Sudan whose story was featured in the recent film “God Grew Tired of Us.” For those of you who aren’t aware of the story, the lost boys were thousands of young men who were displaced and orphaned in the second Sudanese Civil War that lasted from 1983-2003. To escape government persecution, they were forced to flee their home villages and face hunger, thirst, starvation, rebel attacks and many other life-threatening challenges. After years of wandering, about 3,800 of the boys were brought to the United States. John Bul Dau was one of them. Sharing the story of how he was ripped away from his family when he was 13, John Bul Dau’s lecture was emotional, heart-breaking and eye-opening. His humble outlook on life and his ability to be unbelievably grateful should be a lesson and inspiration to us all.

Though I really enjoyed it, I was extremely frustrated with the low attendance at John Bul Dau’s lecture. When it comes to sweet music and entertainment stars, the Luther community has no problem packing the CFL and putting their homework aside. But when the speaker is someone who has experienced horrifying and awful situations, who talks about problems our global brothers and sisters are facing every day, the long put-off reading or paper-writing conveniently pops into existence. A lecture that may make us somewhat uncomfortable with our own wealthy and privileged lives seems to be quite a lot less important than hearing a singer-songwriter jam out on stage, right?

Wrong.

I’m not insulting Ben Folds or his music. Nor am I criticizing the large number of people who attended the concert. I was one of them. What I am saying, though, is that perhaps we should take some time to straighten out our priorities. As citizens of this world community, we carry a certain responsibility to be aware of the injustices of the world and to act upon them. Especially at a place like Luther, where service is such a high priority, it couldn’t hurt to spend more time focusing on making the most of our privileges and how we can use them to help others.