As of Monday, I’m back at college from the break. I’ll confess that I didn’t do everything I should have done over break, but I did take home several books from my classes because I don’t really consider reading work, so I was able to get far ahead in reading for my History class, and that has given me a great deal of opportunity to catch up and get ahead in the rest of my classes.
Right now, I have only one chapter in one book left to read for my history class, and after our second paper and our final exam, I’m done with that class. For British literature, we have some reading left to do, a quiz or two left, a paper, and our final exam. Religious Studies, as usual, is my most relaxed class; I can’t see myself getting anything less than an A in that class. Music Theory, also as usual, is going to be the class that I cram for in the end; I have at least two assignments left (probably three, to be truthful), a music project (I must compose 16 measures of music using proper partwriting rules, cadences, etc.), and our final exam, which is going to be a rough one, and my last exam wasn’t such a good grade, so my grade (and my decent GPA to keep my scholarships) might hinge on this class. Other than that, my band sessions are over, and beyond my French Horn jury, I’m really done.
However, prompted by the proximity of the end of the semester, I have begun taking a retrospective look at my first four months of college. To be quite honest, it has gone by quite quickly, and that frightens me a little when I consider that next semester, I will be taking some pretty advanced classes. However, I have also learned a great deal, not only about my classes and areas of interest, but also about life in general. Of course, being a man of faith and trust in God, my spiritual growth has often coincided with some major points of thought that I have had in learning about God and myself. Here, I will relate some of them and some explanations and how these points have changed my thinking and lifestyle:
1) God is Order: I am actually quite fascinated to discover and consider that the foundation of modern science is based on the premise that God has created reality with calculable, mathematical constants that we, as humans with minds and souls, have the capacity to discover and understand. Even today, there is a number of scientists who look at Earth’s position in the galaxy and notice how ours is the perfect position in the universe not only to support and sustain life, but also to explore and understand life, both on this world and beyond. This isn’t always the case, but many of the scientists who recognize this attribute it to a Creator who had us in mind when He made everything.
The practicality of this discovery was immediate as soon as I came to college: if God is a God of order and He created the universe to have and maintain a sense of order, then it follows that I should endeavor to have a sense of order in my life as well. This has caused me to change the way I organize my living space — well, I guess I should clarify that statement because I didn’t have a sense of order for my living space to begin with before I came to college. In addition, I now keep a to-do list of things that I want or need to do in a day and, by doing this, I am able to keep myself on task with my schoolwork and recreation, including the writing of my book.
Since I have mentioned, I will say that I achieved little if any progress on my book during the Break. However, I will be doing some revisions on the book itself, and I hope to further immerse myself in it in the next couple of weeks, especially after the semester’s end.
2) God is Truth and Love: John 14:6 says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” and I have been doing some thinking about that statement these last few months, and the simple statements like, “God is love” and other cliches have also been on my mind. That is, if Jesus is Truth itself, then as a Christian, it is my job to introduce people to Truth, not simply talk about them abstractly. It also means that God does not lie, nor does He ever twist language to say one thing and mean another, because that is also a form of dishonestly that goes against who He is.
The practical implications of this are major. If Christ is Truth and I am trying to be Christ-like, that means that I have a very high standard of honestly. I’m not just talking about lying or even the occasional “White lie” (which is still wrong, in my opinion) that I ackoowledge as evil; I’m talking about when someone asks me to do something and I say, “Okay,” or “Whatever” without any actual intention of going through with what I’m agreeing to. I must also be completely honest with myself, having the strength of character to tell myself when I have a problem, when I’ve overtaxed myself, when I’ve slacked off too much, etc. By being Truth and Love to other people instead of simply telling them about it, I am opening the door for God to live not only within me but through me. By being more like God, I make God’s image and his reflection through me clearer and more attractive. Also, by becoming Truth, I am allowing God to transform my soul from the inside out, and by becoming Love, I am declaring my allegiance to the one whom I believe in. This also means that it is our privilege to love others, to give to the poor, and to worship God. That is, God has never demanded me to worship Him or do anything else for Him; for me, I do what I do as a privilege that God has given me by introducing me to Himself and informing me of Himself.
3) God is Community: The doctrine of God being a Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit confirms this idea, not to mention that the reason that God created the universe to begin with was community. Also, if we humans are made in God’s image, then it is not surprising to me to see why much of Western society today is dysfunctional: we lack real community. I’m not just talking about co-workers that you whisk by on your way to you cubicle, desk, or work site every morning, and I’m not even talking about the people that you talk with from time to time about last night’s game, the weather, the recent elections, or your schoolwork. I’m talking about people you confide in, that you trust with your secrets, that you think about during the day and discover that you love that person, not in a sexual way, but in a communal, trusting, supporting relationship. When the creation made in God’s likeness is not behaving in the way they were created to behave, dysfunction, disorders, and destruction always results.
Perhaps the most powerful example of how this has changed my perspective this semester has been through a simple prayer group that I meet with every Wednesday before our midweek services. We just go to a sort of living room in one of the halls on campus and hang out for half an hour. We spend the first of our time writing private prayer requests on note cards and then pass them around and exchange them. We make sure that its random to make sure that sub-cliques don’t form in the group, and then we relate some public prayer requests. After that, we split up into groups of 3-5 and just pray together. It’s enormously simply, but it’s also one of the most powerful ways that I have found to become better acquainted with people I didn’t know three months ago, not to mention the relational satisfaction that it gives me when I can’t go home to visit with my best friends for weeks at a time.
4) God is a God of both Work and Rest: another very powerful and motivating discovery for me to make was that God did create us humans to be productive. I mean, in the book of Proverbs alone, there is a great deal of condemnation for laziness and a great deal of commendation for hard and reliable work. Also, the Creation narrative specifies that God created six days of the week for work and the seventh day for rest. This means that God wants us to be productive and successful members of society insofar as we can be. Of course, there are some things that we cannot take care of on our own: for many people right now, unemployment is a growing problem around the world because of economic problems across the globe, and many people are legitimately trying to get a job to now avail. For anyone who might be reading this who fits into that category, I’m praying for you and I hope that God gives you a source of income soon. On the flip side, however, God did commission us as humans to work, and I believe that doing our work well can be an act of worship to God if we really allow ourselves to do as the Bible says and work as though we are working for God himself.
For me, this means that I should apply myself with all of the attention and focus that I can manage to my classes. This is also a matter of honoring my parents; as of right now, my parents are putting me through college, and one of my goals in high school was to obtain scholarships to help ease the load from my parents and honor them for what they are doing for me. Now that I have these scholarships, it is my desire to honor my parents’ sacrifices to me, both now and for raising me, by keeping my scholarships and applying myself in school. I am also currently considering becoming a French Horn tutor at a local high school next semester; right now, my sister gives lessons at a local high school, and she has been doing this for a diverse number of people since she was in college (several years ago). I’ve mentioned it to her, and she said that, if that is my choice, she will suggest me to some of her former students and I can tutor them and thereby have a source of income to prepare for my future.
However, God did also provide us with a day of rest, and I have to extrapolate from that that God recognizes that humans are prone to burn-outs and need a break every now and then. Of course, this isn’t to excuse people who went on Thanksgiving Break last year and still haven’t returned to productivity; this is to prevent what we call workahalism and to prevent people from being so consumed by their jobs that they forget that the most important thing in our lives is relationships, both with God and with other people.
5) My place as a Steward of God’s Gifts: Finally, God has been teaching me of my position as a steward over all that He has given me. The reason I use the term steward is this, and maybe this context will help clarify what I’m talking about:
There are plenty of people who go about this life and say, “Oh, the good Lord has been good to me.” They might be speaking about their relationships, their financial situation, their house, their children, etc. However, when it comes right down to it, I think that for many people, saying that is just another form of bragging and saying, “Wow, look how good I have it,” or even, “Look how good I have it in comparison with yourself.” I have truly come to believe that, when God gives us something – money, a car, a family, a friend, an acquaintance, a job, even our body – then he is appointing us as a steward over it, with the expectation that God may ask for it back, and it would be a slap in the face to God to accept something from Him and then give it back to him in the same state that we found it, or even in a diminished state.
So, what does this mean practically? If I am a steward of my body, that means that God has given it to me for the purpose of using it, but He also expects me to take care of it. Supporting this proposition is the idea of doing with my body what Jesus would, and I’d have to say that I have a hard time picturing Jesus gaining weight or eating fast food all the time simply because he would want to take care of his body.
Also, stewardship with money is a concept that I think would benefit society greatly. If people looked upon money not as their own but as a gift from God that He gave us for His Earthly purposes instead of something for them to spend on their own worldly pleasure, then I’d be willing to bet that the following things could and would happen:
- Credit card debt would cease to be a problem,
- The national debt would stop growing and would start to be paid off,
- More donations would go to starving men, women and children who can’t expect even one square meal a week,
- More hospitals would be built,
- The housing crisis would dissolve because everyone would suddenly realize that God does not approve of debt (again, in Proverbs),
- Schools wouldn’t have to teach high school students personal finances because the students would already have the one concept that they need for financial management and security,
- World hunger would eventually cease to be a problem,
- Homeless shelters would be built,
- Churches would be sending out missionaries by the tens and hundreds of thousands, and
- People would know that, no matter how much money they have, it is all from God’s hand for God’s purposes, and I’d be willing to bet that Christmas would still be the biggest shopping season of the year because everyone would be so excited to give to those they love…within reason, of course.
Stewardship also applies to how I spend my time.
These are the sorts of things that I have been thinking about and learning about this semester. I guess it’s all a part of becoming an adult.
God Bless!
SfC
For my post-graduation plans, I believe that I will be taking the GRE within the year and apply for graduate school for Higher English Education. That’s the plan, but I’m also trying to be flexible and keep an open mind as to what would be the best option for me to pursue; frankly, I’m still very uncertain, but that’s the course I have set for now.
