The first month here has been an awesome start to the ministry on
campus at University of Idaho and Washington State. We've made some
awesome connections, both on a personal and vocational level. My number
one job has been to "show up and keep my eyes open"; in addition to
"seeing" new people, I've also been learning a lot about life on
campus. Who are the students today at the university and what kind of
world do they live in?
The things I've seen have been very surprising and encouraging as
I've encountered and listened to the students. I want to share an example
of what I mean.
This week, I was spending my third week at my first CARE Group (CARE
= Creating a Relational Environment; next week, I will be headed to a new CARE
Group for 2-3 weeks, until I meet them all). Each night, we read the Text
and share stories from our lives. We talk about what we hear God saying
to each of us and what we'll need to do about it. I have been amazed that
week after week, the students will turn the conversation, on their own, to the
topic of how they can make an impact in their world.
To be honest, I didn't expect that. I had an image of
apathetic, misguided ("like sheep without a shepherd"), and somewhat
lazy college students who really needed to be fired up about life. What I
am consistently seeing week in and week out is a group of students who want to
make a difference. I had heard that the rising culture was certainly
"cause-driven" and inspired, but I just wasn't buying it -- until I
got here. I've been impressed by the maturity of faith I see in some of
these young men and women.
This last Wednesday, one of the girls was asking for prayer.
She said she wanted an infusion of wisdom, strength, and discernment as
she dealt with her friend, whose father had slipped into a coma and wasn't
likely to survive; she began to tear up as she said that she also was torn as
she interacted with her roommate who was a self-described atheist and had a lot
of hurt. I was moved by her emotion and depth of concern.
I wasn't the only one.
Another student, Adam, began to say that he had needed to hear her
prayer that night. He said that each and every year he struggles to make
any kind of an impact in his world. He expressed that he either seems to
get sucked into a destructive way of living or he retreats and becomes a
"Holy Hermit" (I absolutely love that term). He wanted
the group to help encourage him to live out a more potent faith.
As I listened to Adam, I was instantly taken back to the desert in
Israel where we had learned all about the "shephelah", the land
between the Judah Mountains (where God's people lived) and the region of the
coastal plain (where the Philistines lived). There was this constant
tension in the shephelah to try to impact the world and put God on display for
others and retreat to much safer ground. The former would challenge your
fortitude and commitment to God's way and the latter would fail to accomplish
the mission of God.
Here is the link to a great article on the "shephelah" by
historian/scholar Ray VanderLaan:
Adam's
plight was not new. It's been our struggle for millennia and continues to
be the dominant cultural conversation for the church today. I was just
encouraged to see the intensity and authenticity these students carried with
them to engage that tension in their lives. It's that kind of intensity
that we can do something with and just one more glimpse into "Impact
the U. Impact the World."
