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Walking with God Through Essays, Experiments & Exams
By Shiao Chong, Christian Reformed Campus Minister

& Director of Leadership, Culture & Christianity
Serving at York University, Toronto
www.logoscrc.ca | chaplain@logoscrc.ca
 

Originally a talk presented to Richmond Hill Christian Reformed Church Youth Group on April 19, 2006

There are three things in university studies that you will definitely face sooner or later: essays, experiments and exams. This is true, regardless of your academic major or minor. Sooner or later, you will find yourself in a course that requires you to write an essay, or a paper. Sooner or later, you will find yourself in a course that requires you to do an experiment, or participate as a guinea pig in an experiment, or read/observe an experiment. Sooner or later, you will find yourself sitting down to write the inevitable exam.

But essays, experiments and exams are not only faced in the classroom. You are going to face essays, experiments and exams outside the classroom. And here, I am using the words, essays, experiments and exams as metaphors or symbols. You see, the word “essay” means “to try, to attempt something”. It means this first before it ever meant “a written assignment on paper”. An essay is an attempt, a try at a theory or an idea, perhaps. An experiment, of course, is where you test out a theory if it is correct or not. You do an experiment to test if something works or not. And exams are where you are tested to see if you have learnt anything in the course of the semester. Essays, experiments and exams: trying, testing and being tested.

Your journey through university or college is going to be a journey of trying new things, of testing new or old things, and of being tested. You will face essays, experiments and exams in most areas, if not all areas, of your life, when you journey through the college or university campus. You are going to be exposed to new ideas, to new people, to new cultures, to new experiences, and you will probably be inclined to try them out. You will probably be inclined to test them out. You may even test out some of your own old ideas or beliefs or values that you hold so dearly for so long, to test them if they actually hold water. Do my old ideas actually work? Are they actually true? In fact, those old ideas will probably be tested even if you choose not to test them yourself. New ideas, new experiences, new knowledge or facts or data or friends, will all test your existing values, beliefs, ideas and views of the world.

Essays, experiments and exams, or trying, testing and being tested are facts of life on the university campus. As Christians, how are we to face these facts of university life? Are we to shy away from these essays, experiments and exams? Are we to play it safe? Or do we immerse ourselves into this new world? Should we be fearful or should we be reckless?

Essays, experiments and exams in the classroom help us to learn and to grow in our knowledge. If we never attempt essays or try making an argument, how would we know if an argument is sound? If we never experiment and test something out, how would we know it works? If we never allow ourselves to be tested or examined, how would we know that we know? I don’t think we can shy away from the university facts of life. But as Christians, we need to walk this journey in the university or college campus with God on our side. We need to realize that God walks with us on this journey. We need to essay, experiment and examine with God at our side.

This doesn’t mean that God will give us all the answers like some kind of invisible Encyclopaedia. Neither does it mean that God will protect us or shield us from all harms and from all doubts. But it does mean that if we choose to be sensitive to God’s presence, to God’s voice, if we are keen to discern God’s voice in the midst of all the other voices that compete for our attention, even as we try, test and be tested, we might find that we will indeed learn and grow, not only in information, but we will also learn about ourselves, about who we are, about who God made us to be. We may learn more about God. We may also learn more about God’s world, God’s creation, and about our place in God’s creation. From all of these learning, we may also begin to learn what our personal mission is, why God put us here on this earth.

Because the truth is, God also tests us and pushes us to attempt bigger things. Essays, experiments and exams are not only the facts of life in our university journeys they are also the facts of life in our spiritual journeys. Even Jesus was tested in the wilderness before he started his ministry. Israel was an experiment in having a nation, a whole society, live and embody God’s norms for life. The early church tried and attempted new things in creating a new community that is centred on Jesus. From Abraham, Jacob and Moses to Jesus and Paul, God has always called his people to go where they have never gone before, to walk where they have never walked before. But God always walks with us, and so often, God is already there before we even get there.

So, God is already on campus. The question is will you take time to find him there? And if you find God in the university campus, you will probably also find yourself. Find God and find yourself in all your essays, experiments and exams.

But how do we do this? Let me end with giving you three practical things to do to find God and yourself in university:

1. Find a mentor – you need a wise guide; a professor, a chaplain, a graduate student; someone older and wiser who will walk alongside with you as you walk with God on campus – someone you can ask questions, dump your worries, without judging you; someone who does not necessarily give you all the answers but definitely someone who can ask the right questions at the right time, someone who will help you find your own answers

2. Find a community – you cannot do it alone, no one can; isolation is a sure way to depression and to all kinds of problems; a community that can support you, that is fun, that is safe, that is not judgmental or exclusive, that seeks to find God too

3. Find God’s truth, love and justice in your studies – all genuine truth is God’s truth, all genuine love is God’s love, and all genuine justice is God’s justice; such truth, love and justice can be found even in non-Christian professors, etc.


Copyright © Shiao C. Chong 2006
This article can be copied and distributed freely provided its content has not been changed. This resource cannot be sold or distributed for financial gain. It must be free. And it must be unedited. Otherwise, the author reserves all rights to the resource.
 

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