christianity

A Graduation Message

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One of my favorite books of the Bible is the book of Ecclesiastes. It contains observations about the nature of life and the nature of God in ways that are incredibly relatable. As a result I often use the ending refrain of the book when talking about the closing of a school year: 

Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.  – Ecclesiastes 12:12b-13

It is a tongue-in-cheek way to remind students that they have been on a unique journey that has been both rewarding and wearying – and that they are in fact starting a new chapter in their lives. The reality is that graduation for many marks their first foray into the workplace, into careers, and into the day to day grind of professional life. It brings new rhythms, new relationships, and challenges. It can also lay bare your values and personal insecurities in ways that you have not experienced before. 

New jobs and places of residence mean finding new church homes, new friend groups, and potentially new hobbies and social activities. Because of this the same can be said for your religious life. It creates a space where you are called to really think about what you believe and what you value. Is attending church important for you? If so, what is important to you in finding a new church? Is it theology? Is it service opportunities? A style of worship? Is studying scripture a major value? Then you have decisions about where and when to study that will become part of your new routine and new daily life. 

The main change, or perhaps challenge, you will face is confronting what it means to follow Christ in your new career. How will your faith guide your new professional relationships? Who will you be when out for drinks after work or in the break room? How will you react faithfully when faced with conflict? Every question represents an opportunity to live in step with Christ. 

Keeping all of this in mind one of the most important things you can do is to “take time.” It is important to take time for yourself, for others and most importantly for God. In the crush of new responsibilities one of the first things we often sacrifice is care for ourselves. We drive ourselves hard to make a good first impression. We put in extra hours to make sure we are staying on top of things. We want to do a good job, and that is good. But it should not come at the cost of sleep, exercise, and eating right. Take time to head outside. Take time for hobbies you love. Take time for unwinding at the end of a long day. 

It is also important to take time for those we love. As we move to new places and work on creating new relationships it is important to still remember to connect with the people that are important to us: family, friends, mentors from our previous spaces. They are people who have supported us through the challenges of school and they will be key to navigating our new spaces with integrity because they remind us of who we are and who we desire to be. 

It is also vitally important to take time for God. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy. This does not mean just going to church. Going to church can be important because the connections we make there can support us spiritually and help us continue to grow in our faith. But it also means taking time to step away from work and busyness. It means stepping more fully in the calmer rhythms of life that walking with God provides. It means re-creating ourselves in ways that reflect God’s creative spirit and finding rejuvenation in the patterns of rest and relaxation. It also provides us with time to more fully connect to God and with ourselves in ways that remind us that we are not our own – that we are created for more than toil. We are created for joy and created to live and work in God’s greater kingdom. It recenters us from work as our focus and reminds us that everything is God’s, including us, and including our time and our energy. 

Also remember to take time for fellowship and to open God’s word. Both can help us through any challenges we face. Fellow believers can help us stay on God’s path when we are tempted to go astray. God’s word can give us wisdom and remind us that following Christ is our first calling outside of any other work or calling we find ourselves in. These two things give us wisdom when we are faced with conflicts of personality or perspective at work. They give us direction when we make decisions about the type of activities we engage in and new friendships we make. They help us answer many of the questions that starting a career can raise about how we want to live and who we want to be. 

In short, in order to live well into the next chapter of your life. Work hard. Be conscientious in your work, because as scripture also says, “…work as for the Lord” (Colossians 3:23).  But also remember to take time for what is truly important – take care of yourself, stay connected to those you love, and make time to connect with God and with God’s people wherever God leads you in this next chapter of your life.

Advice for those striving to be Christian scholars

/ Brenda Kronemeijer-Heyink / Leave a comment

Nicholas Wolterstorff’s article with advice to those who would be Christian scholars speaks of the inherent challenge of critiquing the university while also loving and embracing it. He starts by speaking of three postures people have in relation to the university:

1. “Some assume that what goes on in the contemporary university is pretty much OK as it is, and they look for ways of supplementing that with some distinctly Christian thought and activity.”

2. “Some believe that what goes on in the contemporary university is pretty much OK. . . they find tension between Christianity as they understand it, and what goes on in the university; so they propose revising Christianity until the tension disappears. Often this takes the form of what I call a “band wagon approach.”

3. Some “Christians, usually outside the university, who are content to lob grenades at the contemporary university. The university, they say, is godless, aggressively secular, reductionist, relativist, liberal, post-modern, captive to political correctness – you name it.”

Wolterstorff recognizes that each of these positions has a part of the truth but is ultimately lacking. He advocates instead for a different way of looking at what it means to be a Christian school, arguing that “the project of being a Christian scholar is the project of thinking with a Christian mind and speaking with a Christian voice within your chosen discipline and within the academy more generally.” I encourage you to read his articulation of what this looks like in practice.

Leaving the church over (bad views of) science?

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America recently published an article about why teens are leaving the church. In that article, Dinges highlights that, according to two recent reports looking at young people’s church relationship to church, one of the reasons young people give for leaving the church is related to science (or reason). Yet, Dinges, points out that it might not be science (or reason) causing young people to leave so much as it is a misunderstanding of reason (and its relationship to faith).

Dinges notes:

A related disaffiliation rationale that both reports suggest is in need of deeper exploration concerns the role of science. Significant numbers of teens indicated that their beliefs were now predicated on “factual evidence.” In one fashion or the other, they attributed their departure from religion to their ideas of what is required by a belief in science. These assertions, like knowledge of the content of their faith, raise the question of scientific literacy: How much do most respondents—especially young ones—actually know and understand about both scientific facts and scientific epistemology? Data on American scientific literacy in general is not encouraging in this regard. Nor is it apparent why Catholicism, a tradition that extols a positive relationship between faith and reason, apparently falls so short here.

Dinges’s question about how well people actually understand science is helpful for encouraging a healthier understanding of the relationship of faith and science. As a pastor, I’d also say that a better understanding of faith and the role of certainty in faith would also be helpful.

the new American dream?

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In talking with young adults about the American dream, it became obvious that the faults in the American dream are more obvious to a generation that isn’t looking to pursue that same dream. The traditional American dream seems to value getting more things (prosperity) and having a better position in life (success and upward social mobility) without taking into account how society does not reward everyone’s hard work equally.

The millennial generation has come to recognize that they will probably not have a better life than their parents: they will probably not be better off, a reality that seems to be reinforced by high student debt and underemployment. The American dream, except for one subsidized by one’s parents, no longer seems possible for many.

Perhaps partly because the dream no longer seems realistic, millennials seem less focused on obtaining more things or trying to obtain upward social mobility. Instead, they seem to reject pursuing stability, recognizing that it is illusive anyways, and choose instead for something else, like experiences. Commitment and stability – key aspects of the American dream – look different now than in previous generations. There is high commitment to ideals and people, but there is limited commitment to institutions (e..g, churches), places, and even a specific jobs.

While most churches do not argue for the prosperity gospel, which one could argue is a Christianized version of the American dream, most churches still thrive on commitment and stability. This new version of the American dream is not something churches have easily adapted to: there is an opportunity for people to have new experiences through high quality worship and service projects, but it’s hard to fulfill the ideals when people’s lives are less stable. Authentic community generally takes time and commitment, and active pursuit of knowledge, while possible to convey through quality sermons, takes conversations in which trust has been built, something which requires a certain level of time and willingness to be vulnerable with each other. In the area of ideals and desires, church and society seems to be clashing, and so it is not surprising that many young adults struggle with finding churches where they belong.

My Own Ivory Tower: Isolation

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By Mike Bennett, 4th year Physics Ph.D. candidate

Isolation is everywhere in academia.  Academics are expected to put in long, lonely hours.  We’re expected to sacrifice friendships, romance, and family life.  We’re expected to produce results and not complain, even at the expense of our own health and sanity.  All for the sake of the next paper or grant or proposal.  Even the most well-adjusted, self-assured, and perfectly relatable human might buckle under the weight of these expectations.

In the midst of all this sacrifice, our relationships begin to fulfill us less than we think they should.  They start to feel clunky or obtuse, like they don’t fit in the new framework that the Academy builds around its inhabitants.  I’ve felt the empty ache of isolation keenly in my three years at Michigan State.  My advisor hates my work. Everyone else in my program is smarter and more capable than I am. My friends back home don’t understand what I do.  My family thinks I’m wasting my life. I can’t take time to date or I’ll lose productivity.  These are just a few of the many, many worries that plague me and grad students like me.

Even in the Church, it’s easy to feel alone and separated.  Well-meaning parishioners begin conversations with “So how long until you graduate? And what kind of research do you do again?” only to interrupt moments later with “Wow, that’s pretty impressive. You must be very smart!” and obvious attempts to exit the conversation.  These pseudo-interactions only fuel the fires of alienation, and even in a body purported to bring healing to the sick, academics can feel miserably quarantined.

Clearly, even being “united” in Christ isn’t enough to quell this spectre of self-doubt.  How can Christians minister to themselves and others who are suffering from the experience of isolation?  What does the Bible itself say about isolation?  Can we gain any insight?

In a recent Campus Edge study, we looked at several passages that dealt with the experience of loneliness.  Among them we read about the prophet Jeremiah, who experiences intense persecution and alienation at the hands of the Israelites.  Jeremiah, though called directly by God to his ministry, is brought by that same God into a deep and anguishing experience of isolation.  We often feel as though being alone or feeling isolated are symptoms of God’s absence or displeasure with us, but it’s darkly encouraging to realize that these can be an important part of God’s call for us, even if doing so doesn’t prevent or even soften the sting.

Further, we do not worship a God who is unable to sympathize with our experience of isolation.  In Gethsemane, Christ himself experiences a complete abandonment; by his disciples, who can not stay awake with him while he prays to the Father for deliverance from his impending crucifixion, and then by the Father himself, whose answer to Jesus’ plea to “take this cup from me,” is a deafening, cavernous “No.” Even as he dies on the cross, in perfect fulfillment of God’s plan of reconciliation, Chris experiences tremendous isolation.

Though we may never be able to completely overcome isolation in academia or in life in general, knowledge that loneliness can be part of God’s plan can help us persevere through our experience of it.  We can additionally take heart knowing that even Christ, through whom “we live and move and have our being,” was not spared the torment of loneliness.  As Henri Nouwen writes, it may be possible with this knowledge to transform our understanding of isolation into something that can point us toward God, who alone can address the underlying problems and bring lasting healing.

The Christian way of life does not take away our loneliness; it protects and cherishes it as a precious gift. Sometimes it seems as if we do everything possible to avoid the painful confrontation with our basic human loneliness, and allow ourselves to be trapped by false gods promising immediate satisfaction and quick relief… The awareness of loneliness might be a gift we must protect and guard, because our loneliness reveals to us an inner emptiness that can be destructive when misunderstood, but filled with promise for him who can tolerate its sweet pain.

Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer