Category Archives: On Campus

The Thorn In My Hip (3)

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To see part 1, click here.
To see part 2, click here.

After blaming my flat feet, my doctor proceeded in telling me how to fix the problem. I had to buy new shoes and maybe use inserts if I can’t find sneakers with enough support. I was determined to make these changes because I wanted to keep running, and pain-free if possible, so I had to make a few sacrifices. I had to refrain from buying a few things so I can afford the remedial footwear, and I had to reserve some time during my workouts to complete a series of stretches.

Determining to correct a spiritual malfunction is no different. Improvement requires change, time, effort, and sacrifice. Faith is a journey and a process. I hope that we are always moving.

I want to be the best runner I can be, and I’m going to do what it takes to get there even if I have to take a train halfway across town to find a well-matched pair of sneakers, even if it means bringing my own lunch and coffee from home so I can afford the shoes, even if it means doing a few hill sprints after I’m already beat from a long run.

I also want to be the best Christian I can be, even if that means I have to get up earlier by an hour every morning to pray and read the Bible before studying, even if it means swallowing my pride and apologizing for my mistakes, even if it means training myself to hold my tongue before I say something hurtful, even if it means taking a break in a busy schedule to keep in touch with other brothers and sisters and to reach out to those in need of a friend.

Tomorrow and next year, it might mean something else, but always something. Always be doing what you’ve got to do to be the best Christian you can be. Coaches never take excuses for slowing down, and neither should we allow our faith to slow down and be stagnant. We should always be active in moving our faith forward.

What does it mean to you?
“Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Ph 3:12-14)

God will help enhance our efforts. In the end, I went to the running store to buy my sneakers. The salesman helped me find the right shoes and guess what? They are a perfect fit, so I won’t need inserts, and the sale price was half as much as I was expecting to pay. Even in such a little matter, God was helping me out, so I know He’ll be there to help me fight the bigger battles. Strive on.

In Weakness, Strength.

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One can find these words etched into the well-worn stern of the famed Confederate sloop o’ war, the Alabama:

Aide-toi, le ciel t’aidera.

For years, whenever I was asked in class, at church, or in casual conversation what my personal motto was, I would respond with the Alabama’s axiom.

God helps those who help themselves.

And so temptation found me in the subtlest of ways; not through the internet, music, or even girls, but through the sublime power of words. I worshiped the triumph of the individual (or really, John Galt) in Atlas Shrugged, marveled at the Origin of Species, and indulged in humanity’s uncompromising intellect and ingenuity. Yet I still considered myself a Christian.

After all, God helps those who help themselves, right?

Or so I thought, even as I graduated from high school and enrolled in a university thousands of miles from home. Without the familiarity of family and friends I had known my entire life, I struggled to forge an identity on a campus of 6,000 undergraduates and pushed myself to excel academically, only to find my equally ambitious peers pushing back harder. One night shortly before my final exams, I broke down. I had never experienced as much frustration and failure as I did in those first few months at university. And at that moment when I felt weakest, I was inexplicably reminded of a verse from the very book I had ignored for so many years.

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

God taught me more than my professors ever could have in that first year. I experienced heartbreaking failure, that I would have the humility to understand His love. I was made weak, that His power might be made perfect in me.

God helps those who help themselves.

The men of the Alabama fought to the end, until they could help themselves no more. In their strength, they ultimately found weakness; today, the ship is remembered as a symbol of the defeated South.

I write this as a senior in college still slugging through the first semester, with a slew of final exams coming up next week. But no worries – as Paul puts it, That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties.

For when I am weak, then I am strong.

God bless!