Ihave to admit, I love college. It’s the bomb.edu. These three-going-on-four years have been the most interesting of my life. The word interesting covers a broad range of events: a trip to Zambia, spending far too much time at one of Searcy’s three Sonics, accountability groups with some of my closest friends and slip-n-slides in front of the GAC after a rainy day. I have had the opportunity to experience and grow so much. There is hardly a better time for growth, and that growth is largely due to the fact that, in college, we are on our own.
When you first arrive at college, you finally feel the separation you’ve always longed for. You no longer have somebody telling you to clean your room; demanding you go to class; enforcing curfew — oh, wait; demanding you go to church; dictating your life. You have the freedom to make as good or as bad of choices as your heart desires. And the consequences naturally follow. With all of this freedom, it often seems as though college is the time of revolution and we have finally achieved separation from all the dictators of our past, perhaps even God.
However, how do we know that this independence is not just an illusion, as our “liberation” was in the Garden of Eden? Have we not just transferred our allegiance from one master to another? This year the Student Association hopes and aims to show the worth of dependence upon the only one who can sustain us — as the first part of Acts 17:28 says, “In him we live and move and have our being.” In depending upon the Lord, we learn to depend upon each other in our community. Rather than turning to things that will never support us, we must learn to depend on each other and on God. We are dependent creatures, so let us depend on what is good.
I want to leave you with a challenge: find someone you can depend on. That person needs to be older and wiser than you. I know it is sometimes weird to be friends with “adults,” and that some of us do it better than others, but it is critical to have concrete role models and mentors who have gone before us, facing the same trials of life and ending up on God’s team. The Harding staff is a great place to start. All of them are dedicated both to Christ and to loving you. Start there and see if you do not come away unchanged by relationship.
Everyone has the opportunity to become involved in the SA this year, and if you would like more information, contact me at phabegg1@harding.edu or SA secretary Chelsea Bradley at cbradle3@harding.edu.
