My First Class - Fall 2007

I slip into my first college classroom as quietly as possible, but it’s too late. A black-haired girl I’ve already met turns, smiles and waves at me. I sit next to her. The teacher who has long, curly, black hair and an intelligent air about her watches as the students file into the room.

“Hi,” I say nervously.

“Hey,” she says. “How are you doing?”

I wished she hadn’t asked.

“Good,” I said, hoping she believed me, “You?”

“Good,” she says.

For an awkward moment, we look at each other. Then when nothing else is said, I start rummaging for something in my backpack, and she turns around to talk to the girl on her left side. I can’t remember what I am looking for, so I stop searching.

The classroom is square and has four rows of tables with chairs. I am sitting in the second row. Nice and safe. Not close enough to be a suck-up, but not so far away to have the teacher think badly of me.
The teacher’s cold eyes pass over me, and I squirm in my seat. When the teacher’s eyes move on, I look over my shoulder and see who else is in the room.

A tall, lanky boy with brown-hair points at a thick set student that probably had been a football player in high school. They both crack up with laughter. In the front row, two girls wearing skirts sit and talk quietly. To the left of them, a red-haired boy turns the page in a book. To the left of him, another girl talks boisterously with three girls who listen attentively.

When I look directly to my right, I see a skinny, dimpled chined young man sitting in the chair next to me.
“Hi, I’m Brandon,” I say, extending my hand and managing a meager smile.

“Scott,” he says, smiling.

We talk until I’m suddenly cut off by a loud cough coming from the front of the classroom. I look up and see that the teacher is looking at Scott and me with raised eyebrows. I realize that the rest of the classroom is already quiet and has turned to listen to the teacher.

“Good morning class! I’m Professor . . . Please take one of these. This is your syllabus. It has all the assignments that you will be required to complete,” she says, as she passes out a stack of papers. “First, you will be required to read The Sacred Romance and write an six-page book report. It will be due on the 21st of September, which is only a few weeks away. If you turn it in late . . . ”

She describes how we are required to meet with an accountability partner each week, how we are required to read three books and write papers on each, how each student is to meet weekly with a group to discuss a two-hundred-page workbook that we will complete during the semester, and how there is to be a mid-term and final paper that must be turned in on time. Meanwhile, all the students sink lower and lower in their chairs.
When the class finishes and I file out the door with the rest of the students, I realize that my first class is behind me, and that I only have four more to go. -HSI

Integrity - Do You Have What It Takes? - Spring 2008

Is God in control? About two-thirds of the way through the basketball season, I was practicing with my basketball team when senior co-captain Josh Edwards cried out in pain and fell to the floor. He clutched his ankle, pounded the floor with his fist, and yelled, “Why!” Who could blame him? It was his last season, and he was still recovering from a debilitating shoulder injury and multiple ankle sprains that had kept him from playing most of the season.

When we usually think of integrity, we usually think of it as doing the right thing when we don’t have to do it. We don’t usually apply it to a situation like Josh’s. But integrity encompasses more than just doing the right thing when no one’s around! It also involves knowing that God is in control even when things don’t go our way.

In the Bible when Job’s material possessions are taken away (Job 1:14-17), his sons and daughters are crushed by a collapsing building (1:18-19), and his body is covered by boils from head to foot (2:7), Job holds fast to his integrity and praises God. “Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped. He said . . . ‘The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:20-21 NASB).

For a long time, I was astounded and perplexed by Job’s response. I knew that if I had been stuck in a similar situation, I would lash out. I would blame God for my circumstances. Job’s wife says to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 2:9 italics mine). But listen to Job’s response, “You speak as a foolish woman speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (2:10).

I spent many hours trying to answer the question: how can Job praise God in the midst of such heart-wrenching loss? Didn’t it matter to Job that all ten of his children had been killed, that all his wealth was stolen, and that he had lost his health? Of course it did! It mattered to him deeply! But despite his hurt and pain, he praised God because he cared more about God’s glory than he did his own. We certainly are a depraved, narrow-minded people. How easily we forget that God is in control!

After practice that day, I paid close attention to Josh’s attitude. To my great relief, he didn’t seem bitter towards God. In fact, he had such a speedy recovery that he was able to play in the next game!

Again I ask you, is God in control? Is He in control of ankle sprains, torn ligaments, and shin splints? Is He in control when we lose the championship? Do we have the integrity to uphold our beliefs and praise God in the good times and the bad? Are we willing to say with Job, “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” I pray that even in our human depravity and weakness that we would meditate on God’s sovereignty until He brings us to a point of contentment and trust in all circumstances.