Remember as a kid the fear associated with a storm outside? Especially in the middle of the night when the lightning lit up your bedroom and the thunder shook the entire house? You tried to stay calm but the uncertainty of when the next thunder sounded, or the next lightning strike kept you awake? We always thought we would eventually outgrow the fear of a storm when in reality, storms follow us throughout the course of life--both literally and figuratively. 

Everyone has their own storms they face. And right now, let’s be honest, we are all experiencing the same storm, otherwise known as a pandemic. And without a doubt, this is not your average size storm. Even within this large storm, we each have our own occurring simultaneously. For my family and me, our storm was my cousin Ryan’s rapidly worsening battle with cancer. Ryan was about a year into his fight with cancer when he passed away peacefully on October 30th, 2020. If experiencing his death wasn’t hard enough, this combined with the pandemic, resulted in an unfathomable storm to trek through. Although Ryan was able to properly say goodbye to some close family in hospice care, he was unable to adequately and fully receive love from all of the lives he touched in his 32 years on this earth, which included me. The last time I saw Ryan was late August, which I would have never imagined being the last time hearing his voice. 

When I was at Ryan’s home after attending the funeral, I noticed a framed Bible verse on their table. 

It said: Focus on Me, not the storm. Matthew 14:22-23

In situations when you lose a loved one, it is so easy to question why God would allow this to happen to such a young man and why he had to leave his wife and two beautiful children so early. Similarly, it is easy to question why he is putting the entire world through a pandemic resulting in terrible loss, uncertainty, and isolation. When asking these questions, we are focusing on the storm. However, Jesus calls us to focus on Him even in the midst of the darkest storms. 

At a Dare to Be conference in 2019, Charlotte Gambill preached saying even though God puts us through these storms, God is not only with us in the storm but is at the eye of the storm. What most people don’t know is that the eye of the storm is actually the calmest place to be in a storm. God is a constant, centered love in the middle of any storm we may face.

Now, instead of letting the lightning or thunder keep you up at night like it did when you were a kid, sleep peacefully knowing that God is at the eye of any storm you are currently facing. Don’t focus on everything happening around you, focus on Him.

Morgan Allen, Graduate Student and Member of the Women’s Basketball Team at IUPUI

Matthew 4:4 “Jesus answered, “It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.‘“ I can still remember the day the Lord told me IUPUI was the exact place He wanted me to spend the next few years of my life. In all my unnecessary restlessness about making the “right” decision on where I was going to college, I was overcome by the peace of Christ once I regularly made it a habit to sit quietly and fully take advantage of the guidance that our Heavenly Father so generously gives us. I was able to wholeheartedly commit to IUPUI and make the decision to continue God’s will for my life.

I naïvely thought that college was a big enough change for my life, but God threw a curveball. My dad got a new job and God began changing our ordinary. My family and I started understanding that God was about to change most aspects of our lives, including where we lived. I spent the summer halfway denying the fact that God would call us to move out of the house my two sisters and I had grown up in for the past 15 years and reluctantly began packing each room. I was packing boxes marked ‘storage unit’ and boxes marked ‘college’. It was not what I thought my summer before my first year at college would look like.  Our house sold very quickly which forced my parents and my younger sister to move in with my grandparents until they either found or built a house to live in. At the beginning of August, I moved out of my childhood house and moved to Indianapolis, a new city where I knew no one. People always say college is a time to completely start over, and I realized my life at that very moment was a perfect example of that.

The first week of school was a rollercoaster. I had to deal with the emotions of not being able to go back to my home and being hours from my family as I tried to process everything. I was surrounded by strangers and had to learn my way around campus. It was the middle of the week and I decided to search for some Christian organizations on campus. That is when I found Impact. Genesis 2:18 says “Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” During high school, I was extremely involved in my church’s youth group and I made it a priority to attend every event I could, lead and participate in numerous bible studies, and invest in relationships with fellow believers. I knew I needed and wanted to be able to have the same community in college. I blindly joined a Life Group and began the journey of meeting people and putting in the effort that comes along with being vulnerable with a group of strangers. I also started attending different churches around the Indianapolis area every Sunday by myself in hopes of finding yet another steady community like Impact.

Things with my family got even crazier as the year went on. We initially thought we would only have to move locally, but we received the news that my dad’s new job would force us to move to Illinois. We definitely saw God working through the chaos, but it was still intensely difficult not to become anxious about how long it was taking us to clearly see God’s plan. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” I reminded myself that a lamp doesn’t illuminate miles ahead of my feet. God sometimes only allows me to see a few feet of what is in front of me. My family began our long search for a house in Illinois and my dad began traveling to California each week to complete projects there before making the final move to Illinois.

At some points throughout the year, I got so overwhelmed with all of the change that was happening back home, all of the adjustments that came with being on my own, and the fact that I needed to perform well academically, that I got very ill.  I began realizing that many times during my nightly devotions, God would point me to verses that spoke a lot about steady foundations. Throughout the whole year, God was shaking the parts of my life that weren’t necessarily that important. He was showing me that the worldly things around me, like my childhood house, had no comparison to the things He holds dear to His heart. He kept reminding me that things like building relationships that push me closer to Him, giving my time to people who really needed someone to listen to them (even if I had hours of studying ahead of me or just received a tough phone call from my parents), and striving to continue to build my relationship with Him would bring me more joy and understanding than the things of this world.

School was relentless and the changes in my life continued. My great grandmother, who I was very close to, passed away, some of the relationships in my life were ending because of disloyalty, I struggled with some health conditions, and other extremely difficult situations my family was placed in. For months, my answer to almost any question was “I don’t know.” As I was struggling with not having answers, I was listening to a sermon and the pastor said “If you have all the answers, you probably have a wisdom deficiency.” I laughed to myself and realized that God was calling me to a place of humility and wanted me to stop constantly searching for answers. In Exodus 14, Moses comforted the Israelites by saying, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.” I began making it a habit of stopping throughout my crazy day and simply being still.

At the beginning of May, my family finally found a house in Illinois and we are currently in the process of moving into it in a few weeks.  God pulled me from my comfort zone back in August and I can’t say I’ve been back. I can’t help but be grateful for this year of immense growth. Being a part of Impact, gave me a way to gain wisdom and guidance from God. Whether it was the Holy Spirit speaking to me through the songs during Impact Nights of Worship or God speaking through members of my life group, I never doubted that God’s hand was guiding me through the storm.  

Even though I could have easily retreated into a place of loneliness, I told myself I had to put an effort into relationships. I had to knock down my fear of being vulnerable and admit I needed people around me. I was climbing what felt like a never-ending mountain, but I could feel myself growing closer and closer to my Heavenly Father. I challenge you to intentionally build relationships even when it’s hard. Deliberately carve out time in your day to simply sit in the presence of God. Put all your hope in God even when the road is bumpy. I would never change any part of my journey to IUPUI and I will never forget the lessons God has taught me. I am excited to see where God takes me as I continue glorying Him with everything in me.

- Sydney Stevens, Student in Impact at IUPUI

College has always been a time of change. You graduate high school feeling on top of the world and then all of a sudden you are thrust back into unknown, unfamiliar territory. For some, this transition is overwhelming and can induce a downward spiral. For others, it is the perfect opportunity to grow in God’s image. While the choice seems obvious, it is often not. For me, college proved to be an unlikely time to find my faith.

October 23, 2017 is a day I will forever remember. I sat in the crowd at West Park Christian Church listening to one of Andrew’s sermons just like I do every month. However, this day was different. I watched as my peers took their own leap of faith and got baptized and tears streamed down my face. For years, I had yearned for the sense of belonging, for true unforgiving love. For even longer, I ignored the call of God. But on this night, I decided once and for all that I wanted more. I wanted to be just like them.

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and all who are far off- for all whom the Lord our God will call. - Acts 2: 38-39

But my journey with faith did not start here. In fact it started many many years ago. Like many of you, my journey with faith technically began as a kid. Every Sunday, my mom dressed my brothers and I in our Sunday best and we headed off to Sunday School and service. However when I was growing up, faith was a difficult concept for me to grasp. Although I sat in church for years, I was only there because mom dragged me out of bed. I definitely did not lead a Christian lifestyle, nor did I really even know what it meant to be a Christian. There were times when I yearned for something more and would attempt to turn to God, but it never quite stuck for me.

In high school, I really hit rock bottom. On the outside, I had it all together. I was the salutatorian and an active member of the student body, but on the inside I was crying out for help. I went to a school where the halls were filled with thousands of people, but I had never felt more alone in my life. I tried to fill the void with anything and everything. But as you can imagine, this life of sin only further distanced me from happiness. As Zack Inman would say, the hole in my heart was God sized, I just didn’t know it yet.

Create in me a clean heart. O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. - Psalm 51:10

I came to college with the same mentality. Months went by and nothing changed. However, I branched outside of my comfort zone and started talking to new people and attempting to establish genuine friendships. Lucky for me, it just so happens that everyone new I met happened to be a Christian. As I spent time with them, I couldn’t help but notice that something was so vastly different about them. I could see that they were genuinely happy, upbeat people, and I knew that I wanted to be surrounded by this positive energy. After long and careful consideration, I finally came to the conclusion that they were all different because of Christ’s light within them. I knew that I wanted to be more like them. At the time, it didn’t feel possible to make the change because I was so lost that there was no way I could ever find my way back. Instead of trying to find my way, I became lost in a new way, lost in Him.

Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. - 2 Timothy 2:22

Eventually, I went to my first Impact night of worship, more or less I was dragged by my new friends like I used to be dragged to Sunday school by my mom. However, that night the message was about wanting to know God and ever since then I’ve been at every night of worship. Impact ignited in me a fire to serve the Lord. This semester I joined a life group and have really enjoyed growing with the same people who inspired me to do so in the first place. I have never felt more loved and more accepted by a group of people in my life.

I found faith at an unlikely time, in an unlikely place, in unlikely people. I used to think that God would call out to me in some grand way. I used to think the only way he’d get His word to me was by sending me a message I could not ignore. Instead I have found that God does not always give us blatant messages, instead he gives us each other.

On December 2nd, 2017, I took my own leap of faith and was baptized. This was just an outward proclamation of a change that has already happened in my heart.

For the first time in my life, I’m in. All in. And I’m never looking back.

Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.

So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely a human point of view. How differently we know him now!

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! - 2 Corinthians 5: 14b-17

Liz Drummond, Student in Impact

I came home from my first day of college, my head throbbing with ache and my mind whirling as it tried to process the new environment I was diving into headfirst.

What I had been aware of for years and had been told time and time again was finally sinking in and becoming concrete reality. You’ve probably heard it, too: being a Christian in a secular school is not easy.   

I was well aware that there would be challenges going into school at IUPUI. I had received many warnings that my faith would be tested and that I would have to stand strong. I thought I was ready -- I have a strong relationship with my church family, I currently live at home with my immediate family there for support and I had made a point of looking into Christian organizations at IUPUI.

However, I was in for culture shock. I am still trying to adjust to this new stage of life, which is especially hard coming from a Christian homeschool environment. I praise the Lord that His Spirit resides in me and is sensitive to the false worldviews and the sin surrounding me. His Spirit keeps me alert and not tempted to conform to some of the harsh realities in the world. However, being the sinful human that I am, my initial reaction is to be angry and discouraged by what I see and hear from unbelievers, rather than hurt for their lost hearts and engage with them in order to further the gospel.

No matter the case, we could so easily be living in sin just like those we encounter each and every day; and in fact, prior to being saved, we were!  Ephesians 2:1-3 says,

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience -- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

The only difference between those around us and the sin in which they live and the marked joy and love we have as Christ-followers is God’s Grace, not anything we could ever do: 

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -- by grace you have been saved -- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:4-9).

Therefore, rather than disengaging and running away from the worldliness around us or conforming to it, we should aim to share this everlasting joy with others so that they can experience the freedom and forgiveness available to them in Christ’s atoning sacrifice!

So as I continue to journey through this new stage of life and trust God to make me more like Him in the process (Romans 8:28-29), I can have confidence in knowing that He always has and always will continue to provide me with the people, strength, and confidence I need to grow in my faith and share the gospel with others.

Praise God for providing brothers and sisters in Christ through the local churches and through organizations like Impact with whom I can live a glorious life with. We all strive to set an example to the world of what the gospel can do, so let’s do it together!

“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” (Acts 20:24)

Rachel Winkler, IUPUI Freshman

I vividly remember it; waking up to the first day without school. I had just finished my sophomore year of high school and I had big goals for my summer. A stack of books beside my bed represented my academic aspirations, the jump rope and chin-up bar showed my desire to earn the starting power forward spot and the phone was my key to endless hours of fun with friends. It was going to be an AMAZING summer.

95 days later I woke up to a blaring alarm which loudly proclaimed summer was over and school had started again. My stack of great literature and poetry lay by my bed relatively untouched. The jump rope and chin-up bar had seen small amounts of use. The plans with friends had failed to take into account the fact that I had no car or license. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great summer. I got to sleep in, eat great food, play lots of games, enjoy vacations, got the starting position and spent some time with friends. Yet, it was not as epic as it could have been.

Now why am I telling you this story of my sophomore summer? Because far too often I find myself daily replaying this story in my spiritual walk. It has great moments where God reveals His character to me. Times when I step out in faith and those early morning prayer times where His presence is so real. And yet, it also has a lot of unread moments, chin-up bars which didn’t seem worth the effort and wasted opportunities for connection.

For years 2 Corinthians 5 has been a central passage in my life and recently it has become a vision and a prayer for how I want to live my life. Verse 14 starts out, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

How cool is that?! Imagine living in such a way that the love of Christ literally CONTROLS me to no longer live for myself but for others? I can imagine the true freedom, hope, and security which comes with a life so radically and daily transformed by Christ.

Paul continues in verse 17, “ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[b] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling[c] the world to himself.”

Paul is telling the church that Christ’s love should control them to live for others so that in God and through God they might become a new creation. This is God’s vision for everyone who proclaims the name of Christ! It is a beautiful picture of growth.

I am a firm believer that mere humans do not have the power to mess up God’s plan of our lives. However, the decisions and actions we make every day certainly have the ability to hinder us from experiencing the full beauty of the story God is weaving through our lives.

In reading this passage I began to realize that I had been spiritually treading water. Or as Paul describes it, finding nourishment in milk when I should be moving on to the meat.

But this is where it got difficult. It is one thing to have a vision and a totally different thing to do something about it. I have a very real vision of dunking on all my friends and yet the reality of jump rope is a very different story. This is where motivation comes into play.

Motivation is the word of my summer. It has the idea of drive or purpose. It is the propeller which pushes someone forward.

So, what is the motivation to follow after God’s story with reckless abandon?

LOVE.

Take a look back at the 2 Corinthians passage, “For the love of Christ controls us.” Now substitute the word 'control' with 'motivates', “for the love of Christ motivates us.” Christians should be so in love with Christ and God that the mere thought of missing out on one iota of the beauty of God’s amazing story and settle for a good story motivates them to continue transforming into a new creation.

I gain this kind of love by gazing in wonder at a sunset, conversing deeper with people about life, choosing to smile instead of grumble at the early mornings, hearing the deep laughter of friendship, worshipping in church, reading the Word, and most of all, when considering Christ ultimate sacrifice, to redeem my worthless brokenness.

It’s not easy and I can’t say I do it perfectly or even well. However, it is my prayer that Christ’s love would motivate me to pursue transformation in such a way that people would describe me like King David was once described, “Behold David the son of Jesses is a man of valor, a man of (strength), prudent in speech and a man of good presence, and the Lord is (clearly) with him.” - 1 Samuel 16:18

Ryan Fraser, Impact at IUPUI VP of Fellowship

As we were going through James 2: 14-26, we talked a lot about faith and good deeds. This topic comes up a lot across all denominations and faiths. It is what often times differentiates us into these subgroups that typically keep us all divided. Some groups believe that, in order to get into Heaven, you have to act out the part. Others believe that all you need is faith and belief in Jesus Christ. In this passage, we see that both are required pieces to the puzzle. With this information, the question goes from “Do good deeds save?” to “How do good deeds and my faith intertwine?”  Now, I want to focus on that last verse- “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:26, NIV).

I’m going to get a little science-y and medical here, so bear with me. In some translations, the word used is breath or air instead of spirit. To keep up with this analogy, we have to understand how the body and air go together. Yes, we all know that we need air to live, but there is something more than that. Oxygen is used by the body to perform every single thing including cell respiration, thinking, and movement. In other words, air propels the body to move forward.

Quality of life (in healthcare) is the satisfaction that a person gets from how they are living in their present circumstances. Since air is what makes the body move and work, it is also responsible for how well we can live our lives. Impaired oxygenation and perfusion (getting air to the rest of the body), such as COPD or heart failure, is survivable, but it alters the quality of life the person has. I promise, I am going somewhere with this.

Now back to the new question posed at the beginning. The answer lies within all of this medical, science-y soup. We were taught in grade school English about comparisons (this is to this as that is to that), which is exactly what we see in this verse. The body is equivalent to faith and air is equivalent to deeds. Following this logic, faith needs deeds to propel it forward, just as the body needs air to do the same. The quality of faith can be seen through the deeds that we do. Without the deeds, we have an altered quality of faith.

What do we do with this information? How does this change how we live our lives? After having this revelation in Life Group, I came to the realization that I personally needed to change my outlook on life and my actions. I challenge you to stop thinking of how good deeds can get you into Heaven, and start thinking of how they can better your faith and your relationship with God. As an added bonus, try living out your faith and see just how much of a difference it makes in your everyday life.

All the best,

Candice Elkins, Member of Impact at IUPUI

P.S. Don’t get disappointed when things don’t immediately change. These things take time and effort, and we are imperfect beings. Remember, you are not alone in this and with God all things are possible.

Growing up playing sports, I got used to hearing the word “focus.” I think for many people it’s very easy to focus on the physical things in life that are in the “here and now.” How do we focus on the spiritual things though? How do we stay focused on the eternal things in life? I know in this summer season it can be very difficult to stay focused on Jesus. Between summer jobs, internships, summer classes, (even family!) it can feel like we don’t have any time to do anything else. We have to focus on making Jesus a priority in our lives this summer. 

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the word “focus” is “mentality.” My mind is what helps control my focus. Colossians 3:2 says:

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” 

Let’s think about the first word in that verse; “set.” The connotation of that word brings precedence to this verse that we are to purposefully make it a priority to set or “focus” our minds on Jesus.  It’s not something that just automatically happens. Sometimes you might have to set your alarm clock to wake up 15 minutes earlier, so you can spend 15 extra minutes with Him before you go to work. Sometimes you might just start praying in the middle of class or wherever you’re at. To stay focused, we’re going to have to start doing things intentionally! 

I think a lot of times our problem with staying focused lies with where our heart is. I’ve struggled with the thought of this many times, but too many times we get caught up with the treasures of this world (Luke 12:34). I mean, that’s the whole reason we go to college right? To get a job, make money, buy a car, and get a dog? Please don’t misunderstand me, those are not bad things. I just believe that God has so much more for our lives than living a materialistic lifestyle. Why would we want to live up to the status quo/standards of a society that rebukes and denies the very existence of our savior? At this point you’re probably wondering, “What does this have to do with staying focused on Jesus this summer?” I’m glad you asked. Matthew 6:33 says:

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

In all the chaos, and in all the hoopla of summer, we have to seek first the things that God has for us, and everything else will fall into place as God would have it (which might not always be necessarily how we want it). This includes summer jobs, summer classes, internships, etc. Again when he uses the word “seek”; that’s something we have to do intentionally. I’ve never met someone who accidentally searched for something. Then he uses the word “first.” This implies that it should be the number one item on our priority list. Think about it. He could have just said “Seek me and all these things will be added to you,” but he said “Seek first.” By purposefully adding the word first, it implies that this should be our numero uno priority. The two main things to think about when it comes to staying focused this summer is “intentionality” and “priority.” Are we intentionally making time for Jesus because he’s our number one priority?  I know for me personally this question hits like a skillet to the face because it’s a serious reality check. Keep in mind; your priorities typically lie where your heart does. 

Being an engineering student, physics is my favorite subject. One of my favorite topics in physics is momentum. I love riding roller coasters, and momentum plays a key role in the process of how roller coasters work.  Typically you see the biggest hill on a coaster at the beginning of the ride. That’s because once the cart gets over that first hill, the momentum that you gain as gravity pulls you down the hill will carry you the rest of the ride. Think of this summer as a spiritual hill. It’s not always easy getting up the hill, and sometimes you need help from some chains to pull you up. Once we’re over the hill, it can give us the momentum to carry us into and through the fall semester. 

Let me leave you with this. Sharks have to constantly move forward in order to breathe and stay alive. Even while they sleep, they are moving forward. If they stop moving, or even move backwards, they will stop breathing and die. We have to keep moving forward like the sharks, and not be still in our faith or even look back (Proverbs 4:25). This requires us to stay focused!

Be Blessed!

John Sidwell, Student Leader for Impact Christian Fellowship at IUPUI

Freshman year in college is incredibly challenging. New faces. New buildings. New routine. The transition can be difficult for some to overcome because the new obstacles push people out of their comfort zones. It can be a scary time. I can attest to that as can many others. College is the time where you really learn about yourself and how you interpret certain situations when they are thrown at you. A lack of confidence and belief in oneself can begin to shake when failure occurs. No one likes to fail. The most important thing to have though is everlasting and constant faith.

I will be fully honest; I am a fairly new follower of Jesus Christ, as I was not raised to believe a specific way. My mother was raised as a Christian so I do understand the basics of Christianity but other than that I’m still learning. And I am learning a lot especially being in the Impact Christian Fellowship at IUPUI worship nights and in the Bible study group every Tuesday morning with Andrew. It is something that is continually opening up my heart, mind and soul too and the people in it make the experience so much more enjoyable. So with that little background about me, I thought I’d share a little story about my journey so far at IUPUI.

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see” Hebrews 11:1

When I first arrived on campus over the summer I knew I was going to tested. But boy, I did not realize how much my body and mind would be put to the test. Coming in the summer and leaving my close friends and family behind was extremely difficult. Three hours away from home sounded good before I left but I told myself when I committed to this school that I wanted something different. The city would definitely be different. Since no one was on campus yet, I got to know my teammates more through each day of being together and through our weight trainings, conditionings, and open gyms. As a determined freshman, I wanted to prove myself in anyway I possibly could. Things seemed to be working out well until an injury happened. Being raised to just power through and “suck it up”, I played through the injury and thought it would pass. I was very wrong. My decision only made it worse.

A couple weeks into dealing with it I went to the doctors. Achilles Tendonitis they told me. An extreme case. No one ever wants to hear this.  A million thoughts started running through my head at once. How long will I be out? What can I do to speed up my recovery? I’m going to gain weight if I don’t workout, what will I do? What will me teammates and coaches think of me? The list goes on. I’ve never dealt with an injury like this before and I didn’t know how to handle it.

To go along with this, the transition from high school workload to college workload was heavily different. I was in the top of my high school class and excelled at doing my work but what I lacked in understanding was how to study. I had to learn quickly if I wished to be a great student-athlete I wanted to be. So now with the injury, my mental stability took a major hit. I did not know what to do and felt so lost and confused on why this happened. I just wanted to prove myself and gain respect from my coaches, teammates, peers and professors and I felt like my chance was being taken away from me.

My confidence was waning greatly. My energy was falling behind. My attitude turned from positive and cheerful to quiet and negative. I just felt like falling apart. I can’t say it was one dawning moment one day where it hit me and I though “Oh I can do this”, but it was a series of events that led up to me following God and his path destined for me. I believed, after talking with some family and close friends, that He was challenging me with something I’ve never experienced before but He knew I would be able to grow stronger from it. I gave into His word to help me build up from were I was. Others who followed Him deeply, gave me words of wisdom and courage to believe in Him and what He has in store for me. To never lose faith because once you lose faith in him, you will never be able to come back to yourself.

I took this to heart and this is when I really wanted to start learning about God and the glorious power He has. I never really understood before what Christian life was like and I’m still learning more today. But I do know that I would not be the same person I am today if I did not fall into His grace. I found strength within Him and found it within myself. I learned my role as a basketball player for my team this season. I may not be the go-to player right now, I may not be the best rebounder right now, but I can be the loudest supporter for the ones who do play. I can be the advice giver when someone desperately needs it. I can be there for anyone who wants to put up extra shots. I can be someone who puts in extra work to get back into the game I love. I fought back and my questions about myself soon disappeared. The smallest things can become the biggest impacts. He taught me a lot about myself and about Him.

Sometimes in life when things don’t go your way or when they seem like everything is falling apart, I say to you, always have faith in Him. For he will guide you with His glory and His word. He wants to challenge you. And from within those challenges you cannot see, He wants you to grow and find something better.

Think about the times you’ve spent countless hours studying for an exam and you sleep through your alarm. You are rushing to your class and your car doesn’t start or run into someone and your drink spills all over you. Think about a time you were just having a normal day and you get a phone call that makes your heart and stomach drop. Think about a time you prepared so long and hard for an interview you really wanted and they ended up not wanting you. You think to yourself why is this happening to me? I prepared. I worked hard. What did I do wrong? Well I say, change your perspective. You may have thought these ways or choices were the best for you but God has different plans. He wants you to learn and grow from decisions you make. So for the exam, He wanted you to rest and maybe take the bus to class so you could meet someone new. For the phone call, He wants you to find strength in Him and look to Him when things seem so confusing. For the interview, He wants you to accept failure in one area and then grow from that and find success in something you may have never imagined.

He works in wondrous ways. I was starting to play more towards the end of the season. My confidence started to come back and I learned a lot about how strong I was through it all. I’m still learning each day in our Bible study group and through the word of God in the Bible. Although I may not be a true Christian at heart, I have faith in God that he will show me his ways each day so I can continue to share them with others. He helped me in more than just basketball this season but in myself as a person and I am forever grateful of Him and his glory.

Allex Brown, IUPUI Lady Jags Basketball Freshman/Member of Impact Christian Fellowhsip

The average nuclear missile contains approximately 15 megatons of nuclear material. If one “average” nuclear bomb hit downtown Indianapolis (which is not completely unlikely, see [1]), the majority of everything inside of the I-465 ring and slightly past that would be heavily damaged if not utterly leveled. If you go to school at IUPUI and your family is around a 10-15 minute drive from campus, you and most likely your family will die from the blast itself or the effects of radiation poisoning. In an instant, everything your life ever was and everything it was going to be doesn’t matter anymore. I apologize for the morbid tone, but it is a fact that you live with whether you recognize it or not. Maybe your mortality isn’t real enough for you yet, let me throw another scenario at you.  On the average college commuter’s day, he/she travels (via car or walking) from home to school in about 10-30 minutes liberally, eats some sort of unhealthy lunch or dinner, and probably doesn’t wash their hands every 3 hours. By living this sort of lifestyle you expose yourself to a lot of risk. The risk statistically is this: the chance of dying in a car wreck is 1/100; chance of dying by getting hit by a car is 1/36; the chance of dying by eating chick-fil-a everyday is 1/5 for heart disease and for a stroke is 1/23. [2] Now understand that these are national averages, and vary base on location and a lot of other environmental and individual factors, but I know of a young teenager that was just diagnosed with cancer for the second time, the likelihood of him getting cancer was 1/285 the first time. [3]

Obviously, normal people don’t live in fear of death everyday. We push through and pretend that death will happen when we are old and grey, which isn’t unlikely for a lot of people, but it makes us comfortable, it makes us quit questioning what’s beyond death. We leave the deep, eternally relevant questions for scholars and teachers to tell us about while we live for the weekend and the moment. I was one of them. I lived for the weekend, I took what I was told by people above me as truth and never questioned. With a lukewarm mentality of accepting whatever I was told, I walked into church, greeted people, and prayed for God to give me the strength to push through the problems of the immediate. I wasn’t a hypocrite, I tried my best to read and pray everyday, but it turned into once a week by habit, and at times once a month. How did it get to this? Lets take a quick overview of my history.

I grew up in a middle class Christian family from Anderson, Indiana. My parents took me to church every Sunday and I even went to a Christian private school from third grade to ninth grade, my dad was even a pastor at my church. As a high school sophomore, I attended my first public school and got myself into trouble.  It carried over into my junior year and part of senior year. However, God got ahold of me my high school senior winter. I changed my life style, and my attitude and gave God my whole mind and heart. Fast forward to college, freshmen year, and my first college biology class. Evolution and secular thinking run unchecked and unchallenged, and for once I take it into consideration. I spoke to my father about it, but never seriously confessed my struggles with secular thought and Christian truths. Sophomore year, second semester, a new set of classes and a new set of challenges. Particularly, a new class was an outlier of the normal set of science classes: comparative religions.

In comparative religions I expected scenes from the movie “Gods Not Dead” to be relived. I prepared for blatant atheism and one-sided arguments. Instead, the instructor came off reasonable and rational. Likeable and levelheaded are the first adjectives that came to mind when meeting the instructor. His lessons came off as unbiased and evenly argued from a social and historical perspective. The class, in summary, compares all the major religions of the world to one another while informing students of each religion’s general information.  My lack of base from freshmen year left me without the truth I needed to be ready for the lectures I was experiencing. Weeks pass, and I found myself questioning the religion I had always believed in, and grown up believing. The truth, in my mind, had disappeared and I was beginning to fall sway to secular reasoning. My sinful nature kicked in and laziness took hold of what I believed. For a small amount of time, I was a stereotypical millennial, only living for the weekend, and pushing aside the questions that were relative to eternity, because why question something that you aren’t for sure is even real? 

I brought my questions to my Bible study group and a lot of people came and supported me. They wrote multiple short papers and blogs on why the Bible and Christianity are different. God brought me the evidence, but my laziness and sinful nature looked past it and took it for granted. I presumed I knew everything there was to know about what Christianity is and what God is. Remember, I grew up in a Christian home. This class was telling me that Christianity was just like every other religion. Nothing was different about my God. Everything about my religion only relates to the devices of man, and whatever men want from it is only for their social, political, or economic gain. 

God was sick and tired of my fence riding, and one day it hit me like a disease, the feeling of being alone. My father came down to console me, and answer my immediate questions, however it became increasingly clearer for me to make an eternal choice rather than examining evidence, no more fence riding.  You either make a step of faith for God, or you choose to go the way of self and sin. I was presented with evidence for faith in Christ, but a combination of doubt and laziness shaded my eyes from recognizing the choice at hand. My heart had to make a decision; because reason and logic would not find the answers it was looking for in this life. 

I made the decision for Christ based on the soul reason of him giving me hope to live and for giving me something to live for. However, everyday college kids just like me don’t care about these questions, often because the answers make them accountable for an eternal decision. Little do many of them recognize is that being on the fence is a decision. Doubt is a choice, because doubt  ignoring the truths and evidence that is in the world for us to examine, also its ignoring God’s role in our lives today. God wants everyone to make an eternal decision. God is real to the people that reach out and ask for the truth to become prevalent in their life. The individuals that truly search and hunt after the real truth of the world find their answers. While others that scoff and throw doubt are the ones that choose themselves as well as the broad road.  

You don’t have to live in fear as a Christian, not because you choose to be ignorant of the fact you could possibly die before you are “ripe and old”, but because God has you in his hand and his plan exceeds yours. God is real in the world when you look for him, and he gives you hope that your life has more meaning than self pleasure followed by death. I hope this blog was not interpreted as a call to salvation (fire and brimstone kind of preaching), but rather a call to get off the fence. 

 Joseph Rodriguez, Student in Impact at IUPUI, IUPUI ROTC

Sources

[1] https://heavenawaits.wordpress.com/top-american-cities-to-be-nuked/

[2] http://www.livescience.com/3780-odds-dying.html

[3] http://www.acco.org/about-childhood-cancer/diagnosis/childhood-cancer-statistics/