Welcome to the Jesus Corner! Before we get into it, I want to explain what inspired this column and what I hope to do through it. In our Christian school culture, it’s often so easy for us to get caught up in the knowledge of our faith. We’ve all sat in Mr. Tameling’s classes, answered the classic “How does your faith relate to math?” question, and coughed up some textbook answer about what being a follower of Jesus looks like. We are constantly surrounded by the head knowledge of our faith. And that’s a good thing, right?
This model fails when we realize that head knowledge isn’t everything. Knowing about God is only part of our faith journey. We have to work on the relationship part too. If God isn’t transforming our hearts–if we aren’t aiming to become better disciples every day–what does our faith really accomplish? Unfortunately, not much.
Through the Jesus Corner, I want to highlight examples of relationships with our Heavenly Father. I want to remind us that God is powerful, alive, and present in our world today. I want to challenge us to seek Him first and foremost, developing an understanding of God but also a personal connection to our Savior. I want God to make us people of true faith more and more.
Miss Vee and I had a good chat about her faith journey. I wanted to interview her because I know she’s an incredibly relational person: she puts effort into other people and takes care of them. I thought that that relational aspect would also be reflected in her spiritual life, and I was not disappointed.
In elementary school, Miss Vee’s impression of God seemed to be a lot like most of ours. She loved to sing the songs and hear the stories, but she didn’t grasp the whole concept of Jesus’ sacrifice or that God is someone we can love and rely on. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that–as kids we understand things like a kid would. As we grow, however, it’s expected that our relationship with God grows and changes as well.
In middle school and high school, Miss Vee got honest about the shortcomings of her walk with God, and I related to them wholeheartedly. She described her devotions as consistent, but they were executed out of a sense of checking things off the list more than a true desire to know God. As she began to find herself in positions of leadership on sports teams and student government, her faith was more about being an example for other people than for herself. This resonated with me deeply. It’s so easy for me to find myself completing my to-do list of ‘good person’ tasks without really considering how they’re impacting my heart.
The good news is that our faith in high school isn’t going to be how our faith is our whole lives. There’s always room for growth. Miss Vee shared how her dad has grown from intentionally showing up to church late to skip singing to finding a church he loves and going early to be a greeter. God’s not done working with us when our brains stop developing at 25, and he doesn’t just erase us off the list when we fail to be “perfect” Christians. Miss Vee also talked about how she’s grown as a believer in the past few years. Prayer has become a larger part of her walk with God as she learned from her close friend how to pray more boldly and more intentionally than before. Having a base level faith or being in a ‘valley’ of our journey never means we are hopeless or irreconcilably lost. God will always draw us closer to him when we ask and wait on Him.
In a final word of advice to her students, Miss Vee reminded us to seek out the spiritual disciplines that benefit us the most. Other people’s spiritual journeys and personalities will never look the same as ours, so it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to do their devotions and structure their prayer life the same way. We have to seek out the methods that make God the most real and present to us, whether that’s time spent in the morning or prayer throughout the day or a devotion in the evening.
Our relationships with God are always evolving. At the end of the day, we must continue to seek out development in our spiritual lives. There is no point when God gives up on us or says we will never do enough to meet His standards. When we open ourselves to Him, powerful things can happen.
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