The Gospel Moves in Power on Campus

Sharing the Gospel changes us. 

Students sharing the Gospel on campus

About a month ago, Morgan and I gathered three students and partnered with the Asian Christian Fellowship to spend a week sharing the Gospel on the Georgia Tech campus. We used an InterVarsity resource called the "Awesome Proxe Station." It is essentially an interactive survey experience that leads students through a series of personal and spiritual questions and ends with us sharing a four point diagram of the Gospel - the Good News of Jesus.

I can't explain the wondrous mystery of standing before someone that has never heard about Jesus and the way such sweet words, words like honey, flow from my being. Even then, words just barely grasp at the surface of the endless depths of God's love for the world - his love for us. No amount of charisma or narrative ability can ever truly describe the lengths that God has gone for us... no anecdote I share can ever fully make sense of the furious beauty that God has brought to my life, the restoration and healing he has brought to even my most broken places. No description merits the incredible hope we have in what is to come - in the saving and redeeming work of Jesus to send his people out to bring Shalom... to bring his Kingdom here to earth... to bring his just and merciful reign to our world. Such real, lasting hope we have.

I love telling this story. I love sharing how God has changed my life, how he has transformed me and loved me even in my darkest hours. But even then, it is not enough. It requires the tender movement of the Holy Spirit within us to turn our hearts back to the one who loves us and gave all for us.

God meets us in the midst of sharing His story: 

At the same time, I fall short to live into all that God has for me all the time. At the same time, I am utterly hopeless and a ruin without him, and even kept in his redeeming love, I still fail to measure up. I can remember a moment specifically during that week of evangelism that I came face to face with that reality. During one of our days of sharing the proxe, I noticed that a student was sitting across the room from us. He kept looking over as he was eating lunch, his eyes watching us intently. I felt a wave of embarrassment come over me. I remember thinking, "Oh dear. I bet that guy is annoyed that we are here... I bet he is against all spiritual thought and would spend every second arguing about how ridiculous our faith is if he came over." Still, I had a nagging feeling within me, I felt the Holy Spirit asking me to talk to him, and my eyes kept being drawn to him. But ultimately, I didn't want to deal with the inevitable rejection that was to come.

Sharing the Gospel in a prominent part of campus. 

While I was sharing the Gospel with a student, I noticed he had walked over and was talking to Morgan. I let out of a prayer of sympathy that she had to deal with this student. The two of them spent a good bit of time talking together, and I waited for the moment when he would leave and I could counsel Morgan through the difficult conversation she most likely had with him. When he finally left, Morgan walked over with a smile and said: "God is so good."

Immediately taken aback, I asked what she meant.

"Before that student (Connor*) came over I was feeling discouraged, and I had prayed that God would send just one student that actually cared about this. I just wanted one student that wanted to be a part of this."

I felt my insides leap within in me.

"Wait... you mean to say that guy cares about this?"

"Yes! It was amazing! He said he just transferred here. He had been involved in InterVarsity back in New York and was trying to figure out what he believed and how to follow God, but since coming here, he hasn't found a community that would help him. He said he was so excited we were here and wanted to come to our event next Tuesday!"

I felt tears well up behind my eyes. You have got to be kidding me... the whole time I was sitting there... judging Connor - thinking the Gospel would fall deaf on his ears... to think of all the students in that cafeteria, he was the one student I had singled out to be the least receptive to the Good News of Jesus... and yet, in reality, it was Connor that the Holy Spirit was moving powerfully in. To think that this student had been waiting desperately for what we had to offer... for months he had wanted a community that could help him experience and know God... and in my arrogance, in my insecurity - I sealed my heart almost completely against him. I had become the person I thought he was - I was the one with a closed mind to the possibilities of what God could really do in our lives. 

I lamented my own brokeness in that moment and marveled at the goodness of God. God wasn't done with Connor - you see, he did come to our event that next Tuesday. And you know what happened?

Connor gave his life to Jesus. He decided he wanted to follow Jesus for the rest of his life. 

One of our students, sharing the Gospel for the first time.

As I watched him stand in boldness before our community and confidently make this decision, I felt the Holy Spirit move within me again. God is so good, because in my weakness, in the ways I fail to measure up... God remains most strong. He didn't just prove me wrong that day, he proved just how incredible and powerful his Kingdom really is. It became clear to me in that moment that it is God that is at work here... not me. It is God that is pursuing these students, moving in the hearts long before I meet them. It is God that offers real, lasting hope, and it goes beyond any effort we may make at hindering it. He truly is the farmer, recklessly throwing his seed - the news of what he has and is doing in the world - all over the place without judgment or exclusivity. He invites every single student at Georgia Tech to feast at his table. He gives every single one of an invitation, regardless of who we are or what we've done or we believe to be true. 

Sharing his Gospel on campus wasn't just for these students, it was for me. Because I needed to believe again that God is able... that God is present here. I needed to believe that the message of Jesus and the restoration he brings isn't some arbitrary, abstract thing that is happening unseen around the world - but it is happening here. 

The Kingdom of God is coming to Georgia Tech. It is here. 

How thankful I am that God still chooses to use me. How humbled I am made by this journey of following him... how beautiful it is that God sees Connor and knows what he needs and longs for despite what I may perceive of him. How real it became to me that God truly loves Connor, that he would move in his heart and bring him to the cafeteria that day... and that God would put Morgan there to pray for him even when I felt the Holy Spirit asking to pray for him as well and decided it was hopeless without reason. How wonderful that God always has the victory. How incredible that God is continuing to change me and grow me... that he gives me opportunity constantly to grow my faith and trust in him. What a good God. What a good God. 

What a journey this is. How much is yet to come.