These are my notes for what I said at large group. They are addressed to the frosh, but I they will be valuable for the upperclassmen as well.
I’ve decided that the best way to introduce you to CCF is to share some of my testimony, what I’ve learned and how I’ve grown here. Now that I’m a senior, some of you might think of me as being old and wise. I don't think I can claim that yet. But I have learned a few things that I hope will be helpful to you.
I grew up in a Christian home, so I started to learn about Christianity from a very early age. By the time I was about 12, I had outgrown Sunday school, and started to participate in my parents’ Bible study groups. I learned all of the right doctrines, memorized all of the right verses. I knew I was the smartest and most mature person everywhere I went, and I was always eager to show off. Most of the adults that I knew praised me for being a role model Christian kid, and I ate it up.
But despite my outward appearances, I realize now that I was very immature in my understanding. Like the Pharisees, I was doing all the right things to be approved by other people rather than by God. Instead of really loving others, I put on a front of being nice, but I looked down on people who didn’t measure up to the standard that I set for myself.
I had started to realize this and to grow before I came to Caltech. But it wasn’t until I joined CCF that I started to see what fellowship is really about, in three ways. Before I came to Caltech, I had grown up in a conservative church that was fairly diverse ethnically, but theologically was very homogeneous. But here I encountered very different perspectives on all sorts of controversial issues. I first realized this about halfway through my first term at Caltech. I forget exactly how it happened, but at some point I started discussing the creation vs. evolution debate with Sam Elder, and I was surprised to find that he was on the evolution side. Most of the people I knew at my home church who had strong opinions on the topic were six-day creationists, and I had naturally inherited that perspective.
Since then, I’ve encountered different perspectives on all sorts of other controversial issues. On just about any of these issues, you’ll be able to find people in CCF on both sides. My own ideas haven’t really changed, but I have started to realize the value of being more open-minded, and of challenging the things I have been taught. In CCF we hold firmly to the essentials of the Christian faith, but in everything else we allow for questions and debate. For those of you who are not yet Christians, you are also welcome to join us and explore what Christianity is about.
The second way I’ve grown is that I’ve started to let myself have fun once in a while. For some of you, that’s not hard. But I used to think that being mature meant taking everything very seriously. But being in a community where we know that we won’t be judged frees us to be silly sometimes, and even irreverent. I think I first learned this from Maura, so I’m going to quote from a conversation I once had with her. She told me that “doing life right involves both being childish in joyfulness and being old in wisdom.” I’ve learned to embrace my inner five-year-old on occasion. For example, as most of you are probably aware, I’ve become very much attached to my pillow pet, Aslan. I named him based on the Narnia books, obviously, which despite being written for children are still my favorite books ever. I re-read them on occasion when I need to restore my sense of childlike joy.
The third way I’ve grown is that I’ve learned what it means to have a discipleship partner. Before coming to Caltech, I kept my thoughts very much to myself, and I didn’t even have any close friends. But last year Sam Elder offered to disciple me. At first his goal was mostly to train me to take over from him as large group coordinator. But when I started going through a very confusing time in my life, I knew that I could rely on him for advice and support. Since then, I’ve made a number of other close friends as well. I would definitely recommend for each of you, but especially for the frosh, that you find someone to disciple you. It could be a pastor, or it could be one of the upperclassmen, but you should have someone older and wiser that you can depend on.
You should have a good understanding now of what CCF is like, and I hope that we can help you grow as much as I have in the past few years.
