When I was in first year of university, I noticed that some of my friends who had been Christ-followers for years began to have doubts.  These doubts eventually led them to give up their faith completely, and I vowed to never let myself get to that point. 

But one day I was sitting in anthropology class and the professor said, “if you are here and you expect to get the full university experience without giving up everything you have ever believed, you’re fooling yourself.  If you truly want to learn, you must wash the slate clean.”  My immediate reaction was to think, “yes, I want to get the full intellectual experience,” but it was quickly followed by another thought: “am I willing to forget everything I have ever believed for the sake of learning?”  I wrestled with that question for almost half the class, because I truly wanted to learn to the best of my ability but realized they were asking me to ditch my faith for it. 

In the end I made a conscious decision to hold onto my faith in God, and from that point on I wrestled through questions of truth in my philosophy, political science, and anthropology classes with God rather than trying to battle it out alone.

But here’s the thing: faith is a conscious decision.  We either choose to have faith in God, or we choose to have faith in our professors.  We choose to have faith in the Bible, or we choose to have faith in our textbooks.  I’m not saying that nothing academia teaches us is true; I learned so much valuable information about the world through my classes that I believe is true.  But I personally refused to give up my faith in God just because He couldn’t be squeezed into an academic box with a formula.  A God that can be academically proven and explained is too small of a “god” for me.  I’m not interested in serving God is He fits neatly in my brain.

I never regretted that decision I made in anthropology class. I loved university and believe I was able to get a more full experience because of my faith in God.  If you don’t know where you stand on this, I’d encourage you to ask the question: what or who do I choose to have faith in?

Michelle