Whenever I return from college I forget how much of a bubble Calvin is. Life at a Christian school is not normal life. It may be normal life for those of us who attend because we choose to go to a Christian school for a reason. However, when I return home I remember how much more unique my life at school is.
My college experience has been amazing and life changing, and I wouldn't trade it for the world but it is not typical. It really is amazing to me how being a Christian is so counter cultural. I never really thought of it that way in high school partially because I never read through the gospels in their entirety and partially because I worked hard to fit into the culture of my school.
Yet, I am more aware now how different my life at college is from what my life was like in high school. It is hard to mesh those together, when I am home I tend to slip back into who I was in high school because that is who everyone expects me to be. I mean when I sit back and think about things and have conversations with people it is obvious my ideas and opinions have changed, but I tend to slip into the same habits.
I went to a wedding this past Sunday that was really great. Eric and Alanna are two of the most thoughtful, passionate Christians I know and their wedding reflected that. Yet, it didn't seem to fit in what I feel Jamestown is. Jamestown to me is not a place that I associate with spiritual growth. I think more of maintaining my faith or watching it stagnate. I don't feel moved to action.
What I came to realize is that how I live my life in general is extremely different in Grand Rapids, versus being in Jamestown. In Grand Rapids I am comfortable talking and expressing my faith because the majority of people around me expect it or agree. Whereas, in Jamestown, I feel like I have to be more secular. I have church friends in Jamestown but I am not that close with them. My closer friends generally don't go to church on Sunday. At school, it is almost the complete opposite; it's pretty much assumed that everyone goes to church.
At school I feel like it is easier to live my faith because the majority of my friends are encouraging me to to so. My faith at home was always based much more on guilt of what I am not doing instead of learning and growing. The question that remains is how will my life be different when I am not at school? When I am not at home? When I finally have my own house in the potentially new city I find myself in after I graduate?
No comments:
Post a Comment