No Exemptions
April 1, 2011 by Steve Pogue
Filed under Disappointment, Recent MMMs
John Walkup
Emeritus, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Texas Tech University
[April 4, 2011] —
How should I react when my well-planned academic career is threatened — or overturned?
As a doctoral student at Stanford, I had to appear before two panels of professors to defend my dissertation. After a 20-minute presentation on my major results, one of my examiners whom I did not know well verbally criticized me for “not bringing your results down to my (his) level.” He continued on along this basic track for five minutes.
I had prayed long and hard about staying calm during my orals. Still, I was surprised by such a sense of God’s peace because the panelist’s words of criticism did not emotionally cripple me. My dissertation adviser, always the diplomat, asked his colleague to “give John some constructive suggestions” in view of the fact that I had to appear before a second panel of professors at the end of the hour.
God’s presence
Fortunately, the second panel was very friendly and by God’s grace I passed the exam. Even the hostile examiner voted to pass me. I have never forgotten how keenly I felt God’s presence that day. I am convinced that when we pray fervently for God’s peace, He delivers —though not always by exempting us from life’s harshest times.
I have watched students over the years ask for exemptions, most far from sapient. Yet I am not so sure I am all that different. If I am obedient, won’t God exempt me from some of life’s tougher tests? Don’t I deserve it?
I may not say it that crassly, but sadly, I can still subscribe to that misguided thinking. His ways are not my ways. God does not offer exemptions; He offers His presence.
Their Strong Dependence
As I write this today, I have friends who are:
- dealing with various forms of cancer;
- curtailing their schedules to take care of terminally ill spouses;
- facing salary cuts or layoffs due to state budget cuts;
- working in a poisonous atmosphere because of colleagues hostile to their faith;
- shipping their kids off to Iraq and Afghanistan and praying they will safely return home.
These friends have all testified to me of their strong dependence upon God’s grace, mercy and peace while they daily deal with challenges that dwarf the example I shared from my graduate student days.
I am convinced that if the desire of our hearts not only is to let Christ into our lives, but to give Him control of our lives, we will experience the peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7). Even when life is very, very harsh.
My prayer for myself, and for you, is that such dependence upon God’s peace and protection will truly become a “default state” in the future.
(c) 2011 John Walkup
(c) flickr user SP8254/Patrick Dirden Creative Commons license
Least Likely
March 29, 2010 by Steve Pogue
Filed under Disappointment, Discipleship, Recent MMMs
Eric Jones
Exercise Physiologist
Kinesiology and Health Science
Stephen F. Austin State University
[April 4, 2010]—
How would your friends in high school have described you?
I received a call recently from a high school classmate concerning plans for a reunion. Her phone call started my own walk down memory lane, where I thought about many of the “most likely” awards given way back at graduation:
• Most likely to succeed,
• Most likely to play professional sports, etc.
Then I thought about awards I might have received:
• Most likely to be incarcerated or die early
• Least likely to succeed
After reminiscing for a time, I reminded the caller that, having dropped out of high school for a time, I graduated two years after her and the rest of our class!
College Years
Following high school I worked for several years in industry and construction with little idea of what I aspired to do. Finally going on to college, I took classes in all areas but quickly found my passion in exercise physiology.
But I still had two problems: 1) the past I was running from, and 2) I still had no idea where I wanted my life to go. However, success during undergraduate studies led to several assistantship opportunities for graduate school.
I viewed graduate school as kind of a vacation and jumped in head first, little knowing that God had been planning all these things for quite some time. For at that time I came to know Jesus and His grace, and I found I no longer had to run from my past. This came about largely with the help of my academic and spiritual mentor, Phil Bishop.
He taught me about everything a Ph.D. requires (research, service, etc.) and more importantly how to have a passion for God through prayer, evangelism, and Godly service. Early in my faith, he satisfied my many questions that came with receiving something so new. As I progressed, he showed me how my profession and my confession of faith were not items to be separated. God chose a “least likely”, rather than a “most likely” arena for me and there I came to know Him.
Academy Years
Shortly after accepting my first job as a professor, I felt the desire to follow the example of my mentor and experience Christian fellowship in the academy. However, I thought surely I was the least likely person to put together gatherings for Christian faculty.
My list of reasons were many – I had been here for a short time; I was young; I knew no one; I was not tenured. But my experiences as a “least likely” and the possibility of being a mentor for the next “least likely” were hard to ignore.
God places us where He wills, in spite of ourselves. My mentor’s willingness to live for God’s purposes as he went about his academic career helped lead to my peace in Christ. Hopefully through me there will be many more to come to know that peace.
Have you considered that God may call you to your “least likely” places, and that He can bless you there? I believe He can and will.
© 2010 Eric Jones