Julie

Reflecting on the role that EC has played in my life up until this point, I wish that I had utilized all that community at EC had to offer. I am now able to see this, as one thing that God has been teaching me about this semester is community. I didn’t realize how important the body of believers was until now. It is a gift that God gave us, knowing we would need to encourage each other as we go out into the world and share his word. I think that as a Christian community, EC has so much to offer. But, if I am being honest, I didn’t take advantage of my time going here. EC has great things that other schools cannot offer. Overall, it is a Christian environment, there is a Bible class in place to help you grow in knowledge of your faith, even still, each classroom is a place where God is given the glory. One of the most amazing things is having a God honoring staff that truly cares about you.

Reflecting on my years at EC high school, I think of all those things that are in place here and what did I do with it? I did the worst thing I could have possibly done, and made myself comfortable. Why is that so bad? God doesn’t call us to comfortable. Look at the bible and show me one place where God calls his servants or even asks them to be comfortable. I thought this nice bubble I created was great until I graduated from EC and went to community college.

My first semester there, my history professor told our class that he didn’t believe Jesus existed. At first I was astonished and, frankly I was pretty ticked. Then I just decided that he was ignorant and walked away. Soon enough, though, it began to bother me how a person with a master’s degree in history could believe that Jesus didn’t exist. For the first time I had to clear my head. I had to throw off the Christian cushion and search for truth with as little bias as possible. However, when I did so, something amazing happened. Rather than living comfortably inside the knowledge I had about Jesus, I searched for truth and I found Jesus. It was really tough, but we can’t grow while we remain in our comfort zone. In fact, if we draw near to the Lord he will inevitably take us outside of it.

This grew my faith in so many ways, and also allowed me to defend my faith better. I can’t help but think, though, about what would have happened if I used all the amazing things EC provides. What if I used my time at EC to ask the hard questions and challenge myself and those around me? I guarantee you that day in history class would have been different and as a whole I could have been bolder in my faith in my first years at college. Now as I am surrounded with Christian community both at home and at school through the Christian club there, I have been able to grow in faith and have more courage to defend and share my faith with others.

EC is a great Christian community and I hope that students today take advantage of this. I hope they are encouraged by the faith of those around them and challenge their faith and the faith of others. I hope they travel on their faith journeys along with the staff, and grow alongside them. I want to encourage all students at EC not to make themselves comfortable, but to grow in their faith.