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Welcome to the Truth Lab: Bookbag
Doc Leland introduces the Truth Lab and describes the burden of ideological diversity on campus.
Welcome!
Welcome to the Truth Lab — a place to knock around some ideas about Truth. Some of the issues we discuss will be lighter lifting than others, but most of all, as your "lab instructor," I hope you will be honest and authentic about putting these questions — as we put ideas — to the test. Maybe you just need permission to ask the tough questions. It's OK here … you're on the roster with many others.
The Load
A few semesters ago, a student of mine knocked tentatively on my office door.
"Can we talk?"
"Sure," I said. "Come on in and sit down."
His steps were slow and deliberate as he walked over to take a seat. With a great sigh he lowered his backpack; it hit the floor with a thud. Then he sunk in the chair and unloaded his heart.
"I thought I believed in God ... I mean, I've gone to church, since ... well ... forever, but I don't know if I really know God or not."
After further conversation, he unloaded even more doubt and questions about what it meant to believe in God in today's world. Thousands of abortions a day, global terrorism, a war on the other side of the world, not to mention the darts and arrows that challenge each of us everyday. Buddies of his were pressuring him to "hook up." He looked around and saw his parents struggling, and an older sister divorced after six months of marriage. The weight of his bookbag was not even close to the weight he was carrying inside.
Just Like You
Ryan (not his real name) was typical of the students that walk the hallways of colleges and universities every year. They are just like you and others that have found their way into the Truth Lab.
Ryan had been battered around by the world, and his faith had been put to the test. In the midst of the daily battles, he was desperately trying to find out what it means to be a Christian in 21st century America. He heard from his church a nostalgia that talked about how much easier it was in the "good ol' days." From the professors at his secular university he heard about the diminished role of Truth and a constant reinforcement of "my truth" and "your truth." In that context he tried to figure out who God is and how He mattered to his life.
The Truth Lab is committed to those very questions. Who is God, and how does He matter not only to your lives, but to the entire world, generation after generation? Ryan's doubts were indicative of what I have found in both secular and Christian colleges and universities for more than a decade.
I see so many Christian students walking around with an air of, "I've got it all together." Ryan was afraid to share his doubts and fears about God because of those students who, most regrettably, would have met his questions about God with a look of disapproval, doubts about Ryan's spiritual commitment, or out and out rejection. Real Christians don't ask those questions! Yes they do. In fact, their faith becomes all the more real when the Ryans of the world bring those questions before brothers and sisters in Christ who can help work through them. Most importantly, they all can take those questions before God, who desires, in our most intimate of relationships, to be the one we run to when we question whether or not He is there.
Unpacking The Bag
Let's get specific here. There were some hefty things that weighed Ryan (and maybe you) down.
I asked Ryan what was in his full-to-the-top, seams-almost-bursting backpack. Ryan unloaded it. He started with a book that, through its analytical approach to literature, questioned the existence of an absolute truth; the story meant whatever you wanted it to. With this book, and a couple others, Ryan was demonstrating the weight of the intellectual challenges to Christianity that strike at the very root of who we are. They strike at the nature of an all-powerful, all-knowing God of Truth. It is the burden of a world that seems to "know" more than God could possibly know.
The next set of books he brought out were books about how to get in touch with his "spiritual" self. There was a book on spiritual "karma" and how to create an environment where one could be at peace with the self and the world. There were books on spiritual healing from gurus and, to top it off, there was a "Christian" self-help book that laid out the steps one must take to get closer to God. Each offered some "secret" to the challenges we all face about spiritual connections with the Maker of the Universe, our Creator.
C O F F E E S H O PJesus emphasized serving others, yet most of us are pretty content to serve ourselves. Why have so many Christians ignored Christ's call to give of ourselves?
Join the discussion!
The last books he unloaded were about service. He was especially confused by the high level of commitment these secular authors had to the concept of serving one another, and how little commitment he'd experienced amongst the Christians he knew. He had gotten these books out of frustration after hearing Christians speak the words but rarely follow through with actions.
"Where are the hearts of Christians?" he asked. The line that struck me most was when, after a long pause, he said, "I guess in my lifetime I've seen a lot of Christians, but very little Christ."
Who Shoulders Your Pack?
Ryan may be very much like you. I know he echoes some of the seasons of my own life. Ryan and I talked. We prayed. We read God's Word. In the weeks that followed our conversations moved from the easy (and popular) topic of sports to conversations that mattered eternally.
I watched Ryan figuratively take each of the books out of his bag and lay them down at the foot of the Cross. He submitted his intellect to God to be used in not only discovering the Truth, but sharing it with others. He turned his spiritual questions over to God, acknowledging that there would be ups and downs. He turned his questions of the heart and service to others over to the Christ who made a life (and death) of serving others in complete ways.
Our backpacks get so full of the weight of the world and the challenges to our minds, hearts and spirits, that at some point we have to un-shoulder the burden of the pack and lay it down at the foot of the Cross. Christ finds a way to bend down and shoulder our pack, along with the burdens of so many others. We have to let Him take the weight.
That, my friends, is hard for all of us. We have to put it down and resist the temptation to pick it up again, even for a short time. Look at your own bag? It's right there, sitting on the floor at your feet. Not the one you will pick up on the way to class. It's the one you have on your back right now. It's the one that is filled with your worries and anxiety about all the stuff you've done, said and seen.
How heavy is your book bag today?
Dr. Chris Leland is the Director of College & University Outreach for the Focus on the Family Institute and author of the Truth Lab. A Senior Fellow for Christian Worldview Studies, "Doc" Leland speaks around the country for Focus, debates people much smarter than himself, and enjoys outdoor activities with his wife and four sons.
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