Campus Corner

Adding Dimension to Your Faith
By Tom Sherman (PCA dad)

Like so many young people, growing up I was involved in my school, my friends, my sports, my activities, and my church. Pretty much, the world, as I knew it, revolved around me, myself and I. Our family, like most in our circle, was very involved in church, Sunday School, church-wide activities, Bible studies, and outreach, but these activities still revolved around “me” and what I wanted. Most of these events were (and are) designed to meet my personal needs. Of course, I did learn about God, about Jesus, about The Holy Spirit, and about the Bible, but more from a “head” knowledge than a heart knowledge.

I was not alone. Those of us born in America have so much more than the rest of the world. We really do not have to depend on anyone or anything other than ourselves. Where the scriptures teach us to depend on Christ, put Him first, and live by faith, we are taught in America that WE can make it happen. Again, it is all about us. We comfortably attribute most outcomes in our lives to our own actions and choices. Simply, we get along quite well, we believe, by having faith in ourselves. Regretfully, those of us raised in Christian homes fall prey to this thinking as well. Our faith is something we know about, not necessarily something that we live by.

This began to change when our family went on our first mission trip. Traveling to a remote, third-world village, with no running water, no electricity, no paved roads, and no convenience stores, was my first introduction to the concept of how unbelievably blessed I really was. I saw that people actually lived without washing machines, showers, microwaves, coffee pots, etc. Most of the world did not actually have a Walmart® down the street or a supermarket around the corner. In fact, I realized that MOST of the world actually lived like this, and the way my family lived was actually the exception, not the rule.

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