Biola University - Biolan Yearbook (La Mirada, CA)

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kenman wong during my four years here at biola, i have experienced tremen- dous growth marked with constant struggle and pain. during my freshman year, my world was highly idealistic, i was a young christian with high goals, like many believers, i was taught to see the world through rose-colored glasses, naivity told me that perfection could be found in this world and christians were capable of being perfect. of course, this outlook affected my view of biola. it had to be perfect! its advertisements emphasized that fact, biola offered daily chapels, 30 units of bible, christian service assignments, talbot seminary, and even dorm prayer meetings, how could there ever be sin in such a place? then suddenly, my perfect world caved in. my bubble burst, i heard a swear word, i saw people cutting chapel and lying about their attendance, students had bad attitudes towards christian ser- vice assignments and not everyone attended church on Sundays. was the whole world depraved except me? it took a full semester before i finally started to wonder if the problem wasn ' t me. the answer really shook me. i realized that i was just as sinful as everyone else, everyone was depraved. naturally, my first reaction was to frantically search for a way to rid my life of sin and to change this world, i bought christian books on self image, holiness, recreation, philosophy, you name it. i engulfed myself in the christian thought and world-view, i constant- ly scrutinized myself going as far as to repeatedly calling myself a failure. i didn ' t realize it then, but the more i tried to improve my self- image, the worse it became, why? because i was focused on myself rather than God. i also began to ask if christians didn ' t have all of the right answers, how could we and still disagree about so many key issues, how could we prove that what we believe is true? what makes our beliefs any more accurate than those of other religions? then began my quest for true Christianity, is it obeying regula- tions and remaining separate from the world? if so, where are the lines drawn? is Christianity merely going to church, reading the bible, and praying? ask me about my spiritual walk and i would immediately think about whether or not i had gone to church last Sunday, or how much praying and bible reading i had been doing. these were my measuring sticks of spirituality. i knew that Christianity had to be deeper than that, i searched on and on. some things i have resolved, other questions i keep on probing. will i ever be able to live the life that God intended for me? with the constant biases and thoughts that have plagued me, i don ' t know if i ever could, so many of our beliefs are based on tradition, rather than as a result of thought and analysis. biola is evangelical and has the same traditions and limitations as main-stream evangelicalism, sadly, some people will spend their whole life in a bubble, they will have been brought up in christian homes, attend christian schools, work for christian organizations, then die. others will feel a need to escape, they will sow their wild oats in order to experience the other side of life where christians can not go. i admit that i ' ve often tossed around thought of trying this route, how great it would be to be free for awhile, for a year; maybe two, but is it worth the risk of getting trapped. i love biola with all my heart! a place that has caused me to struggle and think so much can only be good, as this is the path for growth (James 1: 2-3). therefore, it is my hope that all biola stu- dents will struggle similarly with the issue around them, this is how values become internalized, and subsequently lived out. it is important to remember that although christians are limited by a constantly changing culture and society, God remains perma- nent, unchanging, and most of all, loving, our world can be affected for Christ through love alone, but, in order to communicate this love, there must first be thought, thought that is free from the influences of the bubble. one thing that became clear is how little christians think, evange- licals are far behind on the creative aspect of life, for example, our fine arts, drama, music, and art constantly imitate the world, this was not the case in the days of rembrant or bach who led the rest of the world in the arts, wouldn ' t it be great if the world imitated christians, if we set the standards of comparison? when christians regain the forfronts of thought and creativity, this world will change. 10

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HAPPINESS OUR COURSE by. mark bardwell and todd myatt what a beautiful sunset! isn ' t the water clear? boy this quiet stillness is great, i wouldn ' t mind spending the rest of my life out here with nature where everything is so peaceful, this beats all of the traffic, noise, smog, and bustle back in l.a., though, doesn ' t it? imagine living out here away from all the pressures of life and all those bothersome people. life in the biola bubble is much like being out on a lake in a fishing boat at sunset, the bubble creates a perfec t atmosphere that is so peaceful, relatively undisturbed by culture and life outside, one does not have to deal much with crime, starvation, and war, but instead can practically shut out all of the hardships that the rest of the world faces, many biolans, however, have realized the problem; have chosen to take on the challenge; and are tangibly working toward change. we not only can shut out the hurt and suffering around us, but we can also cut ourselves off from dealing with problems that a chris- tian faces in a non-christian world, we can avoid working toward that difficult balance referred to in the statement, be in the world but not of it. it is hard to follow the christian standards of purity and still communicate Christ ' s love without making those we are ministering to feel inferior or alienated. most people would far rather be out on the lake watching the sun go down than back in l.a. in the midst of all of the hurry and problems of everyday life, it gives us a sort of pleasure and comfort when all we have to do is deal with our own problems and the problems of those immediately around us. why do some of us put ourselves in a bubble? why are we so apathetic? do we not want to face the guilt or feel the hurt? are we too selfish and too caught up in our own world to realize that others in the world have greater problems than our own? do we fear that we would be wasting our time or do we just feel insecure about putting into practice what we ' ve been taught? perhaps it is the fear of change, the fear of the unknown, the fear of failure, we are afraid to leave the comfort of this placid lake, to burst this bubble that we are in.

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