Recommendations to College Students Who Have Committed to Living Out Their Understanding of Christian Values

My last Musing (“Formulate Your Own Set of Christian Values”) proposed a broad view of God’s redemptive purposes for our world. It left some important questions unanswered, such as “how” one can “partner with God” toward the realization of these values, and, since no one Christian can focus on all of God’s redemptive purposes, how does one choose a focus or two.

What follows is an in-depth response to these unanswered questions that emerged from a series of four conversations with Northwestern College (IA) students who live in the Hospers Hall Residence on the theme “A Contentious 2024 Election Season.” In our last session, I presented the following set of five  recommendations, with the hope that attendees will give serious consideration to implementing these recommendations in the future as they aspire to live out their understanding of Christian values.. These recommendations could also be helpful to all readers of this Musing; especially to upper-class High School students who are considering eventual choices of vocation.

#1: EMBRACE THREE BACKGROUND CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES

As you aspire to live out, each day, your commitment to your understanding of foundational Christian values, I recommend that you embrace the biblical teachings presented in the following three passages of scripture:

For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Galatians 5: 13-14, RSV).

Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others (Philippians 2:4, NRSV).

Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more (Luke 2:48, RSV).

These three background biblical teachings indisputably reject the meaning of “freedom” that is commonplace in our highly individualistic American culture; that “freedom” means “doing as you please.” In sharp contrast, the common principle presented in the first two of these passages of scripture is that Christians ought to take steps to meet the needs of others; and the 3^rd passage suggests the principle that the greater the quantity of resources that you have to make that possible, you should be expected to contribute a larger portion of those resources to fostering the well-being of others.

#2: EVALUATE ALL PUBLIC POLICY PROPOSALS IN LIGHT OF YOUR FOUNDATIONAL CHRISTIAN VALUES AND THE THREE BACKGROUND CHRISTIAN PRINCIPLES

Whether your political affiliation is with the Republican or Democrat parties, or you self-designate as an Independent, you should evaluate all public policy proposals emanating from that affiliation on the basis of your foundational Christian values and the three background principles enumerated above.

Such an evaluation could lead you to reject the “majority” view of those citizens who are also affiliated with your political party. If that is the case, it is your responsibility to argue for a “minority” position within your party. For example, It is generally considered to be the case that Republicans are in favor of minimizing the taxes to be paid by large, wealthy corporations. But I believe that when deciding on policy proposals relative to taxation, Republicans who are committed to the Christian faith ought to advocate for “progressive” tax policies that require increased taxes for the wealthiest corporations.

#3: CHOOSING YOUR VOCATION

I am still haunted by my conversation with a student I was advising at The King’s College many years ago during which she told me that what she really loved doing was to create works of art, but her parents convinced her to major in business because you “can’t make a decent living as an artist.”

You may think this tragic story does not pertain to you because you have already chosen your major and there is no “turning back.” But it may not be too late to “turn back,” and that may be your wisest decision if your present choice of a major was motivated primarily by the potential for a decent standard of living from strictly a financial perspective.

The above thoughts will now lead me to offer a recommendation for your consideration (whether you have already chosen a major, possibly prematurely, or that is a future decision) as you think about choosing a vocation – clarifying that this chosen vocation may lead to a paycheck, but that is not necessarily the case (e.g., A stay-at-home mom has chosen that marvelous “job” as her vocation). My recommendation reflects my deeply held convictions as to the basis on which vocational choices should be made.

The first contribution to my upcoming recommendation was provided many years ago by the famous retired golfer Jack Nicklaus in his response to a question he was asked about choosing a vocation that leads to a paycheck. He is reported to have said “find something you love to do so much that you would do it for nothing, and then find someone who will pay you to do it” (I hope he actually said that, because I have been quoting him for many years).

But the advice offered by Nicklaus is surely incomplete, as the following fictional example will reveal. As a kid in Brooklyn (NY), I may have loved stealing hubcaps from cars parked on our street and selling them for a nice profit. But I shouldn’t do that because such stealing is not a “worthwhile” activity. In words I use above, it is destructive of God’s purposes.

So, how should I complement the advice offered by Jack Nicklaus? As I elaborate on in the 4^th chapter of the book that Gideon Fynaardt and I recently published, titled Passing the Torch, I believe there are three criteria for making a good vocational choice, whether or not it leads to a paycheck: Choose a vocation that enables you to do something that you love to do; something that you have the gifts to do well; and something that contributes to your understanding of God’s purposes for our world.

As you think about the 3^rd Criterion presented above (choosing a vocation that “contributes to your understanding of God’s purposes for our world”), You will need to draw on your own understanding of what those purposes are. And, if your list of God’s purposes contains multiple items (as mine does), your vocational choice should reflect what you want to “focus” on vocationally because of your assessment as to which item on your list “best” satisfy the three criteria.

I highly recommend that use these three criteria to choose a vocation, even if this will require that you re-think your present choice of a major course of study.

#4: CHOOSING ANOTHER FOCUS OR TWO BEYOND YOUR VOCATION

In recommendation #3 above, I introduce the need for you to decide on the “focus” for your vocational choice that “best satisfies” the three criteria for a vocational choice that I have proposed. But your daily life includes a lot more that the vocation that you have chosen. This raises the question as to which of the items on your list of “God’s redemptive purposes for our world” you would like to focus on outside of your vocation

Once again, I commend for your consideration the same three criteria I propose for your vocational choice: choose what you want to focus on outside of your vocation based on your assessment as to which item or items on your list “best” satisfy the three criteria.

#5: NAVIGATING CONTENTIOUS DISAGREEMENTS

If you adopt the above recommendations, then there is a strong need for you to share the results with others during the increasingly contentious times that will emerge as November 2024 approaches.

Therefore, my concluding recommendation is that in various venues within your sphere of influence you orchestrate conversations that will exemplify for participants the type of respectful conversation that is sorely needed in the political realm and all other areas of public discourse.

These venues can include the church you attend, possibly in collaboration with other local churches; various venues at Northwestern College, the school you all attend; meetings of persons who share a particular Christian value that you focus on, but who may disagree with you on “how best” to foster that  redemptive purpose; meetings that include balanced cohorts of participants holding to differing religious commitments or to a secular worldview; and meetings of persons who have succumbed to the prevailing tribalism of our times; an us-versus-them mentality that erroneously believes that “me-and-my people” (e. g., my Christian church or denomination, my political party, my circle of friends) have captured the “whole truth” about the issue at hand, and you “other folks” possess none of that truth; when what is really the case is that, because we have different sets of experiences and differing “life-stories” that deeply inform our beliefs, I may see things that you have missed and you may see things that I have missed. Therefore, we need to respectfully talk to others about our disagreements toward the goal of uncovering a more comprehensive view of the truth regarding the issue being discussed.

In summary, the venues you choose to use can be as varied as your imagination allows. But the overarching goal, whatever contentious issue you wish to discuss and whatever venues you choose, is to demonstrate that there is a “better way” to deal with our strong disagreements, our collective hope being that if there are enough exemplifications of this “better way” between now and election day on November 4, 2024, the acrimony that we now anticipate will be ameliorated.

And, please remember my past recommendation that the best way to start such a respectful conversation is NOT to “jump right into the fray” telling another participant why he/she is “all wrong.” Rather as has been suggested by Richard Mouw, the best way to get a respectful conversation started with a person with whom you disagree is to build mutual understanding and trust be means of the following request: Please share with us your position on the issue at hand, and the reasons you have for holding to that position.