Why I love Cedarville (the TRUTH)

For those of you that don't know: I'm a tour guide at Cedarville. To say its a dream come true would be an understatement... but that's a later post. Anyway, what a tour guide does is walk backwards all over campus for an hour telling prospective students cheesy facts about how great Cedarville is and about how much they love it here.

Here's the thing though, I actually mean every word that I say. I am so incredibly blessed to be at Cedarville, and honestly I know I take it for granted far too often. Do you want to know why I love Cedarville so much?

Genuine love.

Ironic right? That I love Cedarville because of the love on the campus. But it's the truth. From the moment I stepped on campus, a majority of my anxiety about going to college simply melted away (and if you knew me then, you knew that I had A LOT of anxiety about college). Anyway, want to know why I love the love here? Because its real. Let me tell you why:

Every single person that works here at Cedarville love every single student that steps foot on this campus.

I've had lengthly conversations with maintenance workers who love the ministry of Cedarville and constantly pray for students.

I've talked with random staff while waiting in line for something, who wanted to know all about me and help me in anyway possible.

Everyone here loves to be here. I know that sounds corny, but I truly think it's true. Don't believe me? Well I'll get more specific then and tell you what's really been on my heart lately.

Admissions 
When I was a high school kid, I hated getting calls from random colleges. One time I got a call from a girl and I literally spent the whole phone call wondering if she was a robot because her responses seemed so perfectly scripted. She didn't really seem to care about me as much as she did about my application. 

Now that I work in admissions, I see that here at Cedarville that something is different. We don't ever look at a prospective student as a dollar sign and id number. Honestly, we get to know not only their names, but their stories. We laugh with them, cry with them and pray with them. Our mission statement to be sincere in our faith and excellent in our service is not merely a suggestion, but a desire. I'm so privileged to work with an incredible group of both Cedarville students and staff, who love, care for and encourage me on a daily basis. What's most amazing is that they are a group of people who don't try to sell Cedarville to people, but instead try to show Christ to people. 

Professors 
When I was in high school I was always warned by returning college kids that college professors actually don't care about their students... like at all. They shared that professors almost seemed to take pleasure in student's failures.

Clearly they weren't talking about Cedarville. 

The professors here not only love what they teach, but they love who they teach. Honestly. I've been invited into professor's offices, homes and lives. I've gone to see professors for projects not related to their class. I've had a professor stay way later than office hours in order to make sure that I had the time I needed to discuss important things with them. I've had professors ask how I was doing, and genuinely want to know. I've had professors who just pour into my life, whether I be one of 5 students or 500 students they had that semester. I've had professors who care. 

Just tonight I had a professor that got our entire class beautiful hand-crafted mugs with our names on them. They were made by a potter that she brought in to speak to our class, so not only are they beautiful, but they mean something. This is just one example of the hundreds of times professors went way beyond their job description in order to serve me.

I always make my joke that when professors go through the syllabus and remind students that "...if you ever need something you can come to my office!" they mean it. Actually, it's an invitation that they expect you to take them up on at least once.


But honestly, do you know what I love the most about the professors here? They pray for us. They ask for prayer requests, and rather than "fix it and forget it" they make an effort to follow up on the request at a later date.

God has just really reminded me why I love to call this place HOME this week and I just had to share it, so thank you so much for letting me tell you about why I love Cedarville University. 

Real talk

Let's talk about STRUGGLES

     To say that my life has been interesting over the past 6-months would be a gross understatement. I spent my entire summer working as a summer missionary for Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF). I spent my days teaching bible stories, acting out memory verses, sharing the gospel and investing in children. I spent my summer serving God. 

     However, I also spent a majority of my summer going to funerals and comforting my loved ones as they struggled through their own trials. Perhaps the most difficult trial of the summer was dealing with the emotional pain of loosing the friendship of several people last semester. Overall my summer was marked by pain and disappointment.

     I would love nothing more than to say that through all of the trials I kept my gaze fixed on God, and was able to look past my temporary circumstances in order to see the eternal light at the end of the tunnel; however I wouldn’t want to lie on my blog. To be honest, I spent most of the summer questioning my faith. Although I know many modern Christian songs talk about God’s grace, peace and love being like an ocean that constant crashes over us, I didn’t feel like I was being surrounded by God; I felt more like I was drowning a sea of doubt, barely able to recover from one trial before another wave of suffering consumed me. 

   This summer, when trials hit, I often looked to the past for explanation.  I couldn’t see any possible purpose for the suffering, simply, because in the past I had been serving God whole-heartedly. After all, why would God want to do anything that would possibly deter my ministry?

     The problem was, that I was stuck looking on what lead up to the trials, rather than anticipating what would flow from it. 

This summer in particular I learned that many times it is more crucial to look at the effects of the trials than the cause. 

I know that I could not have become a better servant of God without those trials, because they made me realize why exactly I serve God. 

     It’s not because of the “just-world theory” of good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. If this were the case Jesus Christ would have never died on a cross, because He certainly didn’t deserve it. I think its easy to fall into this trap of thinking that serving God leads to good things, I think it is more important to see thatserving God leads to good attitudes, even in bad things. As I mentioned earlier, my attitude during my trials was terrible, but not I’m able to see what good it brought because I now understand why I serve God. 

  I serve God because it is the only natural way for me to express my love for Him.  I serve Him, not because it’s good for me, but because He is good to me. 

    While I may not always have my health, wealth, family or friends, I know that the very breath in my lungs is a gift from God, that I have done nothing to deserve. I follow His rules, not because they prevent trials from happening, but because I know that He has created those rules to protect and care for me. 

    Unfortunately, I had to make many things stripped away from my spiritual facade in order to discover what was truly behind my service. Now I know that I can serve God, not just when it’s good for me, but because I have confidence that it will only benefit me spiritually and eternally.