Choosing God

I was making a crucial choice. Either I was going to pursue a new life with new friends, parties, fun activities, and intellectual achievement while leaving the God I had loved in high school second on my list or God was going to be first. No compromise.

We all face this choice when we enter college. What are we going to give our lives to? On what are we going to spend our precious and fleeting youth? Growing up in Cerritos, CA in somewhat of a bubble, college seemed like it offered so much more to experience. But I knew that the world was only attractive on the outside, that testimony after testimony from rich or poor, famous or unknown, revealed the world to be horribly unsatisfying and deadening. And I knew that God had given everything to be one with me and that really, only He could make me happy. Yet, college was a unique way of tasting and finding out for myself what the world could offer. But I chose God.

This choice was made tangible when I joined Christian Students my freshman year. I jumped into all the activities and I was rewarded. I was in a community where dinner with families and young people were frequent, where fellowship, prayer, and preaching the gospel was consistent and life-giving. I found companions with whom I could read life-infusing ministry and pray about anything. We have many activities during the year. Each week, the Friday night meetings and dinners were a comfortable and enjoyable respite while the morning prayer times kept us enjoying the Lord throughout the week. There are also two mountain retreats during the Fall and Spring where our vision is refreshed. I especially enjoyed the college trainings in the summer, where we meet with college students all over the US and the world. At the college trainings, there were times when I felt like our prayers reached the heavens and our consecration and love for the Lord was so intense and living. Oh, I love the Lord! Only He is worth our pouring out our youth. My experiences really testified that the Lord must be our first love. Only He is worth our love.

What mercy He had on me to enable me to make that choice before my freshman year. I realized later on in college that I had really made the choice that would satisfy me forever. I was talking to a friend who is an unbeliever and she commented on how nice it was that I had a community of people who really cared for me. She had been impressed when she came over by the warm atmosphere and the willingness to cook dinner for us. She had been in the dorms and experienced college life the way I probably would have had I not chosen the Lord and instead of being satisfied, she was telling me about how unhappy she was. I still had problems, but I also had the solution to every problem in the universe – Christ! And I had people who truly cared for me and would shepherd me to touch and experience Christ. I realized that I had made the best choice.

– Phoebe Chang
Class of 2001 - History.