At some point in life, many Christians question why did God create them and what is their purpose here in this world. In other words, they wonder what God is calling for their lives. Thankfully, I have never been in that confused stage of my life because God has helped me as a kid to discover His will and His calling for my life. There are a number of factors that have shaped my life calling, including my family, biblical lessons, and many other events; however, as I came to Indiana Wesleyan University, I have also gained invaluable insight into the connection between my life calling and Christian general education. Through my First-Year Experience course, I had a chance to explore topics that strengthened my understanding of the relationship of my life calling and the philosophy of liberal arts education in the context of mathematics. In this paper, I would like to share what I have learned throughout the semester in terms of my life calling and the role of general education, especially mathematics, in shaping my calling.
As a little kid, I had a solid sense of calling from God to serve as a medical missionary. The story begins with my older sister who has Down syndrome. Having a sister with a disability has brought me a new kind of love, connection, and a different perspective on people with disabilities. Those lessons I have learned from my sister helped me to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor. When I was fourteen years old, I went to Mongolia by myself to study abroad, and there, I have met a lot of missionaries who were sincerely passionate about their ministries and through their ministries, selflessly served others. In their ministries, I saw God’s hand working; people learned the Word of God, fully experienced His love and grace, confessed their sins, and eventually returned to Him. It was truly amazing to see how God uses one’s life to further His kingdom. Spending time with the missionaries and helping their ministries, I have learned more of God’s will as well as my roles as citizens of His kingdom. By the time I left Mongolia and came to America, I was fully assured that the medical mission was His calling for my life. Since then, there were a number of great events that God has led me into medical missions. A mission trip to Haiti in high school is one of the life-changing experiences that God has made His calling more clearer.
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Moving across the world, my understanding of God’s calling has been shaped by various factors, and I believe that Christian liberal arts education such as mathematics also takes a huge part in it. There was a time as a freshman in college when I was not fully aware of the importance of general education; I did not realize why I need to take classes such as composition and humanities as a Biology major student and how they are connected to my life calling. Not knowing the reason, I continued my studies as a pre-medical student. After two years at my previous college, God has directed me to take a slightly different path- Nursing and put a strong desire in my heart to transfer to Indiana Wesleyan University. Here at IWU, I finally got the answer to my question about the relationship between Christian general education and my life calling. Before looking deeper into it, I would like to discuss the significance of Christian general education with its philosophy.
We live in a broken world full of ignorance and sin that so many people are blinded to seeing the truth and the glory of God. According to the document, “Reconciling Truth Through Love: A Philosophy of General Education and Modes of Inquiry”, the goal of Christian general education is to teach students about God’s redeeming work of restoration and reconciliation (Bressler et al., 2014). By establishing “a solid foundation for learning” (Bressler et al., 2014), such an education assists students to be free from darkness and sin prevailing in this world so that they can see again the truth and the glory of God; thus, students are prepared to be agents of reconciliation. In order to lay the groundwork for which students can compare their knowledge acquired in the future, Christian general education consists of various kinds of courses that guide students to reflect, examine, and survey God’s truth. The document also states that “a truly Christian education is “personal”… [and] it is ultimately “relational” (Bressler et al., 2014). This personal and relational education reveals the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and ultimately leads students to love Him and have a deeper relationship with Him. This indicates a major purpose of the Christian liberal arts education which is to teach the love of God. By means of a multitude of Christian general education courses, students do not merely improve their critical thinking; rather, they learn how to apply those skills to have a better understanding of God, His love, and His calling for our lives. Christian general education can be divided into two modes of inquiry: qualitative and quantitative. Quality education includes visual and performing arts, literature, historical, philosophical, and religious courses, whereas quantitative education focuses on mathematical and scientific areas. Among these liberal arts courses, mathematics is one of the most essential subjects as it is a universal language that could be shared by everyone regardless of religion, race, or gender. Math itself is a big part of our daily life; in fact, learning math provides surprisingly important skills so that we recognize why we think and act the way we do with ourselves and with others. During this semester, in my college algebra course, I have learned elementary functions, their graphs, application of such functions in real-world situations and also enhanced my reasoning skills as analyzing relationships between functions. Along with them, I have also experienced God’s attributes— His beauty, love, and eternality— because I have realized, that the reason why mathematics operates consistently and that objects always interact the same way, was because God always remains the same and holds the objects together since the beginning of the universe. With those learning outcomes, I grew in knowledge of who God is and intimacy with Him. As a result, I could become spiritually mature and build a strong trust in Him and His unshakable call on my life. Even though I still sometimes do not know exactly where He is taking me next, I believe that He is guiding me every step of the way into His great plan for my life. As I started a new chapter of my life here at IWU, this general education course has been a significant help to keep my faith in God.
From this experience, I finally found out that everything is connected to whether we notice it or not. As I shared earlier, I have never considered the relation between Christian general education and my life calling; I even felt that it was not necessary for me to take general education courses for my future career. Then God has led me to grasp that the liberal arts education is to help me build my understanding of God’s calling for my life as I learn different cultures and disciplines based on reflections of the Word of God. This academic experience has been a great toolbox in my life-calling journey by offering a better perspective on what God is doing in the season of my life, what He wants, and the significance of what I am going through. The values and the modes of inquiry of the Christian general education are certainly established for students to excel academically and become spiritually healthy people so that they can experience the outpouring of God’s love, identify His calling, and thus become equipped to glorify Him as Christ’s ambassadors in this world.
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