How Great is Our God

If there is one song that defines my four years at Huntington Unviversity it would be "How Great is Our God." Whenever the words start, "The splendor of the King..." I immidiately see the transforming years of college flash before me. I see where I began, where I struggled, where I really found what it means to live, and where I am now. This song has been there for me during the most extreme highs and joys, and there when I was t my lowest. It is a song I identify with Huntington; the place where I really learned how great out God is. It's funny because so many people I know went into college afraid and unsure of themselves. I went in with confidence...almsot too much. I see now how God broke through the confidence I had in myself and taught me how to have complete confidence in Him alone. (And sorry that this post is really long, but when big changes happen how do you really condense that many emotions?)

I first really listened and sang in June of 2007 at Freshmen Orientation. My parents and I went down to Huntington for a night of freshmen meeting each other and a chance to register for classes and declare our majors. I remember the weekend like the back of my hand. I remember who I met that night and how it was one of those times when I really fell in love with the place. I knew that night that my life was in transformation. I had just graduated high school and was about to move to a different state, leave behind everyone I knew, and start over. I wasn't scared or worried or stressed. I was ready for college and I was confident. And that night at praise and worship with all of these scared 18 year old who were about to be thrown in dorms together and then our parents who were teary eyed and sad to let us all go, they played the song "How Great is Our God." I had no idea what my experience at Huntington was going to be like that night or just how much I would change, but as the song played and we sang along I knew that God was in control and was a part of that campus and I felt so joyful.

Throughout my freshman year, I felt so high about life. I developed the strongest friendships and most beautiful memories, and I remember for one of the first times feeling such a thankfulness to God for putting me at Huntington. That September, I resurrendered my life to Christ. I was always a Christian it seems, but that fall I really decided that Christ was going to be at the center. At the beginning of that year, my floor (the girls who were and still are my closest friends) would always sing that song at our floor worship and when we went out to other churches. I was always amazed at how beautiful all of our voices sounded, except for at one part when none of us could hit the high note. I felt so proud that I went to a school that invested so much into people who wanted us to be invested in Christ. That year the song represented a time of praise and beauty and fun. I am pretty sure I am still catching up on all of the sleep I missed from freshman year from being too social.

Then my sophomore year, the words brough on a whole new meaning. After suddenly losing someone I was so close to, that confidence I once had in myself and my abilities seemed to disappear. I felt so distanced from my family and felt as if I was grieving Brad being gone all alone down at Huntington. Looking back now, this tragedy has made my experience at Huntington all the sweeter. That place is the place where I began to totally rely on God at my lowest times. The place where my friends showed me so much love, where I grew spiritually in so many ways, wehre I spent nights crying and feeling alone and so incredibly sad. But that year I also learned that God can take something so tragic and teach me so much. Huntington is also that place where i was healed within its walls of love; where my professors counseled me and wehre the worship times challeneged me and told me it would eventually be okay. Again that song was there on my first night back from being home after it all. They played it and again the words spoke to me, "and time is in His hands..." and I knew that even though then I was feeling pain and I did not think I could make it through down at Huntington, I knew that time was in His hands and He would bring me through. that year, "How Great is Our God" played at Brad's funeral and I cried and cried. And today I especially wish Brad were here and I could tell him about all the crazy college times and how I graduated with two majors like we talked about before, and we could talk about teaching and coaching. It seems like just yesterday we both graduated from high school and took this picture, and I so wish he could have graduated from college too.

During this past year, knowing it was my final year at Huntington, this song played again at our first chapel of the year. I listened to the words like I have so many times before, recalling the past years and anticipating the next one. Later this year, I was driving in my car to get lunch just days after ending a relationship that was a part of me for my college days and moving on from someone I was so close to and feeling sad and unsure of what I was doing. This song came on, and even though during that moment I didn't want to be in the situation I was in, I felt God speaking to me again through this song.

Then in March, Liz, Sara and I went to a Chris Tomlin concert on a rainy Wednesday afternoon in Ft. Wayne. I didn't know what to expect, and I really did not expect to be as moved as what I was. Toward the end of the concert, after an incredible speaker shared his insight, Chris Tomlin played "How Great is Our God" and hundreds of people all sang along with him. In that moment, listening and singing along with the man who wrote the song that moved me in so many ways, I felt so peaceful.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at my last Sunday service at College Park. I knew that within the next two weeks I would be saying goodbye to my best friends, turning in final projects, and walking the sidewalks of my campus for the last time. I knew that my life was changing, and while I was excited, I was also scared. Of course during church that morning they played "How Great is Our God." Now today, one day after graduation, I really and truly understand how great our God is. When I was waiting for my name to be called at graduation and as I accepted my diploma, I felt so grateful for my experience that God gave me at Huntington. I knew all of the work and all of the struggles and all of the beautiful times that went into my years there and so when I shook President Dowden's hand, I felt such a pride for my school.

Things definitely were not always easy, but there is something all the more beautiful about a journey that was filled with bumps and brokeness. Even today I see the mistakes I have made, hurts I have caused, and places I still need to grow. I have no doubt that I will continue to grow in Him, but I am so thankful for what He has done with me through these years. I could not have asked for a better place to become.

At the service and Commencement yesterday, our speakers focused on Jesus Christ and how He is our identity. They spoke about how our 'student identify' is soon going to be taken from us, so who are we? Well, they both said, we are children of God and that is our true identity. They spoke about how many people are a part of our lives for a certain amount of our journey and travel with us for only a portion. I know deep down that many of my friends from Huntington I will no longer see very often and that they were a part of my life for only those four years, but like the speaker said, there is someone who is with us the whole journey. The one who is there for us at every stop is Jesus. Just like how the song has been with me for these years, Jesus is the one who knows all about me, my struggles, my weaknesses, my strengths. He is the one who was and who will always be there, because you know something? As of yesterday my days of being able to run over to Emily and ask her to go for a walk with me, driving to Taco Bell with my friends, playing tennis late at night under the lights, have awkward run ins, dance like there is no tomorrow with the girls, go to Liz's to watch teh Bachelor; those days are over. When we crossed that stage yesterday as alumni of HUntington it was time to say goodbye. And it is sad to say goodbye, but I know for a fact that all of my friends who corssed that stage are followers of a much higher cause and purpose than just a diploma. And how incredibly great is it that we go to a school that placed Jesus as their number one priority?

In our Commencement handout, this was written on the last page. Even though it is long, it made me very proud of Huntington:

"It has been Thy good pleasure, O Lord, to give Thy people this property, this building and these grounds to be used for the purpose of Christian education. Now, with hearts of gratitude to Thee, we desire to consecrate this edifice and these grounds to Thee. And now, O Lord, we dedicate this building form tower to foundation-stone with all its furniture of any and every kind, and all that may hereafter be put into it in harmony with piety and prosperity, and dedicate these grounds with all improvements which may be made now or hereafter...We dedicate all these to Thee, O Lord, to the cause of Christian education, in the name of the Triune God. Amen.'

With those words of prayer on September 21, 1897, United Brethren Milton Wright dedicated the first building on the Huntington University campus. As local newspapers reported, the doors of the university were 'thrown open to all for their education as taught from the Word of God.'

Though the world and the campus are much changed, Huntington University remains steadfastly committed to its founding mission to educate men and women to impact our world for Christ.

Our goal is to graduate men and women who will be mature in spirit, equipped for ministry, competent in their academic disciplines, Christian worldview, and ready for leadership.

May the Class of 2011 take up this charge and honor Christ through their scholarship and service. May they prove with their lives that Huntington University is indeed fulfilling its sacred mission."

After reading that in my bulletin, I did feel that Huntington has fulfilled its purpose in my life. I feel so blessed to be able to go to a school that from its beginning days in 1897 dedicated the grounds and the very building in this picture to God, has been awarded as a top school in the nation, and has such a rich history. I felt lucky to be an alumni to a place where my parents graduated, a place my family invests in because they believe in it, and where my aunt and grandpa are on the Board. And even though I am going to definitely miss my friends and the people and the late nights and the beauty of the campus, I am excited to see where God is going to lead me next based on the education I received there that went far beyond the textbooks.

As I said goodbye to my friends, said thank you to those professors who pushed me and made me into a better person, and collected my final boxes from my apartment, I again just wanted to thank God that I was able to go there. So thank you, Huntington, for being a place filled with so many memories and for showing me what it means to be a Christ follower and enabling me to go out into the world to make it a better place. God really is great.