I recently attended an InterVarsity large group meeting at my alma mater, Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. I marvel at God’s grace in sustaining the chapter over the years. I watched the students present an hour and a half program that included videos, live music, testimonies, and prayer. I heard what God had done in the lives of students who spent seven weeks in the Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago last summer.
Megan, a sophomore from Nebraska, realized that racism is not an academic topic, but a life experience for many people. “If I did not understand that God had created all people in his image and desired them all to know his love, I would not be motivated to work toward loving and affirming people of another ethnicity,” she told the group. Without God, the issue of reconciliation would continue to be merely something to discuss, not a lifestyle to be lived.
Carol shared the commitments that she had made the previous summer, indicating where she had fulfilled her promise to God and where more needed to be done. She invited the entire group of nearly 200 people to hold her accountable to several of her commitments, such as loving people when the relationship became difficult and not walking away.
Sandra, the worship team leader, related how her experiences with the community at Lawndale during the past two summers had expanded her understanding of God through the variety of worship songs that she had learned. “Gospel music teaches us the power and greatness of God in a new way,” she told the chapter. The worship time included a dance choreographed and danced by the students from the Lawndale program. I definitely understood the energy of God as I watched and heard these young people dance before the Lord.
Several students shared the awe they experienced as they saw the work of God in the church in Lawndale–and the humble vibrant spirit of the people who have endured so much in life, but who know the love of God in that community. At the end of the program the students who had been to Lawndale for the summer prayed over the students who would be spending spring break in the Lawndale community, asking that God would work in the lives of those being sent, that they might be used to his glory.
I marvel at what God has done. When I attended school at Northwestern, the InterVarsity chapter was in the process of rebuilding. I have been in touch once in a while over the years, and am impressed at God’s faithfulness, that he has caused the ministry to grow to three separate chapters on campus and has supported the community, maintaining it over the years. But more than numbers, I am impressed with how the individuals whom I met have submitted to God, allowing him to be the center of their lives.
