“Don’t put God in a box,” Lucas says when asked if there’s anything he could tell his freshman self. It’s a Friday afternoon in May, and Lucas sits across the table from me next to a suitcase of clothes he’s bringing to chapter camp in his apartment a few blocks from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He’s a senior studying both Industrial Engineering and Chinese, and for the past three years, he’s served as a leader in his Asian American InterVarsity (AAIV) chapter. Next door, his roommates pack their things to head back home for the summer, a kind of bittersweet reprieve from the stress of homework and the warm comfort of community. “I don’t want to take this for granted because it’s not always like this,” he says with palpable joy on his face. “I want to listen to what God has to say through my community.”