God's Kingdom in Your Midst
“Life after college is tough,” Anthony Moore, a 2012 graduate from San Diego State University, candidly admitted. His post-college year has been one of looking both outward to intentionally love coworkers with the love of Christ and inward to face personal battles.
The Kingdom of God at Work
“Once I graduated, I felt very on my own,” he said. “Still, the skills I picked up in college—talking to people about Jesus, inviting, asking the right questions, knowing what mistakes to avoid—really helped me feel confident. . . . InterVarsity equipped me with the tools I needed to talk to people about Jesus and spread the kingdom.”
As an editor and content specialist for Spread Effect, a startup/marketing company, Anthony has the opportunity to share Jesus with coworkers in some way every day. “I work in an almost entirely spiritual-less environment,” he said. “My coworkers are all young guys, not believers. I pray for them, serve them lovingly—as best I can—take interest in their lives, and make myself available to them by letting them know I’m a guy they can talk to about spiritual stuff. I also ask if I can pray for them, or at least tell them I’m praying for them.”
Talking about Jesus with non-believers wasn’t always something Anthony was confident and passionate about. He grew up in a Christian home, but his involvement with InterVarsity in college was what helped him own his faith. “My first interaction with InterVarsity was my first week of college when I saw a flyer for a free barbecue,” he recalled. “I was immediately drawn. That was my first taste—no pun intended—of campus ministry, and I knew I wanted in. I had a choice—stay with God in college, or fall away. I decided on the former.”
From there he began to grow in spiritual maturity and evangelism. “Spreading the kingdom is all about overcoming a fear of rejection for me,” he said. “InterVarsity taught me to just jump, to just go for it.” He admitted that the process of growth was not always easy, though: “Some of the biggest cringe-worthy moments I’ve ever had in my entire life were ones spent knocking on strangers’ doors in residence halls I had never been in, inviting people to Bible studies. I both hated and loved the awkward interactions. But once you can talk to a stranger about Jesus, you can talk to anyone about anything. It’s like learning a new language—you have to do it a lot to get good at it.” Now he’s grateful for the ways he was encouraged and equipped to grow in this area.
That growth has continued after college, as he intentionally pushed himself to seek out Christian community. Currently involved in two separate small groups—one for men and one for college graduates—Anthony said, “I knew that I needed Christian community after I graduated and left InterVarsity, and getting plugged into a church was the best option.” He added, “As an introverted guy, it was tough placing myself out there to people I had never met or even seen, but I knew that was the way to go.”
The Kingdom of God Inside Us
His church community has helped in a season of facing personal sin and the brokenness of his past. “In college,” he reflected, “it was all about pouring into and helping members of InterVarsity; after college, God has placed me in a season of working on myself, admitting my faults and brokenness, and letting him in to heal me.”
In a blog post Anthony wrote on his personal blog (stuffgradslike.com), he cites five common addictions college grads face: sex and pornography, drugs and weed, eating disorders, drinking, and working. He hasn’t been immune to some of these addictions himself, so this post-college season has required much humility, courage, intense counseling, and a constant turning to Jesus. “I’m a broken, selfish, disobedient, self-absorbed sinner that is a complete mess—a train wreck,” Anthony admitted. But with help from others, he’s been able to experience growth and healing. “I’ve made a conscious decision to confront and identify every negative, sinful, broken pattern I’ve developed over the years and give it to Jesus,” he said. “Jesus is really where real progress, growth, inspiration, and healing come from.”
In the midst of the moral and emotional struggles, he’s discovered a depth of God’s grace and forgiveness that he didn’t previously know. “I’ve learned that God will forgive me, no matter what I do, no matter how low I sink—and I can sink to places so bad I didn’t even know about them. I’ve also learned that there’s hope for the future—that if I let Jesus in, if I learn how to surrender to him, if I acknowledge that I need help, help will come.”
It’s this hope that keeps him pressing on, facing challenges, and working to love those around him with the love of Jesus he’s experienced. His hope also reminds him that God can and does use us in the midst of our struggles and despite our sin. In his words and in his actions, he offers all of us—especially those in secular workplaces—valuable wisdom and perspective for our work: “Pray for your coworkers, even if you don’t think you mean the prayers. You’ll start to have compassion on coworkers, Jesus will begin to answer your prayers, and their lives will be changed, as will yours.”
Anthony challenges us not to stop at praying for coworkers, though. With a boldness he learned in InterVarsity, he added, “Pray that God shows you where your heart needs to change. Ask God to give you his eyes to see the world—men, women, work, money, pain, hurt, suffering, boredom. Also, take a risk! Ask your coworker to church. Ask if you can pray for them in person. Let them know you’re praying for them. Selflessly love others!”
In this challenging post-college year, Anthony is doing all of those things, and watching the kingdom spread in his midst.
How are you loving coworkers? Leave us a comment sharing how God’s using you to bring his kingdom in your place of work.
Click here to read Anthony's article Developing Friendships with Coworkers and for tips on making friends at work.
To read more alumni stories, go to http://www.intervarsity.org/get-involved/alumni/alumni-stories.