Christian Fellowship

I was looking through the various news articles to try and I found one that talks about a topic that I am very familiar with, that is Christian college fellowship groups. Although it is again about Jeremy Lin, what I want to focus on is less about the basketball aspect, but rather how important it is for Christians to seek community. 

This week's article is Jeremy Lin emerges as embelm of burgeoning Christianity, which I took from CNN's belief blog. One of the main points that I took from this article was that one of the fastest growing groups of Christians are Asian Americans. More and more second generation Asian-Americans are joining Christian fellowship groups on college campuses. I have actually first hand experience with this because I am involved with one of the Asian-American Christian fellowship on my college campus. There were some quotes in particular that resonated with me.

From the article: "What's happening at the college level, for students this is a really important time and this is a really important form of community," Chen said. "It is also somewhat like an extended family for them." This is absolutely true, and I feel that the time I have spent with my fellowship has been so good. Just like this quote says, the community I have here in my college fellowship is my family away from home. The friends I have here are my brothers and sisters in Christ and my college experience would be completely different without them. They are friends that you can be real with, people that you can share the darkest part of yourself, and who respond with encouragement and love, not judgment and condemnation. These friendships that I have made in fellowship are ones that are also going to last into the future. I can see myself calling them in a few years' time after I graduated and asking them how they are, and they will probably do the same for me. 

Where would I be today without Christ? I have no clue, but it is kind of scary to imagine. I probably would have given myself over to various pursuits and made them my only desire. I would probably be trying to be the perfect pre-med who did everything he could to pump steroids into his resume to try to make himself perfect as a medical school applicant. If I had done all that, and I was still in the same position I am in now, with no acceptances yet, I would probably be ridiculously bitter. But you know what? That is not what happened. Although I did some things in the medical field, I spent the majority of my time serving in my fellowship and at my church, and it has been the best thing ever. 

I came in freshman year saying that I was Christian but who was I kidding? I didn't know who Jesus Christ was. But over these past 4 years, I have come to know and experience personally who Christ is. In the process, He has raised me up into a leader as well. Never, ever could I have seen myself as a leader, but now I understand that true leadership is about sacrifice. From when I was a freshman, to where I am now, I would say that God has really changed my heart. He has changed me from a person who only cared about himself, into a person who has learned to love and care for others. The reason I can do this is because I have been shown the greatest love of all by the Creator of the universe. 

 I am truly thankful that I took that chance 3 years ago by coming to fellowship for the first time. Now I can truly say that I have a hope and I have a future with Him, no matter what happens with my medical school applications. I have a Lord who humbled himself by dying on the Cross, bearing all the sins of humanity, in order to take me, a broken sinner. I think that is one of the crucial things about Christianity. As you grow closer to God, and if you are honest with yourself, you realize just how messed up inside we are. But there is hope and joy as a Christian understands how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is.

I just wanted to conclude this post by emphasizing something about Christian faith in America. People might say they are really pursuing their faith, but they are doing it alone. Maturing in Christian faith was never about doing it alone. It has always been about being part of a community because we were not made to be alone. The early church was a community, it was a place where the believers shared their lives with each other, it was a place where they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. Do you call yourself Christian but haven't been to church in a long time? Have you spent time with the Bible? These are important questions to ask yourself. For any Christian, I encourage you to seek after Christian community. It changed Jeremy Lin's life, it has changed mine, and it can change yours. 

Linsanity continued...

Continuing from last week's post about Jeremy Lin, it has been crazy, but he has continued his amazing play, and has continued to cause a media firestorm in the sports world.

It's in moments like these:

that might overshadow the pain and toil that results in great success.

Even as my Facebook wall has been exploding these past couple weeks with links to Jeremy Lin articles or videos, there was one that stood out to me. In this article, it details how it was Jeremy Lin's faith in God that helped him get through the hard times.

In case you did not know, Jeremy Lin's rise in the NBA has been astounding, and it seemed to come out of nowhere. Even though he had a fairly good basketball career, he ended up being an undrafted economics major out of Harvard. However, he later made a splash during the NBA summer league and attracted some attention, and was eventually picked up by his hometown team, the Golden State Warriors. But Jeremy Lin's journey until this year has been challenging.

As the first article talks about, Jeremy Lin's first year was frustrating for him, because he saw a limited role on the team with an average of 9.8 minutes and 2.6 points per game. But on December 9, the Golden State Warriors cut him from the team. That must have been extremely painful for him, when the same team he had grown up watching as a kid ended up cutting him, in a way saying "sorry, but you're not good enough."

The next team to pick Jeremy Lin up was the Houston Rockets, but unfortunately, they had an abundance of players that were the same position as him, so he hardly even got any practice time. Eventually, on Christmas Eve, the Rockets also cut Jeremy from their roster.

From the article it describes how:

"Lin headed back to the Bay Area defeated, but with a renewed purpose. He gave up trying to control everything. He tried to stop worrying.

He started every morning with a devotional before heading to the gym to work out. Whenever the anxiety tried to creep in, he whispered a Bible verse to himself:

And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose. — Romans 8:28"

After being cut from the Rockets, he was picked up by the New York Knicks, and he ended up getting the chance to show that he can play, and the rest is unfolding before our eyes.

The most inspirational part of this story for me as a Christian is the way that Jeremy Lin responded to the adversity he faced. Instead of letting impatience or anxiety consume him, he decided to just trust in God more. He ran to the Bible and found comfort and peace there, and I believe that is what Christians are called to do when we face similar trials and hard times.

In many ways, Jeremy Lin's story resonates deeply with what I am going through in my life. As a senior, I had been looking forward to find out which medical school I would go to. In a way, I feel that I may have experienced disappointment similar to Jeremy Lin when he was cut from his hometown team. A couple weeks ago I found out that my home state medical school had rejected me. At first, my reaction was shock, and then a lot of frustration and disappointment. I felt basically that my home state was telling me sorry, we don't want you, you're not good enough, and it hurt. 

Later that weekend, I was still feeling down, and eventually I turned to reading the Bible, and it was the only source of comfort and encouragement for me. It was seriously the only source of comfort for me at the moment. Since then I have been trying to turn to God's word more and more as I wait. Right now, I am on the waiting list for three schools, and am still waiting for a decision from another. In time's like these that I need to be patient, and defeat my anxiety by casting all my anxiety on Him that cares for me.

Even as this Linsanity continues, it has been encouraging for me too. For me personally, it's gut check time for my faith. I worked hard at school and tried my best these past 4 years hoping for the chance of attending medical school, but now it is truly all in God's hand. 

Now all I can do is be like Jeremy Lin, and wait patiently and faithfully for whatever God has in store for me. 

I hope that when people see Jeremy Lin and his story, they would see past the success, and see the faith and the hope in God that kept the dream alive. I also hope that  some way and some how, that his story can inspire people to face their troubles with patience and faithfulness in God. 

Linsanity!

   As many of you who have been following the NBA may know, the New York Knicks have started playing a reserve point guard, Jeremy Lin as a starter with great results. He has been playing extremely well, scoring over 20 points in the past three games and leading his team to victory.

      However, the reason I am posting about him this week is because there is something special about this player. According to the Washington Post, people have started calling Jeremy Lin "Tim Tebow 2.0" or the "Asian Tebow." Like Tebow, Lin is a devout Christian, and both share this kind of underdog position where they have been exceeding expectations. The differences lie in their paths to success, Tim Tebow was drafted in the first round, had won national championships at Florida, while Lin graduated from Harvard and was not even drafted to the NBA. Lin had to play in the NBA developmental league, was cut from the Golden State Warriors, waived from the Houston Rockets, before he ended up on the bench for the New York Knicks. But now, he is getting his chance to prove he can play, and he has been showing that he can be a starter.

     This article from Patheos called The Faith and Fate of Jeremy Lin was published March 3, 2010, almost two years ago, and it is an interesting read because it allows us to see how Jeremy's Christian faith played into this whole process of becoming a professional basketball player. This article basically consists of a series of interviews with Jeremy, and it gives a behind scenes perspective of this up and coming player. It is interesting how he describes how his parents encouraged him to play for God's glory, but at first he did not know what that looked like.
 
       Lin talks about learning how to honor God through basketball by trusting in God's plan for him, and developing "a godly work ethic and a godly attitude, in terms of being humble, putting others above yourself, being respectful to refs and opponents." I think that what Jeremy says about this definitely resonates with me, and the key word here is humility. Lin also talks about how his faith affected not only the way he plays basketball, but also the way he lives his life. As he says, "much of it comes down to humility.  We as Christians are called to be humble.  And if we really understand the gospel, we will be humble.  We should be humble, and understand that everything that is good comes from God." I definitely agreed with this statement, a "proud Christian" is an oxymoron, or at least should be. Christians are called to live for Christ, and part of that means sacrificing things sometimes, and recognizing that everything we have in our life was given to us by God. 


       The aspect of all of this that amazes me the most is how humble Jeremy Lin is through everything. Even though it would be really easy to get puffed up with pride because of the great success he is having right now, it's amazing to see that he really is staying humble. I think that is something that everyone could use more of, humility. It will be interesting to see the kind of effect that Jeremy Lin will have on the basketball and media world, and I hope that he will continue to be vocal about his faith in God. 

Introduction

Hey everyone, just wanted to write a little intro post. This is a blog for my Comm 300 class, Communication in the Digital Age. This is my first time blogging, so please bear with me. As the title suggests, this is going to be a blog about the state of Christianity in America today.

Some of the things that I want to examine the current state of Christian faith in our country and whether churches are succeeding in a climate that sometimes is very hostile to faith. Some other things that I may examine are the presidential election bids and how Christian faith plays into that. Every week I plan on finding interesting articles about these subjects, summarizing them, and them commenting on them. If you would like to help, feedback is appreciated.