Living as a student: Vision

A long time ago, I remembered there was this question (and we were debating it quite ferociously in the IVLE community). It was a question asking what should a Hope Church member in NUS or the uni ministry be like. I debated, and many others too. This was my reply:

Some questions this Robert is asking. Then again, let's try to answer it

A NUS HOPE Christian

Number 1, identity wise, as NUS Hope Christians, we are Christians who just happened to be studying in NUS.

Number 2, mission wise, as a result of number 1, we have a mission by God - to fulfill the Great Commission in NUS, to try to spread the gospel to as much people as we can reach out to.

Number 3, what we sought to achieve, as a result of number 1 and 2, we strive to not only expand God's Kingdom by fulfilling the Great Commission, but also committed to being salt and light within our NUS social circle, being able to impact whoever we meet in NUS.

Number 4, as a result of number 1 also, studying in NUS means that we are also Christians getting prepared to face the working world thru studying some forms of specialised knowledge, and also in the same time, get connected with the global world and always getting ready to face the next stage in life.

Yeah yeah yeah. Sounds like it comes straight right out from the TYS? It sure sounds like that, after I have thought through what makes a NUS Hope Christian. The paradox, I can hear people saying, 'let's not give TYS answers' but yet, I can really give answers like you have to be a fanatical religious pharisical legalistic lunatic in order to qualify as a NUS Hope Christian (bear in mind this is only for example sake, not my real opinion, and not anyone's real opinion. I'm going to make anyone who confront me with regard to the preceding statement to read this part once more until they get it) and yet I can almost hear people saying 'hey, that's not correct' or 'hey what makes you think so?' and I will answer ,'hey, just wanna give a non-politically correct answer'. Actually I have a qualm with people always saying 'let's not give TYS answers'. True enough, sometimes we should not give TYS answers and just say what we really think and feel. But hey, if your answer sounds like a TYS answer, and it's really what you think and feel, then it's really what you think and feel. Who cares about TYS answers. If it's TYS, then TYS it shall be.

And so, my answer sounds like a TYS answer, it sure does. But it's after careful reflections and thoughts that led me to this conclusion. I dun mean it to be politically correct (in Hope NUS, I have yet seen the 'politcally correct' person)but if it sounds politically correct, then you go make out why.

But then, my thought here, the reason why TYS answers occur is because the question itself is TYS. How about it?



And to add to YA's comment.

What does it mean to me personally? Personally, it's about the same. Personally however, there is something which I think should even more define a NUS Hope Christian. We simply have to be more pro-active in what we do, and since we are in NUS, we ought to be more hopeful in our school work than the rest, not because we come from Hope Church, but because we have hope in Christ. Personally speaking, I dun know about it but somehow, I feel sad when people say they hate what they are doing, or the reason why they are doing the thing they are doing is because they like a certain portion of it. The latter was a valid one, but the former is... I think we ought to be more interested and more passionate about what we are studying, so that other people will be impacted from our enthusiasm. Dun even talk about salt and light if we are to act irresponsibly in our study...

And this is another reply I gave in the forum:

Seems like my own blog post has inspired some discussions here. Anyway, to clarify about my stand also.

I really feel sad when I see people 'suffering' or so-called 'not enjoying' their studies. I personally dun have anything against these group of people, but I just feel sad. I was always thinking, how am I going to distinguish myself, my identity as a NUS Hope Christian from the other people, non-believer especially. I have been called 'nuts' multiple times by people in and around the church and outside of the church (they dun literally mean nuts of course but you can see their disbelief) when I commented that the IVLE forums and the classrooms have became my playground and by that, I hope you all realise that I actually mean that I enjoy my modules a lot and I have a hell lota fun out of the discussions. For me, my task is clear, I am enjoying my modules and I want people to know it, to realise that they can enjoy their modules also, and their studies as well.

I understand that I'm speaking from a position where I'm doing the things I like in NUS, mainly studying history and techno management and literally, all of my UEs and breadths will be used to take my techno management modules which I dun intend to S/U and after a bit of calculation, I figured that I have exactly 3 UEs left for me to take any modules and S/U them. As such, I'm in a position to 'enjoy' my modules. I often wondered how am I going to identify with those who may not have enjoyed these privileges. My end conclusion is that I dun have to identify with them. In the end, I want to bring light to them, to show them that there is no need to lament so much about their studies. This is one lesson which I learnt from outreaching to people. I may not be good at it, but I can learn to enjoy the process. I may not like the modules but I can learn to enjoy the modules.

Take for example, my management module's a bit boring now but I learnt to enjoy the module through my group project as I bonded together with my project groupmates and we have fun together. Likewise, sometimes I do feel that I have difficulties understanding technological innovation but my fun-to-be-with group mates helped me to learn to enjoy the module. The bottomline: I'm not out to tell everyone who dun enjoy what they are studying off, nor am I here to degrade these people, but I want to show and demonstrate that we can learn to enjoy these modules and do the best we can. As Hope Christians who happen to be studying in NUS, we ought to demonstrate these traits, rather than lamenting with our coursemates or friends, complaining that school sucks. We need to bear in mind that we will be studying here for 3-4 years, so if we dun learn to enjoy our studies and set an example of salt and light to our fellow course mate, then tell me, what makes us NUS Hope Christian?

The real bottom bottom line therefore is about us bring hope to our fellow NUS students not only in life but also in their studies. My experience and what I have seen around have taught me that while there is no strong co-relationship between scoring well and module satisfaction, able to achieve satisfaction from our module and studies does help a lot. It's not about scoring well, it's not about being a good student, it's more about being in a position to motivate our fellow NUS students, to act as the source of light and hope for them. And therefore, in order to achieve, we can't possibly join them in their lamenting or whatsoever. It's also not about putting on a fake front. I can also put on a fake front if I want, but what I'm talking about is real joy that derives itself from the joy of salvation.

So that was my answer to the definition of a Hope member studying in NUS or any other university. But today the question which I am more interested, after interacting with a lot of freshmen, lies in the definition of a student itself.

By definition of a student, from dictionary.com, a student is either someone who formally engaged in learning, esp. one enrolled in a school or college or someone who studies, investigates, or examines thoughtfully. I prefer the second definition. And that, of course, includes our life vision. For someone who studies, investigates or examines thoughtfully, as a student, it should be of no surprise that we are required to study our own lives, investigates it and examine it carefully. In fact, Socrates did once said and people over-quote from him, that an unexamined life is a life not worth living. Since as a student studying in schools, be it secondary, junior college, polytechnic, ITE, or university, it is the formulative years affecting what we will be doing for 75% of our lives and it offers us the most time to think about what we see ourselves to be doing in years ahead. In short, student time is the once in a lifetime opportunity for us to cast our own vision in our lives.

The Bible says:

Where there is no vision, people perish
- Proverbs 29:18a (AMP)

Martin Luther King Jr once said in a famous speech, 'I have a dream'. Today in every school, every organisation, you can be sure that you find a vision. AS a student therefore, there is no reason why we should not have a vision for ourselves. Indeed, those who fail to plan plan to fail. Having a vision for our lives would mean planning what we want to see ourselves achieving in the future, when we officially depart from the lifestyle of studying. Particularly since this is the formulative years, we have the time to chart out what we want to do and achieve. It's like being given a roadmap. We are given a road map, but we need to chart it. Otherwise, we will be like the blur NSF doing topography without knowing where he is going, despite having the map and the compass. Every guy who has served NS will understand that it is imperative that before every topo exercise, we need to plan out our route so that we will know where we are going. Although we may not stay on track, but at least we know that we should be going.

Having a vision, as a student, should work in a similar way. I remembered before my secondary school, I had always pondered what my future path would be like. From a very young age, I have had a lot of dreams, but none of them seem realistic. I had wanted to become a computer scientist (or somewhere along that line) and I thanked God that I'm not going along that path now. Eventually, I thought I have wanted to do political science in university, so I pursued a path of history and econs in JC. But after my A'level, I decided that I wanted to stick with history. Along the way, I have realised that I wanted to start my own business, get involved in politics. That, to me, had been the vision so far. Despite changing certain decisions along the way, the general vision has remained the same.

However, how many people can safely say that with a vision, they will definitely succeed? Napoleon Hill once said, 'What your mind can perceive and conceive, you can achieve.' I wonder how true can that be. The book that this quote came from did raise up a lot of examples to illustrate this point, and indeed, the main crux starts from a vision, being spurred up by what the mind wants, and going all the way, supported by your fervour your mind has given you. That itself is not wrong. But I just wondered how true this can be? After living long enough, one should have realised that there are certain things in this world that we cannot control. Right out from my own example, I have to change my paths slightly each time as the years go by, because there are factors I cannot control, like how the examiners mark my paper, and the macroenvironment surrounding me. Is it really so that whatever my mind can perceive and conceive, I can achieve? How realistic can this be? What if I have a vision that I want to be the first person to get a CAP of 5.1? And I believe in my mind so much that I thought I can do it?

Along the road map, there bound to be some places which we cannot bash through. The answer to this comes quite direct from the other translation of the same verse that I have quoted just now:

When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild
- Proverbs 29:18a (NLT)

As a student, we ought to have a vision. But at the end of the day, we need to ask ourselves, is it possible, is it within our scope of limit? It can be idealistic, but it needs to be realistic as well. The one thing is are we able to do it by ourselves? The same verse from the NLT version states that when people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. A vision without divine guidance is the perfect tool for us to run wild. The truth is that we may be achieving the vision, but are we achieving it by the right way? For example, I can cheat, in order to maintain a CAP of 5.0 and because I cover up my track so well, that no one will ever find out that I have cheated, hacked into the system and whatsoever. But because this is my vision to maintain a perfect CAP, so whatever I do is right. After all, what I can perceive and conceive, I will achieve.

At the end of the day, God's guidance needs to come into the picture. Non-believers here may screech and cry out, 'how does that concern me? I can do it by myself!' But I did lay down the various conditions that visions sometime are not enough, that by human effort alone, it is not enough to fulfill a vision.

Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.
- Psalm 127:1

Unless God allows you to build your vision, you will build it in vain. It doesn't matter if you keep on telling yourselves not to give up. The point is this, God, in the form of Jesus, died and lived, so that we can have a relationship with Him. Just like a relationship with our parents, He wants to be involved in our visions, and wants to help us build it. He wants to guide us, in case we run wild in the darkness. We may be able to see, but in darkness, our vision serves nothing.

As a student in NUS, I have deeply understood the need for God in my vision, as the path is not easy. Sometimes it is really not by my own, and I understood that if God is not there, then it's probably not something I need to pursue. Sometimes, I do realise that I am a human being, and there is indeed limit to my capabilities despite my mind telling me that I can achieve.

Over the past 3 or 4 years, I have learnt the importance of visions in my life, and over the past 1.5 year, I have learnt the importance of God in my visions. A relationship with Him means that I allow Him to participate in my life.

Likewise, living as a student, we need to have visions. We need to have a dream, like Martin Luther King Jr. Living as a human student, we need to have God guiding us in it.