Where Do We Go From Here?

Where do we go from here?

Open Letters to the New Moody Student

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The speaker got up from his front-row seat and walked
toward the podium microphone.

“Hello and welcome to Moody Bible Institute, Class of
2019!” the speaker said with a smile to the packed crowd
of students, parents, and faculty. Looking around at the
massively draped curtains and back walls containing the
organ pipes, I felt alone in Torrey-Gray auditorium. I can
remember being so intimidated that this was my first
time without my dad.

Back then, my dad was already on a plane back to North
Dakota where my mom, brothers and dog Max lived.

Summer before Moody, I was counseling kids at Bible
camp. I can remember trying my hardest to distract
my camper kids from the H-1, S-1 disease, which was
just a quippy code-word for “home-sicknesses.” This
time though, I was the little camper at Bible school who
contracted the H-1, S-1. I wanted my dad in a city full of
mysterious people more than anything in the world.

//

Being homesick is completely normal. Been there, ex-
perienced that, and by God’s mercies I made friends that
first week of freshman year who’ve remained my best
friends four years later.

Now, it’s with great joy, that along with many of those
friends my dad, mom and brothers get to join me for one
more chapel in May for my diploma in this city full of
beautiful people.

By Andrew Hinkel

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My dad and big brother looked at me. They saw the
concern in my eye. They smiled at me and began asking
me how I could rearrange the room. My dad and brothers
moved the bed, desk, and drawer in a “homier”.

The initial fears were soothed as my mom removed the
few clothes I had from my suitcase and placed them in
my new drawers.
Although it barely filled the drawers, it was something
familiar.

My family finished helping rearrange my room and un-
pack.

I remembered to the previous summer when we visited
the jails of Alcatraz, but it seemed like a more distant
reality. My room felt like an empty cell.

As I collected more memories in Chicago, my drawers
began to fill. My walls came alive through the collabora-
tion of the times that my roommate and I share.
The pictures on our walls held faces of people from
home, but slowly more pictures were added of beautiful
souls who share in this experience.

Maybe I would have always looked at my room as that
jail cell on that little island of Alcatraz. I praise the Lord
that changed my first impression. That He alone changed
my perspective. That He alone brought new brothers and
sisters into my life. That changed this, thought to be, jail
cell into a beautiful home.

It’s not about the space the Lord bring you to, it’s about
how He shapes you through this space.

By Raelene Wong

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Hey.

I know this college thing is hard. You had your routine
back home. You knew what to expect, and exactly what
was expected of you.

But all that has been traded for new beginnings. Which
is great, don’t get me wrong. But it certainly comes with
its challenges.

I remember the scariest thing for me was not knowing
who my friends were going to be. Or if I was even gonna
have friends. Even at the beginning of each semester, it
can suck trying to regain that sense of community as
everything changes yet again. But that’s just it—every-
thing is always changing.

Friends really do come and go. But there’s hope, because
God doesn’t change, and he’s a God of community. I
can’t tell you how many times I thought I was all on my
own and then out of nowhere someone I barely knew
became my community. Even though relationships can
change, you can trust God to be God and provide exactly
what you need in those moments.

So as you start your Moody journey, and continue
through its various changes, know that he’s worth
giving control to. No matter where you end up on this
earth, you can trust the body of Christ to be the body of
Christ because God is the head of that body. I know it
doesn’t always feel like it, but you’re never alone. It’ll be
okay. I promise.

Oh, and call your mom.

By Erica Born

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Dear new student,

I have asked myself the question over and over again,
“Is God really good?”.

It seems to hang in the air over me like a black cloud
and I cannot seem to shake it. I’m a senior at Bible col-
lege, I should not be having these doubts – right?

The doubt does not present itself in the climax of deep
grief but in the lulled moments where I seem to wait for
a capricious God to spring on everything I hold close to
my chest that I think is good. I do not want him to take
it from me. Here I find in myself a fight against truth
because I have never truly come to understand what
truth is.

But let me tell you, I have heard it over and over again
throughout my life, “God is faithful” and “God is sover-
eign” but those words seem to muddle in my head and
all I can feel is a latent sense of fear of the unknown.

Who am I to know what sovereignty looks like?

How can I trust that sovereignty if I don’t understand it?

I am discontent with the nice– it is flimsy and it is
shallow. I desire the depth of a God who is true and real,
one that I can trust with everything in me, not one that
will pacify my desires and make everything good again
because I asked. I desire a God who would sacrifice
part of himself – His only son in human form — for the
detestable sins of a world that we has drudged back into
the quagmire of our sin over and over again.

I desire a God who offers hope, not in a happy ending,
but in a hope that indeed He will fight a brutal battle and
save our souls.

Continued on next page

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This is a God, who knowing our pain, terror, and sorrow
reminds us of who He is and what is Truth. He bashes
lies and stands promising to wipe our tears away be-
cause he knows that sin has scared this world for eterni-
ty. This is a God we can trust.

Remember, the Enemy speaks to us in our pain and tells
us lies. He says God is just good and that we need to be
happy. However, that is not the Truth we are called to
follow even when there is tragedy, and pain.

Yes, joy will be found, but it will be found in the deepest
parts of who Christ truly is and who He has created each
of us to be on this earth while we wait with eagerness for
our eternal home. Until then, we are not just offered soft,
fearful, safety at the feet of Christ, but we are offered a
position in an army, following our Captain into the battle.

We know it will not be safe, but we also know that,
charging behind His standard in the ranks of his battal-
ion, we can trust that one day we will have victory.

So, remember that trust is not a simple thing, it may
not come in softness or cliché sentimentality, but it will
come with a true understanding of who the God we serve
is. Trust that He will reveal that to you in His time. Do
not assume that Bible classes will “fix” you or because of
them you will become more holy.

You will still have unanswered questions and that is
where trust in the God who has shown himself to be
faithful in the victory will become the most vital of ritu-
als.

By A senior still timidly asking questions

Mackenzie Jones

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Who Made This Thing?

Andrew Hinkel

Class of 2019
Communications
Favorite SDR item on the menu:
Big Burger Thursday

Erica Born

Class of 2021
Communications
Fun fact: has an extra tooth

Mackenzie Jones

Class of 2019
Communications
Fun fact: is 6"2' and has never
played a day of professional sports

Aaron Betts

Class of 2019
Communications
Favorite place in Chicago:
Garfield Park Conservatrory

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