To An Unknown God, Fall 2012

taug to an unknown god: a journal of christian thought at berkeley

THE

MONEY ISSUE

Cheerful GivinG Pg. 2

+

unknowngod journal.com

Volume 5. Issue 2. Fall 2012

CAN YOU HAVE BOTH GOD & MONEY ?

Pg. 6

to an

2

COver 2

unknown

God

Fall 2012

Table of Conten

Cheerful Givers Solomon Kim

Money

4 Money: God’s Test of Character

Nathan Hyunh

6 Both God and Money

Dominick Wong

8 With a Quarter to Spare

Bon Jin Koo

10 Playing Dress Up Marissa Lee 12 Giving to the Poor

Kelsi Macklin

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you.

– Acts 17:23

nts

14 Reflection 14 To Rise Above the Masses

Haebitchan Jung

15 Jesus the

Cornerstone

Sarah Cho

Discipleship 18 “Lord, to whom shall we go?”

David Park

25 PoeTry 25 Drawn

Thomas Hong

26 Lines of Talking

Wesleigh Anderson

28

28

-+ The Harbor: 1869 -+ The One Who Made It

Stephen Haw

29 29 True Love

Grace Gao

30 Finding a Fellowship

Chloe Ng

31 Overcoming Loneliness Through Baptism

32 Treasure of the Heart

Laura Greenwood

34 Our Mission

Natalie Cha

Andrew Yim

To An Unknown God is not affiliated with any church or other religious group, and opinions expressed in articles do not necessarily represent those of the editors. We are completely student-run and funded partly by the student body as an ASUC-sponsored student publication. Funding is also provided through individual donations.

Distribution is free while supplies last.

A Letter from the

Editor Dear Reader,

W

e live in a world in which money is inescapable. From the macroscopic level of nations, whose power relative to one another is determined by their GDP, to the microscopic level of individuals, who work their entire lives to secure financial stability for themselves and for their children, people are continually driven by money, and their purpose, even if not the money itself, is continually determined by money. Even the purpose of the university, an institution of knowledge and scholarship, has been transformed at least in part, if not principally, into professional training for young adults seeking enriched job opportunities that are accompanied by, not entirely coincidentally, augmented salaries as well.

That money is inescapable is truer today than ever in the past, and no matter how much Christians might wish to avoid the fact by separating themselves from the world, they have no choice but to engage with it. We are children of God, but we still have material needs, and though he is able to send manna from heaven, he more often provides in a form that the world can understand: when Elisha visited the widow in debt (2 Ki 4:1-7), the miracle that the Lord performed was not to strike down her creditors or erase her debts, but rather to give to her oil to sell, to engage in an activity both worldly and economic in nature.

If money is inescapable, we can do nothing more than attempt to approach it in a manner pleasing and acceptable to the Lord. The Bible offers plenty of advice on the topic – “the righteous is generous and gives” (Ps 37:21), “the borrower is the slave of the lender” (Pr 22:7), “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils” (1 Ti 6:10), to name but a few verses, for no inventory could be both comprehensive and concise – yet what does such a manner look like in practice, in the modern world?

Who can say? For a subject so fundamental to the world and so carefully scrutinized in the Bible, far too many Christians shrink back from the subject far too often. Even in a secular setting, money is never easy to discuss; in the context of the church, it can only become more difficult.

You should be coveting less, you should be giving more – who are you, anyway, to tell me how to manage my money?

But for all that difficulty, to ignore the question will not diminish the importance of teaching and living out holy and righteous convictions. Christ himself, during his ministry on earth, never shied away from the subject of money, and we would do well to follow his example. So in this newest issue of To An Unknown God, let the discussion be opened to examine its theme, “Money,” in all of its Christian dimensions, whether it is earning faithfully, giving cheerfully, receiving graciously, or renouncing holily. And then, let the discussion not conclude there but lead to action, righteous in the sight of God, so that we might look at these things to discover more of Christ, and to point to him as Savior and Lord.

wesleigh anderson,

Editor-in-Chief

editor-in - chief

Wesleigh Anderson

1

executive editor

Natalie Cha managing editor

Christine Han advisory board

Steven Fish Department of Political Science

Tsu Jae King Liu

2

Department of Electrical Engineering

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?

-Mark 8:36

and Computer Sciences

Jeffrey Reimer Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Jan de Vries Department of History associate editors

3

4

Grace Gao, Stephen Haw, Solomon Kim, Joice Lee, Jonathan Lim, Chloe Ng, Andrew Yim, Jennifer Yim contributors

Sarah Cho, Laura Greenwood, Thomas Hong, Nathan Hyunh,

5

Haebitchan Jung, Bon Jin Koo, Marissa Lee, Kelsi Macklin, David Park, Dominick Wong artists

Edwin Cho (13) Christine Han (Front Cover, 1.2, 1.5) June Kim (1.1, 1.7, 4-5, 16, 26, 27) Andrew Kuo (1.8, 1.9, 14) Joice Lee (19) David Lim (T.o.C., 2, 6-7, 8, 10-11,

6

7

8

9

20, 24, 28-29, 31) Justin Pham (1.3, 1.4, 1.6, 30) Diana Zheng (Back Cover) editors emeriti

Chris Han, Sarah Cho, Stephanie Chiao, Laura Ferris, Cliff Mak,John Montague, Whitney Moret

cheerful givers Solomon Kim

staff writer

2

I

’m terribly bad at getting people gifts. Just terrible. I think it’s because I think too much. Will she like it?

Will he even use it? My saving grace is always the old adage, “It’s the thought that counts.”

The meaning is simple. Neither the gift nor the act of giving is what truly matters. It is the intention behind the giving that matters. For those of you who have received especially mediocre gifts from me, I pray you share that sentiment. What, then, is my intention behind giving an offering or tithe to God? How much thought do I spare for the money I put in the plate at church?

Honestly speaking, not much at all.

For my entire life, giving back to God has been yielding a buck or two I happen to find in my wallet as the congregation enters the time of offering. Tithing has been giving up something close to ten percent of my wages as outlined in the Bible. I give what is expected of me. I do what I was taught to do. Does it mean anything if I do it this way? If I think of my offering as the couple bucks that I need to buy myself a can of green tea

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

(which I love), I may tell myself that I need tea and God has no need for my money this week, and it’s true. God has no need for the scraps of paper we assign worth to. He is not a few dollars short of buying a meal up in heaven. To think He needs or wants to take away our money is absurd. Giving to God is not something He requires of us.

This thought struck me as odd when I first heard it. “I don’t believe you are required to give a certain amount of your income.” When those words came out of Pastor Francis Chan’s mouth, it set off alarms in my head. The Bible (NIV) says in Numbers 18:26, “Speak to the Levites and say to them, ‘When you receive from the Israelites the tithe I give you as your inheritance, you must present a tenth of that tithe as the LORD’s offering.’” It clearly states that I am required to give a tenth of what I get to God, doesn’t it? In a time when my salvation was based on my work and righteousness, yes. In a time before Christ died for my sins and freed me from the bondage of the law, yes.

Christ’s death and resurrection ensured that we don’t have to be perfect

beings to enter the perfect realm of heaven. The laws of the Old Testament no longer condemn us because those who believe Jesus is the Savior of mankind are guaranteed salvation by faith. In short, obeying laws is not what gets us into heaven. By no means does that mean we live lawlessly. It simply means that there is a totally new and revolutionary reason to follow God’s laws.

Why do we follow any law? When I drive my car, I’m not a reckless driver, and I generally follow traffic laws. Despite this, when a police car appears, I sit up, my hands shoot to ten and two, and I attempt to look as inconspicuous as possible. Why? Why do law enforcement officials trigger this reaction in so many of us? It’s quite obvious why. Tickets and traffic school really suck. It is the fear of being punished that convicts us to follow laws.

Just as it is with traffic laws, it was fear of being punished that motivated the Israelites to obey Old Testament law. Spiritual and even physical death were the punishment, the fires of Hell would wait for them. Such a lifestyle is tough, isn’t it? Statistically, the average person breaks eight laws pulling out of their driveway. How much harder is it to live an entire lifetime sinless and pure? There aren’t enough lambs on earth to forgive that sin.

Therein lies the beauty of Jesus. He is referred to as “The Lamb” whose sacrifice forgives every little law we break. Through Him we are justified. The implications of His death on the cross are enormous.

Where once we had to be perfect, we can now be flawed. Where once our salvation hinged on what we are supposed to do, it is now secured by what Christ has done. Through Him we are freed. Simply put, we are given a ticket to paradise, no strings attached.

It sounds too good to be true. The Creator of the universe loves us and has done everything necessary to be with us. Amazing! Why then, are there still so many things that we are supposed to do, certain words we are supposed to say? Go to church every Sunday, read the Bible, give tithes and offerings. Why, if Jesus’ sacrifice freed us from the law, do we have to do all these religious things?

That’s exactly the point. We don’t. Jesus gave up His place in paradise so that we, through His loss, might receive salvation. He did all the work. The only thing we do is receive.

The next logical step in one’s thought process would be to question why anyone would do anything “religious.” Why go to church on Sunday when I can watch football? Why pray and study my Bible in the morning when I can sleep in for an extra fifteen minutes? Why throw away a tenth of my salary

when I can buy myself a bigger television?

It is typically with tithing that people have the largest issue. To put it into perspective, if Bill Gates were to tithe ten percent of his yearly salary, he would be giving close to four hundred million dollars a year. Ten percent of a paycheck is a lot of money even on a significantly lower salary. If God doesn’t require us to give this to Him, why do it?

It is a deceivingly simple answer. Do it out of love and thanksgiving to a God who sacrificed His only Son so He could be with us in heaven. If you truly understand the extent to which God has provided for and loved us, you can only rejoice and lift up praise to God. However, just saying that one should do something for the sake of love is so vague and cliché without proper context. In fourth grade, my teacher had a system designed to motivate us to do our homework. For each week we turned in all of our assignments, we received a red ticket. These tickets could then be used at a monthly raffle for miscellaneous prizes. Being a much better student then than I am now, I had hoarded several weeks worth of tickets to use if I saw a prize that I really wanted. One month, my teacher presented a small crystal bowl. It was a strange prize, not really interesting to eight and nine year-old kids. I used all my tickets, won it, and gave it to my mom.

I pray you understand why I did that. I could have saved my tickets for another month and used them to win an awesome Beanie Baby like the other kids, but I didn’t because I wanted to give yet another tasteless gift to my mom. It is the same with God. “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

(2 Corinthians 9:7, NIV) When I see the offering plate being passed around Sunday morning, I can’t help but notice who actually puts something in. I experience the pressure to give a little just so that others can’t judge me as impious. God doesn’t want that. He only wants offerings from cheerful givers who have set aside a portion of their resources to simply say, “I love you,” and, “Thanks for the blessings.” When you are handed the plate, God isn’t demanding your money. The plate, the people, none of it matters.

What matters is whether or not you are giving what you have decided in your heart to give. God asks for nothing more, and in my opinion, we should do nothing less.

Solomon is a sophomore with too much to read and too much to think about, realizing he has so much to be thankful for.

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

3

T

God's test of character Nathan Huynh

contributing writer

4

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

here are a lot of misconceptions about money.

Money is not evil.

Money is not good.

Money is not the bane of human existence.

Money is not the purpose of it either.

Money is not the root of all problems.

Money is not the answer to all difficulties.

Money is not the cause of strife between governments and nations.

Money is not the savior of broken families and relationships.

Money is not happiness. Money is not sorrow.

Just ask Antoine Walker. He was a man who had it made in this life. After graduating high school, he received a full scholarship to play basketball at the University of Kentucky where he proceeded to not only become an All-SEC First Team starting Power Forward as a freshman, but also an integral part of Kentucky’s championship run that year.

After finishing his first year, he declared for the NBA draft, was picked 6th overall by the Boston Celtics, and made the NBA All-Star team in just his second season. Near the pinnacle of his career, he was named to three NBA All –Star Teams and eventually became an NBA Champion in 2006-2007 with the Miami Heat.

Unfortunately, Antoine Walker is very likely to never be remembered as a 3-time NBA All-Star or even as an NBA Champion. After racking up millions upon millions of dollars in his basketball career, he recently declared bankruptcy for debts of over $12.7 MILLION. This was attributed to a long-standing gambling addiction and multiple risky purchases of multi-million dollar homes. After several attempts to get his basketball career back on track in order to pay off some of his ridiculous debts, he retired for good this past summer, having made no progress whatsoever in his journey back to his sport.

Money is an interesting idea. The funny thing about money is how effective it is at displaying what type of person you are. If you never had money but spent your entire life seeking it, you are regarded as a failure. If you always had money but you never spent it, you are remembered as a miser. And if you always had money but only spent it for your selfish desires, you are judged as a glutton and a fool.

The other funny thing about money is that you cannot live life without it. You can try to forsake money and live upon your own means and strength.

Good luck surviving in today’s world. You can also give all of your money away to other people as a symbol of your independent spirit. Try buying your next meal with that spirit too. Finally you can quit the world and abandon civilization, forever

removing the need for currency. Is that what you call a fulfilled life? Whether we like it or not, money is a necessity in our lives.

But the idea that money is important seems to terrify our modern society. There is even a good chance that at this point you are probably thinking, “Wait, isn’t money evil? Isn’t it the cause of all of our problems?” Or for those of you who are more spiritually inclined, you may be thinking, “Doesn’t God tell us to not seek money? What about Acts 2:42-47? Doesn’t it say that that we should sell all our possessions and just live in the presence of Christ?” The answer is, “Not quite.”

In her masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand details the struggles of men and women who truly understand the power and importance of money.

Halfway through her book, Francisco d’Anconia, the key protagonist and the speaker of this essay’s opening quote, gives a dissertation on the importance of valuing money. What he argues is that money is the ultimate means of determining the goodness of man. Money, he notes, is simply a tool meant to test a man’s character. The inherently good will use the money for the inherent good, while those who have nothing but evil and selfish desires will be crushed and destroyed by their own greed.

It is a pity that Ayn Rand lived her life as a devout atheist, because I believe that she and God would have agreed about a lot of things, the foremost of these being money. In James 2:5-6, James warns his readers about living a life purely dedicated to the accumulation of wealth. In Mark 4:19, Jesus notes that the joy and happiness found in money is simply a lie. And in Proverbs 24:27, David writes about putting your house in order and preparing for bountiful harvest. The philosophies found in these verses are repeated in Ayn Rand’s own novel Atlas Shrugged.

The reason why I bring Ayn Rand up is that I believe she was onto something when she writes that money is simply a means to a goal. If our life goals are based upon selfish desires, then the journey there will be full of extravagance and lust.

Remember Antoine Walker? After the NBA, he lived a life of self-glorification. And because he had the complete monetary means to do so, he eventually found himself drowning in his own desires.

But let’s imagine someone else. Imagine a man who understands that the purpose of his money is to be used for a good higher than himself. This is a man who will not only accomplish great good in his life but be blessed by the good he brings out in others.

I feel that God has placed money in our lives to see whom we truly worship. If we worship the Lord God Almighty, then we understand that everything we do must further glorify Him. So when God gives us money, He is essentially challenging us to see where we place all of our hopes and dreams. If your confidence in Him is defined by the amount of wealth that He has blessed you with, then there is no doubt in my mind that the purpose of your money will be used to satisfy your earthly desires instead of the heavenly ones.

Luke 12:48 (NIV) says, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” There is a parable in the Gospels that describes a master giving his three servants each ten coins as he departs for a trip. The first servant makes the most out of it and doubles his master’s investment. The second servant also shows wisdom and manages to add an additional five coins. However the third servant, fully competent and fully aware of what he has been given, completely wastes his opportunity and does nothing useful with his money.

That parable is like a miniaturized version of Atlas Shrugged. Two different men are given equal talents and gifts, but only one truly maximizes it for a greater good. The other is simply content living a complacent life, using his talents only for himself. The scariest part about that parable is how true it can be in our lives. We can become so lazy sometimes and just use our God-given talents for ourselves.

Money is God’s ultimate gift to us because with it, we are given an opportunity to worship God in an incredible way. Our money is a representation of who we are and what we aspire to be. If our ultimate goal is to further God’s kingdom, then we should have no fear of money or our ability to earn it. Rather we should hold the opposite view and earn as much money as possible for and only for the glory of God. So whether God blesses you monetarily or seeks to place you in a lowly, humble position, remember that money is never the ultimate goal in life. Instead money is a representation of what we worship. And if what you worship is holy and true, then I have no doubt that God will be true to you.

Nathan, a sophomore and intended Statistics and Economics double major, is a numbers and philosophy geek who loves to break down things as random as from the NBA’s salary cap to Milton Friedman’s “free lunch.”

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

5

both AND

God

MONEY WHAT THE BIBLE HAS TO SAY ABOUT MONEY AND POSSESSIONS

“The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly.” -Søren Kierkegaard

Dominick Wong

contributing writer

Dominick is a first-year sociology major at Cal.

6

C

hristianity is not a materialist faith. Living in modern America, it seems most believers have lost sight of this fact. We have, instead, become seduced by paycheck prophets, televangelizing an age-old Gospel of Wealth. We live in subconscious adulation of material success, internalizing a Puritan glorification of Predestined Prosperity and all its trappings. We daily orient our lives and thoughts on economic terms, driven by a pervasive calculus that embraces selfish gain and dismisses selfless love as “impractical”.

It is high time for a reminder of what we believe in: Christianity is not a materialist faith.

Jesus stated quite clearly and thoroughly: "No one can serve two masters.

Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money” (Matt. 6:24 NIV).

There is little room for ambiguity here. No ifs, ands or buts. Jesus speaks in absolutes for a reason. These are not irrelevant hyperboles to be dismissed and forgotten. God shouldn’t simply be our first priority; God should be our only priority. Money shouldn’t be the distant second, but the diametric opposite of what we ought to serve.

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus calls us to be in the world, but not of it; embracing a subversively countercultural lifestyle of immaterialism, and rejecting this society’s idolatrous value system, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matt 6:21 NIV).

Living in a world that measures success in terms of maximizing “income” and “net worth”, Jesus overturns the prevailing opinions and tells us that, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:25 NIV).

Likewise, in a society that places so high a premium on accumulating material wealth, Jesus advises, “Do not store up wealth for yourselves treasures on earth” (Matt.

6:19 NIV).

Don’t make the mistake of believing that his message is intended for only the rich and wealthy. To the contrary, Jesus argues against the belief in the idea of ownership itself, for the rich or the poor, when he says "Only the man who says goodbye to all his possessions can be my disciple" (Luke 14:33 J.B. Phillips).

Just as serving money makes it impossible to serve God, clinging to possessions makes it impossible to follow

Jesus. Faith in one precludes faith in the other. So then what are we to do in light of this?

How are we to manage the material world surrounding us, without becoming slaves to it? Jesus gives us a concrete and consistent answer to these questions, commanding us to, “Give to those who ask, and don't turn away from those who want to borrow” (Matt. 5:42 NLT).

Material things should be of such little importance to the Children of God that if anything were to be asked of us, we would give it freely. In fact, property should have so little value that we should give freely, based on need, even if it is not asked of us. As John the Baptist states, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with one who has none and anyone who has food should do the same" (Luke 3:11 NIV).

Jesus takes John’s words one step further when he says, “Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back” (Luke 6:30 ESV).

Property is to be so insignificant to us, that even if it is forcibly stolen, we are to respond with love.

We are to be a dispossessed people, using things, but never owning. And why should we do this? Why should we voluntarily endure such propertyless lives?

Why? Not just because we are told to do so, but because, as God is the ultimate Creator of all things, all things belong to God. Nothing we have is really our own. As Job realizes, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away...” (Job 1:21 NIV).

If this supreme reality is not reason enough, remember that God is not just the ultimate Creator, but the ultimate Giver as well. God has given us so much more than we deserve not just in physical gifts but, most importantly, in the free gift of salvation. An omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient Being willingly placed itself into a mortal form to be crucified as the ultimate sacrifice; the limitless became limited. By freely giving himself, through Christ Jesus, to die for our sins, God set the greatest example for us to follow. Jesus tells us, “...Freely you have received; freely give” (Matt.

10:8 NIV).

The early Christian church took this command to its literal conclusion. The author of Acts tells us, “All the believers were one in heart and mind.

No one claimed that any of their possessions was

their own, but they shared everything they had” (Acts 4:32 NIV).

As we can see, these teachings are quite plainly and visibly direct, and yet, we Christians frequently find it convenient to simply ignore these words. Indeed, money is such a pervasive phenomenon that living according to anything else is bound to be inconvenient. And so, in our education, our careers and even our personal relationships, we persistently live our lives with money in mind, in spite of Christ’s words to the contrary. In doing so, we Christians seem to be saying, “Yes, I have heard all you have said, God, and it sounds great on paper, but I have to eat. I have mouths to feed and children to house. I have duties to fulfill, obligations to attend to, debts to pay. I agree with what you’ve said, God, but let’s be practical. I don’t intend to starve. Let me worry about money for the time being.”

Even two millennia ago, Jesus anticipated this line of reasoning and answered accordingly, telling us, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’

For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matt. 6:31-34 NIV).

It would be so much simpler, so much more comfortable, to be able to ignore this difficult command and live our lives as the rest of the world does. However, we Christians are not called upon to walk the path of least resistance. Ours is a difficult, impractical and often absurd march against the social current. The world we reject will reject us in turn. It will not understand. We will be mocked, persecuted, exiled and imprisoned because we refuse to play by its rules, for Jesus tells us, “The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you” (John 15:19 NLT).

Our course of action is clear. We must renounce any notion of owning. Possessing prevents us from fully knowing God and so we should freely give and receive all possessions that we have been blessed with. Naked we came from our mothers’ wombs, and naked we will depart. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. May his name be praised.

“We Christians are not called upon to walk the path of least resistance.”

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

7

Bon Jin Koo contributing writer

with a

Quarterto Spare

8

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

M

r. Simmons, what is your view on money? Can an individual with much wealth further God’s kingdom?”

“Those are interesting questions, Professor Lee,” I said.

I stared at the hundreds of eyes staring right back at me in this stuffy college auditorium. I volunteered to be here last minute, but honestly, I did not want to be here. My initial discomfort in coming as a guest speaker had worsened when the professor had told me the air conditioning had not been working.

“Well, nearly anything can be used to glorify God’s kingdom, Professor,” I explained. “Money can be used correctly in the right hands. The local church can gain resources to reach out to others more effectively. Rehabilitation centers for human trafficking victims can be built. Missionaries can be provided with necessary provisions.”

The professor looked dissatisfied.

“I was looking for more of a personal answer, Mr. Simmons.”

“Right.”

I shifted my eyes away from the professor’s awkward gaze and looked toward the audience instead. I tried looking for a familiar face, a piece of clothing, anything that could remind me of some impressive story. Nothing.

“I… think Christians should… aspire to wealth actually, as controversial as that sounds,” I said.

“Why do you think so?”

“Well, with money you have the power to move people, influence power, and a number of other… things that could provide benefit to the kingdom,” I said hesitantly.

The professor smiled.

“I’m thinking of a man who has the potential to make millions. Would it be right for him to fulfill that potential or not?”

“Of course he should fulfill that

potential!” I said, slightly annoyed at the professor’s grin. “God would want him to use that money for His glory!”

“Yes, I completely agree.”

“You do?”

“But let’s consider the alternative: What if the man did not fulfill his potential to attain that massive amount of wealth?”

“Er... that would be such a waste,” I answered.

“Would it really?” Professor Lee whispered.

The bell tower struck its mighty bellow throughout the campus before I could react.

Students bustled about to leave the auditorium. I approached the professor, curious at what he had said earlier.

“Professor Lee, a word?”

“Of course.”

“I am no master of theology,” I said bluntly.

“Why did you invite me to speak here?”

“Do you feel insulted in any way?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. And you didn’t answer my question.”

“To thank you, Mr. Simmons.”

“Excuse me?”

“I invited you here to thank you,” Professor Lee said.

“That was the most elaborate and confusing ‘thank you’ I’ve ever experienced.”

“Let me explain,” Professor Lee chuckled.

The professor pulled out my business card. I designed it myself; Matthew 7:7 was embossed in the center of the card.

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you,” Professor Lee read. “Fancy the ESV, I see.”

“So you noticed my favorite verse,” I said.

“Why that verse?” Professor Lee asked.

“It serves as a constant reminder to me, Professor,” I explained. “The only reason I am here today is because I asked God to help me countless times. So one day I decided to return the favor.”

“What happened?”

“In the board meeting that marked the one year anniversary of my company, I found out that we were drastically below fiscal expectations,” I said. “But I still thanked God for taking me this far.

When Gravian College asked for a donation for their

scholarship program, I happily gave the amount God willed me to give.”

“Was it the Guardian of Truth Scholarship?”

Professor Lee asked.

“As a matter of fact, it was – how did you know?”

The professor extracted a small medal from his coat pocket. The circular piece of metal still had a magnificent bronze luster just like a brand new penny that was barely used. My eyes widened when I saw the words engraved into the medal.

“I was smart but from a poor family, so getting into college wasn’t the problem,” Professor Lee whispered. “Paying for it was.”

“You…?”

The professor smiled.

“The man I described earlier in lecture… that man was you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You indeed fulfilled your potential to achieve the wealth you have today, and because of that, I stand here as well.”

“But what if I hadn’t? Wouldn’t that have been such a waste?”

“No, it would not,” Professor Lee replied. “I believe you still would have been a great man of God. Remember Mr. Simmons, one’s potential to gain a lot of money does not make him any less precious to the Father.”

The professor tucked the business card and the medal away. There he goes, smiling again! I was going mad; why does he smile like that?

“Professor, what is so funny?” I burst out. “I don’t want to be rude, but that smile of yours has been bothering me.”

“My tuition for my years at college added up to about $400,000,” Professor Lee chuckled. “$416,344 to be exact. Guess how much the scholarship granted me.”

I shrugged. “$416,344 and twenty-five cents,” Professor Lee said. “And I must say, if that extra quarter doesn’t merit a ‘Here I am’ from God then I don’t know what does.”

The three of them roared with laughter.

Bon Jin is a sophomore intended English and Computer Science major from La Crescenta!.

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

9

Marissa Lee

contributing writer

W

hat do you want to be when you grow up?”

It was my first day of kindergarten and Miss Page, my kind and beautiful 20-something teacher, stood in front of me, smiling down with her big brown eyes. At the ripe young age of 5 years old, I exclaimed, “I want to be a teacher, just like you!” Choosing a career was as simple as admiring Miss Page, going home and putting on my mom’s old earrings, taking the pillows off the couches in the living room to make a makeshift classroom, and forcing my younger brother and his poor little pals to be my students. Life was a blissful game of dress up.

“What would you like to study in college?” It was my first appointment with the college and career counselor at my new high school. Though the question was startlingly similar to my first day in kindergarten just 8 years back, the atmosphere was drastically different. Instead of looking into Miss Page’s smiling brown eyes, I found myself having difficulty meeting the intense gaze of my college counselor across the large mahogany desk.

I was thirteen years old and decided maybe this career thing wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

“So what are you going to do after you graduate?”

For college students, this question, beginning as a kind inquiry, slowly grows in intensity as the four years progresses. I came to college seeing it simply as a place to learn and be educated, expand my knowledge, become independent and discover the world. However, I was soon forced to see the harsh reality. In today’s world, a college education is seen as a means to an end – a name brand that will launch you into a stable and high-paying job, the determining factor of your “identity” in the real world. So I ended up meeting students who worked harder outside of school building their resumes than inside of school learning.

Why are we working so hard in and out of school? Why all this driven ambition, anxiety, and sacrifice of health? Deep inside of each one of us is the desire to be recognized, fulfilled, and admired.

Excelling at a prestigious university and getting a good job are synonymous with a big name and good money. In high society, big names are used like a neon sign, signaling your value; in consumer America, making good money is a symbol to the rest

10

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

Why our pursuit of a career is

playing of the world that you have made it. It is no wonder then, that after discussion section one day, when I playfully asked one of my classmates what she wanted to be when she grew up, she quite seriously exclaimed, “All I want to be is hot and rich!”

Her answer cut my heart. You see, my story is not simply a journey from kindergarten innocence to college student identity crisis. I spent years of my life following every rule that people told me would lead to my “success” in order to prove to both myself and others that I was valuable. But deep down, it all just left me feeling empty and disillusioned with life.

Then one day, I fell in love. I fell in love because I found that I was loved unconditionally. I had known of Him for a while, but as I didn’t really get to know Him, I had some misconceptions about Him. But He broke them all by showing me He didn’t care what path I was pursing to “become someone” in the world. He didn’t care what mistakes I had done or would do. He wasn’t impressed by the meaningless things I had accomplished. Rather, He saw value in me because He couldn’t help but love me – because He is love itself.

In this newfound love, I was offered a new identity. This identity was something so entirely different from what I had ever known that it was hard for me to comprehend at first. It had nothing to do with what I did. Rather my value had everything to do with a God who created me and gave me value by the very fact that He loves me, loves me so much that He sacrificed His life for me. All I had to do was accept this identity, acknowledging the truth about myself and the truth about Him. And I found value, love, and admiration from a God who is faithful and

really a search for significance.

dress up consistent, who really knows me and really knows what is best for me. It was that simple.

After I fell in love with Jesus Christ and recognized I owe my life to this God who gave me life, I had a bit of a personal struggle in terms of career choices. What does it mean to give my life completely to God, to live with complete and total abandon for Him? How literally should I take James’ words when he says, “Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27 NASB)?

Should I go into full-time ministry or get a “regular” job? For a while, I made clear black-and-white distinctions between jobs that were just about making money and jobs that were actually making a difference, when suddenly I realized I was looking at jobs the same way I used to look at my identity – on the basis of exterior works. I was just looking at the earrings on the 5-year-old child and thinking she was a teacher.

In Ephesians 6:5-8 (NASB), Paul told slaves to “be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh… in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ; not by way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. With good will render service, as to the Lord, and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each one does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether slave or free." These slaves may have been working for greedy business men, doing menial non-value-adding work as the bottom rung in a corrupt hierarchical system. But God seemed to be more concerned about their motivation and love for Him than what exactly they were doing on the

job. In the end, whatever we do, we are working for God, not a company or man. And what God really cares about is our hearts. To Him, true greatness, true significance, is really found in the motivations of the heart, not in the job title, awards, financial security, or any other exterior measure.

God explains it best to Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT): “The LORD doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” How are we going to fill that gaping desire for significance and admiration?

Fundamentally, the question of career is a question of identity. What we decide to pursue as a career does not make us into who we will “be” in the world.

The secret to achieving the greatness that we crave is found in the deepest thoughts of our hearts. So how do you figure out what your true motivations are? It all starts with what you think of God. Do you see God as someone who is proud of you? Who loves you unconditionally? Who is sovereign, and has your BEST interest in mind?… Ultimately, do you trust Him? Achieving a right view of God is the only way we can understand our own identity in Him – seeing our unearned value and responding to Him with love and total surrender.

So what do you want to be when you grow up?

Defining yourself by the values the world dictates will, in the end, be the same as playing a game of 5-year-old dress up. The “grown-up," accomplished, and successful exterior appearance will really be masking the reality of an unfulfilled, arrogant, confused, and disillusioned heart.

True significance, true “growing up,” is found in knowing God for who He really is, embracing the identity He has given you, and checking your motivations and developing your character to become more like Him. The result: greatness, wholeness, fulfillment, and joy. Once we learn to define ourselves through the love of Christ, we won’t need to play dress-up any more. We will have grown up.

Marissa is a senior majoring in Media Studies and Business and minoring in Education, who is thankful for sunshine, fresh air, the view of the bay, long runs, and laughter, and hopes to live a life of reckless abandon for her true love, Jesus Christ.

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

11

A

Giving to the

s Christians living in America, we automatically assume and expect that part of our Christian duty is to give to the poor or to help the needy in some financial or material fashion. Not only is this a way for us to model Jesus in the world, but the Bible directly tells us that God desires for us to fight against injustice and to defend the orphan and the widow (James 1:27). However, sometimes we assume that if we give financially to a Christian, non-profit organization, or serve in our church’s homeless ministry, or even go on a short-term mission trip, this will fulfill our social duty as Christians. We look at it as a duty to be fulfilled or a checkbox on our list to fulfill our social role in this world. But we fail to take into consideration the ultimate spiritual need people have and rather replace it by meeting solely physical needs.

In the summer of 2011, I went on a mission trip to China. Our mission team spent a week at a special needs orphanage and we were able to love on the children, play with them, and pray over them. Being at this orphanage caused me to reexamine everything in my life that I had placed importance on and I came to a startling revelation that what I had considered important issues in my life seemed to pale in light of the desperate circumstances of these children. I came back to the United States and tried to get into a routine, but all I could see were the faces of those little children everywhere I went. I was overwhelmed by the need these children had and I wanted nothing more than to provide each and every one of them with a loving family. But I felt helpless in being able to do anything, not only for them, but also for orphans all over the world and even children who are hurting here in America.

Recently a friend gave me a book to read called When Helping Hurts by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. Their main point is that good works and charitable deeds, such as financial and material support for the poor, can in reality hurt people more than help them, especially when good intentions come from a mindset of superiority that fails to take into account the social and cultural context of the need. The authors’ framework is that material poverty is not the ultimate need of the world; the problem is a broken relationship with God that leads to broken relationships with each other and with our environment. I don’t mean to discredit the enormous need these orphans in China had for a family, but I had been solely looking at the solution to their situation as wrapped up in a family. I had not taken into consideration the ultimate need these children had for Jesus, because only Jesus could truly heal the brokenness in their hearts.

My heart still breaks for the children I’ve met in China, but I know that even if it was in my power to give each child a family, that would not meet their ultimate spiritual needs. I’ve come to realize that material poverty is wrapped up in a broken relationship with Jesus, and I’m starting to see that serving the poor looks differently than what I had originally assumed. It not only includes providing material goods but also providing for spiritual needs. Jesus calls me to love and have compassion for those around me and to point them to Him. So when I’m loving and caring for people here in Berkeley, I see it as a way of loving and caring for those children in China. And when I volunteer my time or give food to the poor, I do it with the intention of pointing them to Jesus, knowing that only Jesus can fully satisfy their needs beyond the physical ones that I can see.

Poor: A reexamination of charitable giving as American Christians

Kelsi Macklin

contributing writer

Kelsi is a 4th year Asian Studies major who hopes to become a social worker and work at an adoption agency and with adoptees in the future.

12

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

13

rise above MASSES

to

the

Haebitchan Jung contributing writer

I

have been avoiding God as much as possible, and until now, I have been doing a good job at it. I kept my mind distanced from him and covered my eyes and ears so that I would not perceive his existence. By inhibiting all presence of God, I felt undeniably alone and desolate inside the cocoon of solitude; but the decision was a conscious one, so I could not complain about it. Many readers will find problems with this decision I made years ago, but it was done at that time for my own good…

Because back then, I needed strength. It was my first year of college, and I realized that the only way I could “make it” in the world was by standing out from the rest of the crowd. I wanted to rise above the masses, and the first step was to distinguish myself in the academic setting.

However, I was not prepared to find solid ground in the intellectual domain; I lacked study habits and recourse to knowledge for academic success. Thus I had to start my academic journey from scratch and build myself up through pain and industry. Along this treacherous path, I grew sharply disenchanted with my religious community that questioned and subtly trivialized my tireless effort for individuation.

In fact, I found my will to individuation to be unaligned with the will of the church. The church inexorably advocated community and valued the “we” before the “I.” It was nearly sinful in its eyes to witness an individual rise above his community.

Thus it continually preached, “Jesus died for our sins,” as if commanding the listeners to do at least a portion of self-effacement that Jesus had done for the community. In contrast, those who wanted to extricate themselves from oneness were declared to be consumed by deleterious pride. I had no objection to this claim, because I was indeed proud of seeing myself grow and mature in the mind.

14

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

But the will for individuation ran into a wall of expected problems. My pride gave way to arrogance and egotism. I saw other students as competition, and this mentality problematized my camaraderie with students who were receiving better grades than I was. Fiery jealousy ensued as my sincere feelings of compassion and kindness dwindled. I saw myself becoming indifferent and apathetic toward humankind since I had not achieved my goals yet, not caring for the aim of community. As a result, my awareness of the situation did not alter the process, and because I stopped following the rules of the church, their standard of good and bad had little meaning to me in my progress toward the “Ubermensch.”

But when the time for retrospection is upon me, my resolve for individuation crumbles and by and by, it cannot support the heavy task of my endeavors. I feel pressed down to the ground.

Every step I make requires tremendous effort, and sometimes, it is more than I can handle without the comfort of God. Though I lost faith in the church, I remained in the church. I realized that I never left because I did not have enough courage to tackle the world on my own. Readers might regard me as a hypocrite, but even Jesus received help when carrying the wooden cross before the Crucifixion. I feel as though my drive for individuation is pushing me forward, my desire to give everything up and return to the warm community drags me from behind. And yet, I still soldier on. Until my struggles finally reach its terminus ad quem. Until then, I move on with the heavy weight on top of me, pulling me down, but not enough to see me fall.

Haebitchan is from Mok-dong, Seoul, South Korea. He is currently a junior at Cal majoring in English Literature.

Jesus the

CornerstoneSarah Cho contributing writer

D

id the resurrection happen? I don’t know. But if it did, how much should our understanding of the Old Testament affect that of the resurrection? I am currently questioning both the literal understanding of the Old Testament and the validity of the resurrection. My changing view of the Old Testament has served to expand my understanding of how the resurrection story has given significance to this text, and how this esteemed text has in turn been used to make sense of the resurrection, a counterintuitive story that has against all odds survived and shaped history. And as much as there is fear that the resurrection never happened, there continues in me a resilient hope that the resurrection is, against the dull draperies of human existence, a greater miracle and stimulus for shalom than I had previously imagined.

When I was taking Religious Studies courses as an undergraduate student at Berkeley, doubt seethed naturally, and I did my best to quell it by avoiding the most difficult questions and applying apologetics to my studies. But sometimes doubt boils and permanently changes everything, as is my case now. Granted I, a laywoman trying to identify “Truth” through a cytoplasm of cultural ideologies and religions, am as influenced by societal structures and assumptions as I am freed from them in my search for Truth, or perhaps merely for its existence. But I also know I am not the only one to embark on this journey, and the camaraderie of strays gives me hope that this journey of what seems to be comprised of mostly loss is actually worthwhile.

So how did I go from being a prospective evangelical seminary student to doubting the divine authority of Scripture on which traditional Protestantism hinges its existence? It began with an assertion by historian Diarmaid MacCulloch stating that the word ‘habiru,’ from which the word ‘Hebrew’ is derived, appeared in a variety of ancient sources from Egypt to Mesopotamia, and that the ‘habiru’ references seemed to concern a social rather than an ethnic grouping of uprooted people.1 Having taken classes in religious studies and Jewish studies in particular, such an assertion was not new to me at the time of the reading. What was new was that I decided to keep reading despite its contrariness to my own belief that Israel originated with its progenitor Jacob as an ethnic nation.

Perhaps it would have done well for me to listen to the sage’s admonition to his student to “keep [his] heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23, NRSV). Fueled by a curiosity for a mainstream overview of Christianity’s history, however, I waived this warning for a couple hundred more pages and annotated the columns with alarm-cloaked questions: Does the appearance of multiple names for God, some of which were used by neighboring nations, mean that God as portrayed in Scripture was just the combination of gods from ancient cultures? Was the true reason for the compilation and emendation of the Tanakh (the Jewish scriptures) political in its attempt to justify and save Israel’s national identity? Is Genesis to be viewed as an ancient national myth, not unlike the Iliad and the Odyssey to the Greeks, rather than as a universal historical account of mankind?

I was not able to find answers to these questions, but I had begun to consider them as legitimate questions that could potentially flounder into pathetic shambles the episteme through which I breathed and operated. In my search for a way to reconcile these findings to the traditional view of the divine inspiration of Scripture, I turned to Peter Enns, a biblical scholar who engages such questions. In 2008, Enns was suspended from a tenure position at a conservative evangelical seminary for attempting to answer them through his book Inspiration and Incarnation. For him, “the human marks of the Bible are everywhere, thoroughly integrated into the nature of Scripture itself."2 To explain these marks away rather than try to understand and integrate them into our understanding of God would be fatal to Christianity. Though he sees these human marks,

How modern scholarship reinstates the centrality of the

resurrection

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

15

Enns interprets Scripture through the lens of the divisive historical event of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, a common truth for evangelical Protestant denominations. Enns acknowledges the legitimacy of much of the historical findings that have emerged since the rise of biblical archeology and scholarship in the nineteenth century, but he also highlights the centrality of the resurrection as the starting point for understanding Jesus’s revelations about himself, God and Scripture, and thus our identity and purpose in this world. The resurrection, rather than being nullified because of the humanness of Scripture, makes possible a human document to also be divinely inspired.

Have so many evangelicals misconstrued the teachings of Jesus by stripping them of the context in which he lived and ministered? Faith in the resurrection, a bizarre contradiction to sensuous experience, should serve as an impetus for humility in trying to understand his teachings in light of the historical discoveries of scholarship. It should ungird Christianity of defensiveness and fear, and open up opportunities for discussion instead. But the suspension of Peter Enns is one illustration that American evangelicals still have a long way to go.

As I came to question my understanding and interpretation of Scripture that I had believed my whole life, I began to take interest in the topic of evolution. Francis Collins3 had spoken at UC Berkeley’s Veritas Forum in 2008 and had only reinforced my vigilance against nonliteral interpretations of Scripture. The creation account especially seemed to jeopardize other essential portions of the Bible which could then, by precedence, also be taken as non-literal. In The Language of God, Collins touches upon this problem but leaves much of the debate to the theologians. He spends a greater portion of the book presenting scientific evidence for evolution and philosophical justifications for the existence of God, including the mathematical principles and order in creation.4 Recalling Galileo’s arguments for scientific exploration even when traditional beliefs of Earth’s central positioning in the universe were being challenged, Collins extorts believers to see merit in contradictions to tradition, scientists to see the finitude of science, and seekers to continue swimming through the oftentimes haranguing ideological currents of the day. Collins’s arguments for the existence of God are compelling, but what is troubling is the less explicated assumption that the Genesis creation account need not be historical or literal in the modern sense.

For if indeed the creation story was poetical, or mythical if you will, what was I to make of the parting of the Red Sea and the ten plagues? Could not these stories also be myths, mere legends?

16

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

At this point I was already tinkering with some unorthodox thoughts, so I decided to consult a modern biblical scholar for insight to this matter.

James Kugel, caught between two irreconcilable worlds of modern biblical scholarship and orthodox Judaism, both mystifies and demystifies Scripture by reinforcing the Scriptures’ continued significance through their preservation and interpretation, and by explaining Scripture as a product of ancient Jewish interpreters that emerged after Jerusalem’s Babylonian conquest in 586 BCE, and not of those who originally documented and consolidated oral traditions across generational differences. As Kugel puts it, “it was truly out of the work of these interpreters that the canonized Bible emerged, and without it, one might well doubt if the Bible ever could have come to occupy the central place that it did within Judaism and Christianity.” 5 As for Kugel, he admits that “while [he] could not be involved in a religion that was entirely a human artifact”, it would suffice for him for Scripture to be the “fleshing out of that primal commandment” given by God in Exodus and Deuteronomy to his people to do his bidding and become his people.6 Though Kugel admits the irreconcilability of Judaism to modern biblical scholarship, he preserves his orthodox Jewish identity by submitting to the pious traditions of the

ancient Jewish interpreters. “Happy the reader who can open the Bible today and still understand it as it was understood by those who first proclaimed it the Bible,” he writes, and seems to wish himself as such despite his lifelong preoccupation with the empirical evidences of Scripture’s formation.7 The idea that aspects of present interpretative methods are offshoots of postexilic Jewish interpreters, and not an ancient development as is supposed by Scripture itself, may be unsettling, if not devastating, for an evangelical Christian who takes the stories of the Old Testament as literal truth.

On the other hand, to deny the literalness of the Old Testament would be to jeopardize the inerrancy of Scripture, a foundational doctrine of many evangelical denominations. So what are Christians to make of such scholarship? Ignore it because it is threatening to fundamental Christian beliefs by which evangelicalism thrives? Or rise above the reformed rallies of our Protestant fathers and seek to understand the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in light of how Scripture is now being reconstructed by relevant historical, archeological and scientific evidences?

For Christians who receive with faith the proclamation of the resurrection, much hinges on the understanding of the authority of Scripture.

Christian denominations find innumerable reasons under the banner of inerrancy to disagree in their interpretations of the nature and content of Scripture, whether on prophecy, cessation or gender roles. Yet where did this need to interpret Scripture as a book of systematic doctrines and moral guidance stem from to begin with? Is this method of interpretation that of Jesus himself, or of the writings of Jewish interpreters by whom the Bible has been made possible and by which Jesus taught his timeless truths perhaps in order to connect them to the people of his day? And if it is found that we have projected our own cultural assumptions onto the authors of the Bible, could we still believe in the supernatural incarnation of God, albeit having to understand it in an entirely different light?

The resurrection is the focal point through which these questions are answered; without belief in the resurrection, interest in the Scriptures would amount to little more than awe of its potency to transform and evolve with history. Our beliefs regarding Scripture form the narrative by which we derive our purpose, understand life and the afterlife, and base and justify our social constructs.

One generation’s narrative may look as different from Jesus’s narrative as does a defendant’s from a plaintiff’s, and the results of that discrepancy could be disastrous. Thus, in order to remain as close to the actual story whose climax is arguably

the crucifixion, we should consider that the polyphonic narratives within and about Scripture do not necessarily have to be understood as a single divine voice per se. Rather, they may really be as they appear to the common man: multiple voices trying to grasp and convey the presence and will of a transcendent deity – a deity who then wrote himself into the human plot through the resurrection, becoming to us “myth become fact”.8 I myself no longer know if this myth ever did become fact. But if indeed such a miracle happened and God the Other communicated to this world by becoming one of us, then the narrative of the Old Testament that leads up to it is of utmost importance and has great implications to how Christians interpret and abide by the revolutionary revelations of Jesus Christ. His life, death and resurrection would be the cornerstone to the overarching narrative of purposeful human existence that no foolproof interpretation of a fallible, however noble, human document can be. If the Church could come to understand Scripture as bearing the marks of humanity – its great social aspirations as well as its political intentions and cognitive boundaries – and consider the possibility of sola scriptura being a reactive, contextualized stance, we may presently be able to partake in building God’s kingdom of love and justice that was inaugurated by the mysterious death of Jesus of Nazareth, and thus, go beyond ideological constructs to the applicative continuation of the sacred text in our lives. We may in fact see bones come together, sinews binding, flesh rising, skin covering a world of raw wounds as the Church celebrates a myth that is and brings life where there isn’t.

Sarah graduated UC Berkeley with a B.A. in English Literature in 2011. She is now living in San Francisco.

1 Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (New York: Penguin Books, 2009). 53.

2 Peter Enns, Inspiration and Incarnation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2005). 18.

3 The former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute.

4 Francis S. Collins, The Language of God (New York: Free Press, 2006). 93.

5 James L. Kugel, How to Read the Bible (New York: Free Press, 2007).

679.

6 Ibid., 689.

7 Ibid., 688.

8 C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1970). 63.

For further reading on this topic, the author recommends: Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt & Certainty in Christian Discipleship, by Lesslie Newbigin; The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate, by John H. Walton; and Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today, by N. T. Wright.

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

17

“

to

WHOM shall we

LORD, GO ? ” David J Park

contributing writer

1 2 3

4 5 6 7

John 6:66-69 (ESV) John 6:66 (ESV) John 15:20 (ESV); 1 Peter 4:12 (ESV); 2 Timothy 3:12 (ESV) Psalm 34:8 (ESV) 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) 2 Samuel 7:22 (ESV) John 6:69 (ESV)

David is a sophomore who loves Jesus and attends Reality SF and RUF Christian Fellowship. In his free time, he doesn’t like to write author bios.

18

A

fter this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God’”.1 In John 6, we find the twelve disciples after Jesus taught a great multitude. In response to Jesus’ teaching, “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him”.2 These were people that had followed Jesus for days. They witnessed Jesus as a miracle mathematician who multiplied barley loaves and fish to feed 5,000 men – let alone the women and children. These followers of Jesus saw that He had crossed to the other side of the sea in the night, and they climbed into boats to catch up with Him. Strangely, who they thought Jesus was did not match up with who He said He was. After hearing Jesus teach, they were no longer willing to follow Him and they decided to leave.

And, this is where we find ourselves with this passage. Jesus turns to the original twelve disciples, and He asks them, “Do you want to go away as well?”

Perhaps, we can hear Jesus ask us this question, too. “Do you want to go away as well? Will you also leave?”

The Christian life, according to the Bible, is not easy. Don’t get me wrong. If you count the cost of following Christ, there is only one logical solution: give up the finite to pursue the infinite. Jesus is infinitely worth it, but no one said it was easy. If a pastor told you that being a Christian was easy, you were swindled; suffering is promised for the Christian, not comfort.3 Yet, Peter says something

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

that definitely resonates in my heart.

During my bouts of discouragement and depression, Peter’s question brings solace.

“Lord, to whom shall we go?” To rephrase it, “Lord, where can I go after I met you?” “Who can I turn to after experiencing you?” “Once I have tasted of you and have seen that you are good, who can compare to you?” King David challenges us to “taste and see that the Lord is good”.4 There is no doubt that the Lord is good; it depends if we will choose to “taste and see.”

When Jesus takes ahold of us, we are no longer the same person we used to be. When He saved me from myself, He changed me. By the work of the Holy Spirit, He has made me into a new creation. The Apostle Paul writes that the old is gone, and the new has come.5 I’ve changed, and the people around me can see. Jesus endured the wrath my sins deserved on the cross, and He clothed me with His righteousness – the great exchange. I gave Jesus my sin, and He gave me His righteousness. Now, Jesus’ spiritual and moral resume is accredited to me, and God the Father sees me as He sees His beloved Son, Jesus. By mercy and grace, I am loved and adopted as a son of God. He pursued me when I hated Him. He died for me while I was still dead in my sins. I was His enemy, and Jesus lived the life I should have lived and died the death I should have died.

When I remember such glorious truths, what other love can compare?

I look back unto the work He has done in my life, and I cannot stand unmoved. He has changed my desires from sin and self to wanting to love Him and obey Him – the deepest desires of all Christians. But, none of this means that

now I never sin. Believe me; I have friends in my life who are eager to argue for me on this account. This does mean, however, that when we sin as Christians, we hate it. There is only One who has wired us to find freedom in Him. Shall I go back to being addicted to pornography?

Shall I go back to basing my identity on what people think of me? Shall I go back to deadening purposelessness and aimless wandering? Shall I go back to being even-more-so-than-now prideful and self-righteous? Who else can know all of me and love me? In my brokenness, You draw near. You promise to never leave me nor forsake me even if everyone else does. You never withhold yourself from me. No one understands me like You. Who is like you, O Lord? This is obviously a rhetorical question because King David declares “for there is none like you, and there is no God besides you, according to all that we have heard with our ears”.6 This is the best news ever told.

It’s funny, though, that I can know and experience these great spiritual realities and forget them so easily at the same time.

When I find myself discontent, I ask myself, “What do you want?”

It’s a simple question, and it’s

a helpful question to order my thoughts. But, often, I cannot answer that question. Do I want a 4.0 to make sure that I can feel smart and gain future job security? Do I want a girlfriend and get married as soon as possible to fill my longing for intimacy and relationship? Do I want to plant a church and be in full-time pastoral ministry for my own recognition and glory? Will that make me fulfilled? Will that bring me rest, joy, and peace? At the end of the day, I know they won’t. The misleading thing about the things we tend to want is that they are down in the future; if I could time-travel to future David, he would tell me it wasn’t all that I thought it would be.

When I finally do get what I think I want, I never end up satisfied. I’m sure this is not an uncommon feeling. I get that 4.0, or I get into that relationship, or I serve in more capacities in my fellowship and church, and when they aren’t what I thought they’d be, I fix my eyes onto something else in the future to long after and worship as a false god.

“Lord, to whom shall we go?” It is not a pithy statement without much deliberation. It is a rhetorical question from a heart that has longed after so many things only to be faced with disappointment and disillusionment time and time again, but has now found true life.

For the Christian, even if we contemplate giving into temptation or even giving up altogether on our spiritual journeys, we cannot help but turn to Jesus.

He’s rewired us from the inside out to love Him and Him alone. As Pastor Paul Washer put it, he could not claim that a 30-ton logging truck going 120 miles ran him over and still look the same. That is because it is impossible to have an encounter with something as large as a logging truck and not be changed. So, what is bigger? A logging truck or God? If you are discouraged in your walk with Christ, haven’t really been walking with Christ for some time, or question if you are even a Christian, know that this is not the litmus test of your faith in Jesus. If you don’t feel your heart longing for Jesus, pray that He will change it, so that it will. Meditate on the Gospel – the work Jesus has done on your behalf and how you reap the rewards that He has sown. It is hard to stay distant from the God who has intimately woven the narrative of your life. And, if you’re not a Christian, Jesus is calling you to be.

You aren’t reading this article on accident.

Let us, then, as the people of God find our purpose, our joy, our contentment, and life in the Holy One, Jesus Christ. “We have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God”.7 How, then, can we now turn away?

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

19

20

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

D rawn From nature’s palette you drew my face.

Bramble bush brushed my cheek.

Baby thorns I mistook for baby’s breath.

But only after I importuned, I realized where I planted you, nestled between gods.

-Thomas Hong

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

21

Prayer

lines of talking

Know that I consider this rain a punishment for my sins, because long ago rain had a meaning, being created to destroy all flesh, and over the unending thunder of the downpour, I can hardly hear your voice any longer, so I must still cling to the words that I know you once spoke, and interpret this rain to be at least against me.

I imagine that the rain must be a burden to you as well, as you fashion, sanctify, and send to me every holy drop of water, each set apart from earth and sky and every other holy drop of water, and when I was a child I used to try to pray to you, Our Father which art in heaven Hallowed be thy rain, believing then that you heard me, because you spoke to me in rain that was at once both a baptism and a stoning, because the two were not so different in their drops, simply liquid pebbles for the guilty, and the water, like the people, never seemed afterwards to be much changed as both delivered all the sinful and both delivered all the dead.

The wonder is that this is the same rain falling on everyone, an elegant system for putting off decisions between grace and damnation until the very end.

But if you can hear me, I think you’d agree that this had been going on for too long, so allow me to propose a new arrangement, or a new covenant if you will, Let up on the rain, for if by now I haven’t learned my lesson, what good is it to keep on beating only a dead body when even my prayers are beaten by the rain back down to earth when I try to lift them up to you?

Prayer

Prayer

Let me start again. I do not know just what I meant to say, it seems, these words to you were false, I could not speak in lines fitting this occasion Let me start again. I learn their definitions to be sure you will understand me, but these are just words I say meaninglessly, falsely - si je choisissais de parler une langue que je ne connais pas, ces mots étranges seraient sans signification, mais alors ils seraient plus vrais.

Mais je ne parle pas cette langue.

No - I cannot speak a tongue that I do not understand.

The words play at being speech, even now. So let me start again. The problem is this.

It is not that this is not at all comprehensible, but that it is not babble, nor is it beauty, nor truth.

Between the skies and the seas each altogether too much themselves there to speak to you, Between the silences extending forever to be punctuated by the search of those also seeking you, Between the horizon creating all things by separating all things that already are from themselves, Between the spaces in the skyline not only left by the lack of the things that are and do not exist, Between the buildings and the unnamed streets that also are there between their own absences, Between where there is a city which I built but which is neither mine nor yours Because it is itself a between place built in order that all these things might come together, And where it remains silent for the things that are speech to take place, Speech which might have created here all things, here I ask all this of you.

The fundamental nature of this city is to be sought not in its own existence But rather in the spaces of its non-existence, between the realities Between the buildings making the city itself, for only there does speech take place, Where space is left for questions to be asked and answers to be given, Where I seek to meet you, and where all things that happen, happen,

22

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

Where the fundamental nature of the city that I built is that I built it up to you And that I built it on my own, so that I could not be scattered and not be confused Here between earth and heaven, where in its spaces there it is and there it searches, Not that in its spaces is there present the lack of anything But the fundamental nature of the question, which is to be sought not in its asking But in the fundamental nature of the question that I ask, that I ask it here of you.

The city itself does not have a name, because to name things is to give them place, But perhaps it could be called by its betweenness, heavenearthcity skyseacity youmecity Silentsilentcity emptyemptycity - perhaps it is the nothing here that can be named, For that was my intention, that here there would be lacking things to leave space for you, The space between the nothing and the nothing, which are the buildings and the space Between the lack of people and the lack of people in its crowds, which are all silent There is no speech, not in this city, not in itself nor in its spaces nor in its you nor in its me Because it is that through which I asked whose infiniteness now swallows up my voice, Though I used to walk here with you in the cool shade of its buildings, for now I have nowhere to go Nor anyone to whom to speak, and I wander between its streets, and I am all alone.

∙∙∙∙∙

If this city is still too much here to be able to speak to you, If out of all these spaces and all these words no speech can still remain, If I were to withdraw, if I were to find another place for speech, If I were to see the city there on the horizon as only an imperfection, If there were another place where I could be between the water and the sky, I would seek instead those others there who in their silences too seek you.

I would walk along the shore speaking to them and asking what they have found, They, little burrowers between shells who dig between the water and the sand And seek you in their digging, whose tongues are bloated with the weight of words And who cannot be contained, surely they must have something to say, Surely they would not merely spit upon me as I

stand above them, Surely they would tell me that they have heard you,

And in the water, Ripples, gently grazing the vast ocean floor, they who touch all things and know all things, Surely they would not flee my ripples as I approach, pulsing like speech, Surely they would bear to hear me, surely they would not fade at the sound of questions here.

What is my question, my question is why do you not answer in the city, Why am I both unable still to hear you and unable to stop asking, Why are these buildings not for asking and why is this city not for naming And why are these spaces not for building, when I only wanted again to reach you?

But they are not, so I am only left to ask my question and build my city on the shore Among the seabirds who do not need to build, who live already both in water and in sky And whose flight from me will say that here at last at least I have been heard, Just for a moment this city has found them, and then I will ask them to return, And then they, insistent on this place, will set their feet here once again, unchanged, And then there will be no questions and no words and no city and nothing between, And they will watch solemnly as the water rolls back in over the sand, And I will simply listen to them as the water rolls out and in over the sand.

A Note

Dear - this is just to say for your sake I would keep my silence as we sleep but since there is no other way forgive me as I speak in silence I would break not to ignore you or forgive you nor to seek you as you would do for my sake.

For this I ask again forgive me please, then ask what I could never say, then ask why you chose never just to say to me when you could clearly see how silent silence made me seem to be.

-Wesleigh Anderson FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

23

The Harbor: 1869 A captain and his ship arrived one day His cargo unknown to ports of the bay.

The officials came to check on the dock But the sight of the load put them to shock.

Onto the deck came hundreds of slaves so frail Each one being pulled out of the belly of the whale.

The captain was arrested but he merely claimed He was only a messenger, he shouldn’t be blamed.

The captain was beaten by prisoners and officials alike And he became hardened with each and every strike.

Amongst the oppressors lay the oppressed, his friends Those who gave him strength till they met their ends.

Each day was a year in this barred battleground The captain survived, each day more lost than found.

After two years of prison, he was simply released But his conflict by then had still not ceased.

He arrived to his ship, them both worn, torn apart The devil controlled his body, but he his heart.

A man of revenge of forgiveness, what will he become He pondered as the rain made his body numb.

THE ONE Who

MADE IT

poems by Stephen Haw

24

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

The Alpha, Genesis, Creator, Prime The longest race and He has finished it.

Meticulously piecing bit by bit, Assisting us as we complete the climb.

Beginning of Existence and of Time He waits for us to take the path He's lit.

Each obstacle and direction He knit Our dusty path collects and creates grime.

Enveloping the world so dark in light In paradise and promise He resides; A pillar, cloud or fire, to show He guides, His Kingdom come, our gowns are turning white.

Transcending old and new, in You we’re found Omega, we forever exalt the Crowned.

tr ue love.

T

Grace Gao staff writer Grace is one of TAUG’s newest staff members. She is currently studying anything and everything and loves to bake in her free time.

wo girls were walking down the same path. Two sets of footprints were on the beach. But one set of footprints was closer to the ocean waves. When the two of them returned to their starting point and looked back, only one track was visible. The other was faded, dimmed, and barely hanging on. If a person had walked by and looked around, they would have only noticed the first set of footprints.

All throughout my life, I’ve constantly stumbled and fallen. At times, I’ve even wanted to just give up because I couldn’t catch up. If footprints on the sand could represent our paths with Christ, mine would have many faded areas and washed out imprints. Some areas would be faint, while others would be firm, but mostly the footprints would show hesitance because I didn’t know where I was or where I would be going.

I used to look at the footprints I made and wonder to myself, “Have I done enough? Have I been a good child of God?” When I took time to reflect on these thoughts, they were extremely selfish. Why had I focused so much on the “I” in this relationship? A relationship takes two people, and I had completely left God outside of my thoughts, and focused on me. I wondered to myself, “How could He possibly love me? Me. I’m just one out of billions of people in this world.” But our God isn’t limited to human perceptions of numbers and limits. He doesn’t see us as one out of seven billion; instead He sees me, and you, and every single person as an individual. Every person is different, but He loves us all anyway.

So now when I look back at my footprints, I rejoice at how God has led me through every step of my journey with Him. When the footprints became faded, He loved me and showed me how good He was. Even when I stopped, He has remained by my side.

I’ve felt God’s love. He’s lifted me out of times of sorrow when I truly believed that there was no “true love” in this world. But through constant prayer and the reading of His Word, I’ve been reminded over and over of just how great His love really is, and that His love is the True Love that we all are looking to find.

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

25

FINDING A

Chloe Ng staff writer

Chloe is another one of TAUG’s newest members. She is studying English and Media Studies, and loves to dance when no one is watching.

26

FELLOWSHIP

A s a freshman coming into Berkeley looking for a fellowship, I was amazed

by the large amount of Christian fellowships here. On the first day, I had two fellowships on my list to check out; by the next day, I had five. At Jesus in Berkeley, an event where all the Christian organizations came together, I learned that altogether there were thirty fellowships in Berkeley. To say that I was overwhelmed is an understatement.

During the first week, I eagerly went to event after event, searching for the ideal fellowship. I ended the week feeling exhausted. Rather than enjoying events for what they were, I spent my time constantly evaluating their pros and cons versus that of other events, nitpicking through every little detail. I felt like I needed to find the best fellowship, but at the same time settle soon so that I could get to know the people better. Despite all the events I went to, I wasn’t any closer to deciding. I would think that I liked one group, but then doubt whether it was the best. It seemed as if there was no perfect fellowship for me.

The problem was that I was relying too much upon my own judgment. I was trying so hard to find the perfect group through my own rationalization that I forgot about relying on God. The next week, rather than stressing out, I prayed and decided to trust that God will take me to where he wants me to be. And, glory to God, I found a fellowship to settle into. Of course there were still strengths and weaknesses to the group, but when I visited I felt more relaxed and was able to enjoy myself. While talking to others about their church-hopping experiences, and laughing over misshapen dumplings and corny jokes, I realized that I had found a Christian community that I could see myself being a part of. Now, I spend every week looking forward to Bible Study and large group. It may not be the perfect fellowship, but it’s perfect for the fact that God led me there. Through my experience finding a fellowship, I learned to have more faith in God.

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

“

“

vercoming Loneliness through Baptism

About a month ago, I was baptized at Alameda

Beach and it was an extraordinary feeling knowing I was receiving Jesus’ love. I was nervous as I was sharing details of my life to other brothers and sisters in Christ. The water was freezing but I felt a sense of euphoria pass over me and felt like a completely new individual. The love and support I received from everyone really touched me. It was amazing to know that I was going to receive the greatest gift of all, the love of Jesus Christ. I knew that I would never be alone again because Jesus would always be there. Luke 3:2122 (ESV) says, “Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’”

God is actively searching for individuals who are lost, and He wants us to experience His love. This verse highlights that baptism is a commitment to pledge our lives to God and to His plan for us.

Before I truly accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I definitely had a hard time accepting God. I know that part of my anger at God was the loneliness I felt throughout high school. I went to church in high school because my mom wanted me to, but I never really felt close to people in my

Andrew Yim staff writer youth group. I really wanted to find a sense of community but I felt that no one wanted or loved me. I was obsessed with the belief that having a close group of friends would bring me happiness because I felt lonely and isolated from everyone.

I blamed God because I had seen so many other people who were happy and I wanted a taste of that happiness. For my freshman year of college, I was accepted into Purdue University in Indiana. I decided to leave California because I wanted a fresh start to figure out where God stood in my life. When I moved to Indiana, I attended Faith Baptist Church in Lafayette, Indiana. I thought I was growing closer to God at the time. However, when I moved back home, I had a hard time adjusting. I grew bitter and angry as the summer went on because I pursued activities that were not pursuing God. I was worried about starting over and I was looking for a church where I could grow.

I think I began to see God in a real way for the first time a month ago when I came to Livingwater Church in Berkeley. When I walked into the church, I was not sure if this would be the right church.

However, I was completely wrong because everyone was immediately so friendly. I joined an amazing fellowship and I met some solid Christian brothers and sisters. The Presence Fellowship has been an amazing experience because the fellowship has allowed me to renew my love for God. Being a part of this fellowship has allowed me to reaffirm my covenant with God because God reminded me that though people can be lonely, through Him I will be able to overcome so much. Over the past few weeks, I have noticed a spiritual change in my life.

I am letting go of my resentment and accepting the Lord every day. I have a long way to go but I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.

I will not lie; it has been a struggle to follow God’s commands. I still struggle with the numerous issues that I had struggled with before I was baptized. However, I know it is going to be a slow process and I need to keep pursuing the Word and reminding myself that Jesus Christ died for my sins.

Andrew is a sophomore at Berkeley City College who loves watching television after a hard day's work and reading Wikipedia to learn more about the world.

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

27

Treasure of the Heart Laura Greenwood contributing writer

Laura is a Senior Public Health major and a member of Living Water Church and Fellowship, and Alpha Delta Chi, the Christian Sorority.

28

D

igging. Always digging. She hadn’t realized that she had been doing this all her life. It was just what was done. The motion never ended, because it had never really begun; it just was. A heavy heave, and then a sudden resistance.

The tension of her muscles as they push to their breaking point. The weak ground slowly breaking. The delicious upward pull of the soil from the floor. The delighted sigh of relief as she exults in her hard-won work. The soil sparkles darkly on the rusted blade of the shovel as she reviews her handiwork. A sigh escapes her lips as she acknowledges this valued victory. She heaves the dirt aside; she has many more shovelfuls to go before she reaches the gleaming prize. Time drags on: one day, two.

Numbers ripple past. Her strength ebbs and her body heaves with exhaustion, but nonetheless she shovels on. Treasure, value, glory are to be found below the surface.

“Just one more clump of dirt,” a constant chant, stands between her and her victory.

She sinks, slowly but surely, down into the depths of the earth. Her shovel rises and falls with each new day. Thunk, heave, pull, examine, and toss. On and on.

Everyone knew the story. Treasure, riches, and glory were buried deep beneath the earth. You only had to dig to make them yours. So simple that anyone could do it. There were always stories circulating around that someone had struck it rich; that their inner cravings had been appeased through their hard work. Every so often, she might come upon a coin or shiny object promising that greater things could only be a few more shovelfuls away. Weariness was silenced and denied, because a new found fervor and sense of certainty spurred her on evermore.

Digging: it was what was done.

The piles, over time, started building up, threatening to fall into people’s ever deepening holes. Sometimes they did fall. When that happened, they either gave up and started a new hole elsewhere, or started digging again harder than ever. But

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

everyone dug their hole. Sometimes people gave up and just sat in their holes, but eventually they all started digging again. The holes got deeper and deeper. The light was soon blocked from their faces.

Some dug for their families, some for themselves. But everyone was digging for something. Their hearts, slowly but surely, sunk into the earth as they delved below the surface. Their fate, one and all, was to slowly dig until their bodies failed and their shovels fell from life-spent hands. Then the hole became their grave as the dirt fell down upon their still and silent bodies.

One day a note, as soft as a whisper, fell into her hole. She couldn’t make out what it said, but it was written upon the finest paper she had ever seen. Creamy white, of indulgent thickness. As she rubbed it with her calloused hands she delighted in its smooth touch.

Days went on, more notes appeared. Slowly, she was able to make out more and more of what they said. The words were extravagant and bountiful in promise.

Nonetheless, her shovel continued to rise and fall in a deadening rhythm.

A day came that dawned as routine as the rest. As she was shoveling, her back sore from the hard labor at which she pressed herself, she felt a change in the atmosphere, as if something from a completely different world had entered hers. There was a whisper that could not be made out. Slowly it became louder and clearer, until it reverberated within her skull. “Beloved, I have opened a door which no one may shut. Come away with me to my palace and abide there with me.”

“Who are you?” she asked. “What do you want with me?” There was a moment of silence, then the voice replied, “I am who I am. I am the King. I am here to redeem you, for I have already paid the price to set you free from your toil.”

Following the voice, there was a proffered hand. She hesitated – the hand was rough, scarred, and even had a huge hole in the center. She wondered if he was really able to save her from her deep pit. If he was really a King. Nevertheless, she was done with digging. She grasped the hand, and was pulled out of the pit.

She only got a glimpse of the man’s figure, for she was soon nearly blinded from the light of day surrounding her. She had been in darkness so long, that this glorious light burned as much as it caused delight. With her eyes closed she could sense that she was being carried, far away from the place that she had called home.

She awoke in an exquisite chamber. There was a note by her bedside. It was of the same wondrous paper that had been falling in her hole.

The note reminded her that she was no longer a slave to digging, because she was now provided for. She had a glorious inheritance, for she had been given a new name; she had been adopted into the family of the King.

She delighted in her new found estate. It was glorious and luxurious, but in a way inherently different from the treasure for which she had been digging. For it was not the wealth and coin of her own country, but of an entirely new one. It was wealth and delight in the King and his kingdom.

She also had a new calling: to go back to those still digging and deliver notes of hope from the King. Daily she would venture forth to the pits and carry notes to those below. However, this was a perilous journey. She was constantly bombarded by insults and hardships. But ever more frightening – the urge to dig once more constantly assaulted her heart. Sometimes, she would look down and notice a shovel once more in her hands. At those moments she trembled, wondering if she had ever really stopped digging, and if the King had been but a beautiful dream.

Thankfully, she didn’t have to be afraid, for, taking note of her wavering heart, the King came by her side and, as she sobbed, whispered to her, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 When she finally opened her hands, he gently, but firmly, took the shovel from her, picked her up in his arms, and carried her home, rejoicing as he went.

His tender love cast out all of her fear, for he was the King, the ruler of all. He determined true wealth and value. He gave value to her life. For he was worthy of all of it.

1

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” 1

Matthew 6:21 (ESV); 2 2 Corinthians 12:9 (ESV) FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD

29

our MIsSION Natalie Cha

staff writer

1 2 3

4

5

Acts 17:23 (ESV) Acts 17:24 (ESV) Matthew 1:23 (ESV); Luke 1:31, 35 (ESV) Matthew 28:6 (ESV); Luke 24:38 (ESV); 1 Cor. 6:14, 15:4 (ESV) Acts 1:9, 11, 2:33 (ESV); Phil 2:9-11 (ESV); Hebrews 1:3 (ESV)

Natalie is a second year Political Science major who loves lemon tea with two spoonfuls of honey.

30

T

o an Unknown God is UC Berkeley’s first student-run Christian journal. Our mission is to create a space where Christians can share their thoughts on a variety of issues with the Berkeley community. Whether academic, fictional, testimonial, controversial, or encouraging, TAUG provides a forum where social, economic, political, intellectual, and spiritual issues can be discussed. Every semester we publish writing and artwork produced by students and others, hoping to foster dialogue between both Christians and students of other faiths and philosophies. We are not affiliated with any church or other religious group, and opinions expressed in articles and posts do not necessarily represent those of the editors.

The name of the journal is derived from Acts 17, when Paul is in Athens and notices an altar with an inscription, “To the unknown god.” In this city full of idols, Paul boldly speaks, “Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you.”1 He goes on to speak of “the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth.”2 The Christian faith is that of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jesus became human by being born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit.3 He died on the cross and was raised from the dead.4 Since His resurrection He is seated at the right hand of God.5 God provides salvation – eternal life and deliverance from spiritual death – for all who believe.

This journal was created to be a voice for Christians on UC Berkeley’s campus.

The first two Editors-in-Chief of the journal, John Montague and Cliff Mak, shared their initial vision in their inaugural Letter from the Editors: We believe the current state of the Christian community at Cal necessitates action on our part. A brief stay in Berkeley will reveal that the student population is fragmented. And in the student body, Christians, too, are inevitably affected, splintered off into their respective fellowships and churches; there exists no real and continual place for Christians from all the groups to come together and fellowship.

We hardly know each other, let alone know the God we worship. We hope this journal, a forum for dialogue and discussion, will help remedy the problem.

Moreover, at a campus famed for its diversity and activism, it is unfortunate and shameful that Christians have not had the tenacity to make their presence known among the tumult of the crowds. Where every other group has a voice on campus, the Christian presence (if we can call it that) is noticeably silent. Whether it is to preach the gospel in love or to speak out against an injustice the love of the gospel should not tolerate, we have yet to find our voice. We hope that this journal will provide a suitable vehicle for the many protests, pleas, and concerns of those working within—and also examining from without—the Christian body.

Ultimately, TAUG will gather the voices of Christians from different backgrounds, united by the truth they proclaim: Jesus Christ died and rose again for the redemption of their sins, bringing them from death to eternal life.

TO AN UNKNOWN GOD | FALL 2012

Decal spring 2012

To An Unknown God Decal

a Journal of Christian Thought At Berkeley

Join the decal and be a part of the next issue!

Learn about editing, layout design, and publishing.

2 units, Thursdays 5-7 pm, Location TBD For more info, visit: www.decal.org/courses/taug

FALL 2012 | TO AN UNKNOWN GOD 

31

Every semester, To An Unknown God relies heavily on private donations to fund its printing costs. Please prayerfully consider donating to make our next issue possible! Any amount is appreciated. Checks should be made out to ASUC/To An Unknown God and mailed to: ASUC/To An Unknown God University of California 112 Hearst Gym, MC 4520 Berkeley, CA 94720-4520 Any amount you can contribute is highly appreciated. Thank you for your generosity!