God’s creative impulse

God.

In the beginning, God. God is, and must always be, first.

God is the first Word, the premier Creator, and original catalyst of all things. On the first day he engineered light waves, on the third day towering evergreens and golden wheat, on the sixth day humanity, and in 1892 he spoke Walla Walla University into being.

In the beginning, God. In our beginning, God.

And God continues to be at his creative best in the life of Walla Walla University faculty, staff, students, and alumni. God remains our genesis; he alone is our inexhaustible, generative energy.

This Westwind teems with testimony of God’s presence and creative impulse at WWU: the wonders of springtime at Rosario, expanding athletic joy of the human body at play, inspired filmmakers, daring mountain climbers, bright entrepreneurs, and an alum pilot escaping the gravity of ground and low expectations. This issue reads like Genesis One all over again: God creating, creating, and creating again.

Here stands my confidence, my enthusiasm, for Walla Walla University’s future. We will continue to bravely set our sails in the reliable, prevailing winds of God’s Spirit; and we will move accordingly. Our motion will not be carelessly driven by the fickle breezes of modern secularism nor stifled by the stillness of religion devoid of living, vibrant faith. Jesus, “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” will continue to be our pioneer. Jesus, by whom “all things were created,” will remain our preoccupation. “Christ among us” will be, as always, the enduring “hope of glory” for Walla Walla University.(1)

And so, I want to invite you—distinguished alumni, faithful faculty, professional staff, and promising students—to join this bold venture.(2) Never has the mission of Walla Walla University been more needed. In a world broken morally, economically, politically, spiritually, we are uniquely positioned to fulfill the transformational promise of this grand institution. We can be the “community of faith” our planet is longing for. We can model gospel in a generation plagued by bad news, soothe wounds in an age of emotional and communal laceration, and faithfully bless in a time of habitual cursing. We can—through material generosity, academic ingenuity, a reservoir of kindness, and most of all, a faithful commitment to a righteous imagination—stride forward on this hallowed pilgrimage. “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,” the writer of Hebrews implores.(3) And this race, brothers and sisters, colleagues, and friends, is the opportunity of our lives.

The articles in the following pages present more than just information. They present the heart and voice of our university community—both near and far—that exemplify the ever-renewing commitment to our profound purpose. They present the legacy of what transpires when God is and remains first. And most importantly, they share the testimony that God creates here.

—Alex Bryan, president

(1) Colossians 2:3; 1:16, 27 (2) Credit to Terrie Aamodt (3) Hebrews 12:1–2