Welcome!
Photo credit: FAO
This institution can do you much good. Yet life here has a way of making mincemeat out of the unsuspecting. If 100 freshmen were asked if they intended to live good, productive lives here, perhaps 91 would answer yes. The other nine just may occupy the room next to yours and throw wild parties every weekend.
At Yale, beer sometimes gushes from taps in a way that makes Old Faithful look like a leaky garden hose.
The Bible in fact does speak of revelry as one way to live . . . IF there were no eternity. “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” But “the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible.” That’s in the Bible too.
Our hearts tell us that at the final blast, far better to have served heaven’s purposes than any other.
Our hearts tell us that at the final blast, far better to have served heaven’s purposes than any other.
This conviction prompts in us a special urgency. How will these years turn out for you?
To those yet skeptical of the Bible: You have much to gain here. But I ask you to consider this.
When the final trumpet blows, the great ironies of life will be revealed. A drunkard, who finally humbled himself before Jesus, will be shown to have thrown away his life, but not his future. And the great scholar, who resisted God’s call, will be found to have lived his life, but forfeited his future.
You may become an academic, or a musician, or a journalist, but apart from Him, the life that a person ekes out alone finally means little—“There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
But God’s call upon a human life is great and forever—“Wisdom calls aloud outside . . . whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil,” says the Bible.
Won’t you accept this promise? If you do, He will embrace you, and usher you into His kingdom forever.
To believers in Jesus: Those who already are believers in Jesus will find a dizzying array of spiritual and moral challenges ahead. This campus is no longer the haven for godly living it once was. Here, good intentions will protect you like a papier mâché shield against a flame-thrower. Only God’s power will see you through.
So get plugged in. Pray—with others when possible. In quiet moments, search out God’s highest and purest calling for you.
Let prayer be your left jab against sickly spiritual living, and worship be your strong right hook. Yale will seem at times fiendishly designed to squeeze life out of you. Nothing works like prayer and worship to break free of that suffocating grip.
God has a plan, and it includes you, so step right in. He will make your time at Yale a spiritual adventure—heartbreaks and all—that counts forever, and puts the Indiana Jones variety to shame. There is not a character of faith in the Bible who led a humdrum life.
Finally, please join me and a small band of happy dissidents for any of the meetings described on page two. We’d love to see you there.
In the meantime, watch yourselves, and let’s get moving!
Steve Ahn, Jonathan Edwards ’96