The Charlotte Fellows has provided me with rich experiences relationally, spiritually, and vocationally. This program has helped me grow in so many ways, so as it is nearing the end I wanted to share some of my takeaways that I hope to hold onto and continue to embrace in this next chapter:
A few weeks ago, we joined the Greenville Fellows for a presentation by Rich Rardin. He shared how many stories in the Bible are told through a three-step pattern: transaction, transition, and transformation.
In our seminary class last week we talked about the role Christians have in culture to bring God’s kingdom to earth. In our book To Change the World, by James Davison Hunter, it explains the author’s opinion as to how cultures change: from the top down. Institutional power comes from the social networks of elite groups of people who have the credibility and power to create change. It has been interesting to learn about the disproportionate cultural power institutions have.
It’s hard to believe half of the fellows year is already past. Coming back to Charlotte post Christmas break, the first thing we did was go on a retreat at Emerald Isle. The focus: Sabbath. The retreat provided sweet time together, polar plunges (different levels of enthusiasm about this), lots of cooking, games, and best of all: rest in the Lord. The time spent in Emerald Isle was much needed after a full first semester and busy holiday season. It was a time to refocus, refresh and be renewed by God.
Back in October, the Charlotte Fellows and the Davidson Fellows participated in Barnabas Basic Training, a day-long seminar about how to have deeper conversations and love others better. My understanding of dignity and depravity became so much richer through this course. I learned more about how God made us in our dignity to have desires and longings, yet we live in a fallen world where our own depravity and disappointment is very real. We were made for relationships, yet often try to live life on our own.
Part of the beauty of the Charlotte Fellows Program is the space it gives us to think about the heart of our Savior. His mercy is not tightfisted. “Things about you that make you cringe the most, make him hug hardest” (Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly). What a privilege it is that I have been chosen by a God whose love depends not on my action but on His unwavering character.
I am extremely blessed that God brought the Charlotte Fellows program into my life.
Throughout college, I experienced great friendships and memories in both Athens, GA and Chapel Hill, NC. However, I was not devoted spiritually during that period of my life. My relationship with Jesus was not my top priority. During my senior year, I was looking for answers as to why I felt empty and began to realize my deep need of Jesus. Nearing graduation and looking for Christian community and spiritual growth, one of my mentors in Chapel Hill, Madison Perry, encouraged me to look into Fellows programs and I am so grateful he did.
The Charlotte Fellows program has shown me the value of seeing reality with clear eyes. The sad and the happy, and the endless array of what’s in-between.
Author Joy Clarkson says, “Sadness has her wisdom... Those who mourn know the full value of what has been lost and refuse to forget it.” These past weeks, I have found this to be profoundly true. Our Fellows cohort has spent time “sitting” in life’s rubble – what has crumbled apart from its original design. This includes deep pain in our city and world, grief of life as it should have been, and our own sin.
One of the biggest blessings of being a Charlotte Fellow is the growing friendships the program freely offers. It’s been a huge joy to get to know the fellows, my mentor, host family and coworkers better since I arrived a month ago. I have had lots of ups and downs since arriving in Charlotte, but the constant support of the community around me has encouraged me more than I give credit sometimes.
Community is something that we all desire. It also is something that the Lord provides in different ways. God puts this desire in us for a reason: to glorify Him. I have always desired Christ-centered community but I had never truly encountered it until three weeks ago when I started the Charlotte Fellows program.
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