Posted May 15, 2015 by
Tags: Spiritual Life My Wheaton
Four Years of Wonder and Worship at Wheaton
“Wonder” was the defining feature of my journey with faith and learning at Wheaton. I remember sitting at HoneyRock during Student Development Week last summer with the Chaplain’s Office as Clayton Keenon led us in a discussion of Ephesians 4. As we processed through what it could look like to be the body of Christ this year, it was incredible to hear how the diversity of fields of study contributed to our conversation. We had communication, Christian formation, business, and music majors—and each one had a slightly different perspective. And then we got to verse 16 of chapter 4: “From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
I had read it so many times before, but this time the seemingly opposite worlds of the Northwoods and the human cadaver lab came crashing together, and I marveled at how my Applied Health Science classes illuminated Paul’s words and brought them into sharp clarity. I’ve felt those ligaments that Paul uses as a metaphor: They are incredibly strong; crafted by the Creator to withstand the jumping, playing, and working of our bodies. And far from being simply memorized anatomical facts, I was given a space to apply my learning to my faith and my experience of the truth of Scripture.
Even deeper than a concept of faith and learning as “application,” I’ve increasingly found ‘faith and learning’ at Wheaton to simply be an acknowledgement of the way life is, whether we recognize it or not. If our minds, our souls, these earth and skies, have been spoken into being by Truth Himself, and every piece of it is by Him and through Him and for Him, then our learning is itself an act of faith in that Creator. In that light, my Wheaton education has been an education in rightful, mindful worship. To converse about the theology of embodiment in a human physiology class; to discuss the sociology of Marian imagery in a cross-referenced art and biblical and theological studies class; to read about the anthropology of epidemic diseases; and yes, to connect Pauline metaphors with my anatomy class—each of these have been training exercises, strengthening my mind to engage in worship with all of its might.
So here at the end of my four years at Wheaton, the word that comes to my mind when I hear the phrase “faith and learning” is wonder. Wonder at the Creator, who spoke Truth into being and who invites us to think, to learn, and thereby to worship.
The article above is an adaptation of Catherine Holt ’15’s faith and learning testimony delivered at Wheaton College’s 2015 Baccalaureate ceremony. Listen to her full testimony in video posted above. Pictured above with family at 2015 Commencement (far left).