Testimonies

Learning to Choose

In high school I had my hand into so many things. I enjoyed science, math, history, athletics, and art. I was an officer of half a dozen clubs and my interests and circle of friends were very diverse. My best friend had purple hair and pierced everything, while I still regularly participated in a conservative Christian youth group. In many ways I felt I could take on and enjoy almost anything.

When I got to college and saw the fifty-page listing of classes replacing the dozen or so choices I had in high school, I didn't know what to choose. Campus clubs and organizations went from a handful to hundreds. I called home in a quandary asking my parents where to begin. I remember clearly my father solemnly telling me that college is a time to make choices; that I had to choose my priorities and interests. He told me I couldn't possibly stretch myself to encompass all there was to learn, enjoy, and give myself to.

So I began to feel out what I enjoyed the most. I spent hours sitting in the lounge with "the philosophers," I got in with the drama crew and went to some of their way-out-there parties, I got involved with Christians on Campus, I became an officer of the American Medical Student Association, I hung out with a wacky fraternity group, and I spent hours a day working in the various fine arts. I took classes ranging from calculus for engineers to history of animation. But I realized I was only skating on the surface of all these things and although I enjoyed them, I needed to find what really satisfied me.

During this first year of exploring, a staff member from Christians on Campus began to call me around 9:00 am (the time I happened to be getting up in those days) to read the Bible with me and pray. These phone calls never lasted over 10 minutes, but it was consistent and one of the only steady things in my life at that time. When I would again and again come to a crossroad as to which way to spend my free time and energy, I began to find myself choosing Christians on Campus activities.

It wasn't that I didn't enjoy the other stuff, but somehow I knew it was temporal and didn't meet deeper needs within me. I was attracted to these Christians who were giving themselves to the Lord. I knew I didn't have the capacity to run after the Lord by myself--I was too easily distracted by too many other things. But when I got together with these seeking believers, my love for the Lord Jesus was stirred up and I began to realize He was my only satisfying choice.

I am still in school and still busy with many activities, but I can honestly say that the more I am around the dear Christians in Christians on Campus, that I am happier than at any other time. Finally, my inner need as a vessel to contain something worthwhile--that is God Himself-- is being satisfied (see Romans 9:21,23 and Second Timothy 2:21 in the Bible).

Amber Bailey
OU Class of 200