Having Christ as My Light
Hi there! My name is Jonathan and I have recently completed my tertiary education. My heart is filled with an immense gratitude to the Lord for providing me an opportunity to study at a local university and for seeing me through my time as a student at NTU. However, my time in university is special to me not only because of experiences I had on campus, but because the Lord helped me to better understand what it truly meant to walk in the light.
A Misguided Pursuit
4 years ago, I was given the privilege to participate in Bethany’s internship programme. I was immersed in God’s word on a daily basis and there was a sense of joy in understanding the various passages more. However, I was more interested in an intellectual understanding of its theological significance. This academic approach meant that my understanding of God’s word was at the level of the mind instead of the heart and spirit. Ultimately, in the first year of university, my faith was affected negatively as I grappled with the philosophies of the world that I had to study as part of my course. My misguided pursuit of wisdom and understanding stemmed from a prideful desire to prove that I could handle the intellectual challenges that were before me. Inadvertently, these thoughts that were antithetical to core Christian beliefs created in me a very cynical heart that reflected the dryness of my soul.
Having Christ as My Light
In these moments, the Lord once again extended His grace to me through His servant Pastor Mitch. A momentary show of concern turned into an enriching meeting, where he highlighted that I was in a “dark forest” and I needed to have the light of Christ to lead me out. That analogy reminded me about John 8:12 where the Lord Jesus said:
“I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
It was at that point where I began to understand that true wisdom and understanding lay in understanding and appreciating the person of Christ, who is the Son of God. But more importantly, my eyes were opened to the fact that I had pursued a fleeting satisfaction which is incomparable to the life and light that we can all have in Christ.
This was a verse that guided my heart in the last 2 years of my university as I sought to (re)learn what it meant to walk with the Lord and to walk right with Him. Through it all, I thank God for revealing to me the error of my ways and for providing me a wonderful spiritual family in Bethany who never gave up on me. As I enter the next phase of life, my hope is that I would continue to mature in faith and walk in the His light, that I may come to reflect the light of Christ in the workplace!
Written by Jonathan Ang