It has been a full and fun 30 years, and I also know that it is not too late to make the most of every opportunity on campus during the twilight years of my professorship. I have learned that weighing opportunities in terms of eternal value is key.
100 years from now, we are forgotten
Dr. Phil Bishop, kinesiology professor at the University of Alabama, wrote a Faculty Commons article that has impacted my thinking. He asked if one could name famous persons in history, e.g., an Olympic athlete, the president of a prestigious university, etc. from 100 years ago. It is impossible for most to provide answers to these who’s who questions without doing a Google search.
That’s the point.
We can accomplish great things in the 80 years or so that we are on this earth, but 100 years later, we are forgotten. What counts, what stands forever, is that which has eternal value.
That, to me, is what should guide the way we use our 35 or so years in higher education. I am still a work in progress regarding this principle of eternal value, but I love what Moses wrote in Psalm 90:12 and 17. “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom,” and “May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us—yes, establish the work of our hands.”
I hope that I can make each of my days on campus count for Christ, and may God establish the work of my hands here on campus. How I wish this had been my prayer on day 1 of my employment.
But we never have to minister alone
A professor friend and I meet occasionally to pray. Some quarters we meet weekly for 20 minutes or so to do a prayer walk around campus. We pray for departments that we pass on our walk and for specific students or situations on campus. We always ask God to provide more Christian faculty and staff on campus, and we pray more specifically when we know about particular searches for new faculty or administrators. I am always reminded of a passage in Exodus 17:10-12:
So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset.
It would be presumptuous of me to compare myself to Moses, but what I have learned about Moses is that God provided him with help to hold his staff up in battle. God provided him with 70 men to help him when he was overwhelmed.
What a great example to those in faculty ministry: we never have to minister alone.
Behind all of my experiences as a Christian faculty member, a strong group of Christian professors and other “held up my staff” to enable me to have a ministry in my career. This support network matters deeply, especially for someone like me.
Susan Siaw
Cal Poly