Tag: opinions

Categories
Letter to the Editor Opinions

Letter to the Editor: Discipleship, not Gender Roles

By Dr. Kristina LaCelle-Peterson

In a culture obsessed with gender differences and gender roles, it’s good to consider how absent these themes are in Scripture. When we look at the Bible, we find the authors virtually unconcerned with how to be a man of God or a woman of God; they consistently invite us simply to be faithful to God. In other words, Scripture pictures us as humans before God, in creation, fall, redemption, as well as in the invitation to participate in God’s work in this world. Biblical writers are apparently uninterested in how a woman develops faithfulness to God as a woman or how a man does it as a man. For followers of Christ, discipleship is discipleship.

But Christians have often read their gender assumptions into the Bible. For instance, some Christians claim that God placed humans in a hierarchy right from the start with men in charge. One reason they think this is their assumption that God is male and therefore men, being more like God, have the responsibility to lead and direct. However, God is not male since God is spirit; God is supremely personal without being limited by the markers that define animal life. In addition, men are not more like God, since Genesis 1 tells us that all humans are made in God’s own image and commissioned together to do God’s work. They are to be fruitful and multiply; they are to have dominion. No one is the boss, while the other follows. No one protects and provides while the other is passive. We see hierarchy introduced only after the Fall, where domination and subjugation are clearly expressions of the brokenness of humanity after sin has entered the system. Hierarchy interrupts the delightful mutuality of God’s design and also seems to suggest that God likes order more than the flourishing of the people involved.  This, of course, is a questionable assumption given God’s deep love for all of us and God’s consistent desire for the just treatment of all.  

Another unhelpful habit in considering God’s design is to suggest that men and women complement each other and need each other to reflect God. Scholars differ in how they interpret the phrase “image of God” (in terms of capacities,  relationality, or function) but generally affirm that all humans are formed in God’s image equally. What it does not say is that men and women together mirror God’s image. In other words, just because male and female are both made in God’s image, it does not follow that the statement can be turned around to mean that it is in our maleness and femaleness that we reflect God. That kind of thinking results in some deeply problematic theological positions.   

First, with regard to people, if the marriage of a man and a woman is thought to most fully represent God that would mean that huge swaths of the human race would be somehow less in God’s image, given that they are single or not in hetereosexual relationships. Being made in God’s image is fundamental to our being, and our marital or relational status cannot affect it in any way. Besides, as the biblical scholar NT Wright has observed, our maleness/femaleness is what we share with the created order, not with God. We are like many of the plant and animal kingdoms where male and female bodies are necessary for reproduction. Though some Christians want to spiritualize these categories, the Bible doesn’t. 

Furthermore, to say men and women most fully display the image of God together, implies that God is a composite of male and female, with men and women each reflecting one ‘side’ of God. It makes God like the yin and yang, the complementary male and female “energies” of Eastern thought, pasted together. This dualism regarding God’s essence is not biblical. God is I AM—being itself, the source of being, the One who simply is. It would be better to say that God, having no body, transcends the categories of male and female, since these things are linked to earthly life and specifically to reproduction. Even talking about ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ traits in God is a projection of our ideas of masculinity and femininity onto God. God encompasses all human traits, regardless of whether we have labeled them masculine or feminine.

In the second creation narrative, the animals are paraded before the human and are disqualified on the basis of their inferiority. In contrast, the woman is not inferior but corresponds to him and therefore is someone who can offer an antidote to his aloneness. She is not his little helper, however, since the word ‘help’ here is most often used for God in Scripture, offering the help that the other needs to thrive. Significantly, Adam rejoices, not that God has made someone who is different from him to complement him (or follow his lead or do his dishes), but someone who is bone of my bone. She is my very body, he rhapsodizes, someone who shares my fundamental essence—being human.

When we come to the New Testament, we find Jesus calling women and men to be disciples on the same basis – there is not a different set of expectations for female and male disciples. In fact, when Jesus is asked to endorse gender roles or gender valuation, he refuses to do so.  For instance, he refuses to devalue women as he was expected to in his culture on the basis of their purported sexual danger. Consider the story in Luke 7 where he welcomes the touch of a woman who washes his feet, though the religious folks present can only see her sexual impropriety. And in the story of Mary and Martha (Luke 10) he refuses to press Mary into the expected gender tasks. Instead, he affirms her choice to sit at his feet, learning like only male disciples generally did in that culture. And when a woman cries out in the crowd, “blessed is the womb that bore you,” he says, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!” (Luke 11:27). It is discipleship by which people are valued in Jesus’ kingdom, not following gender expectations. When his family members show up, he asks, “Who are my mother and brothers?” Looking at those around him he continues, “Here are my mother and brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:33-35). He is not disrespecting his own mother, rather inviting all those around him and by extension all of us, to be part of his family on the basis of obedience. Whatever differences may exist between men and women (and that’s a huge topic that cannot be addressed here) the call for Christians is not to figure out how a woman is to act or how a man is to act, but how each of us lives into the call of Jesus to lay down our lives for the other and to wash each other’s feet. If there are differences presumably they would come out naturally; we don’t have to force the issue.

Paul, too, celebrates women’s (along with men’s) faithfulness to promote the good news, even calling many women his co-laborers in the Gospel—see especially Romans 16. Some, he notes, risked their lives for him and the sake of evangelism. When he lists gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 there is no segregation of gifts on the basis of sex.  

So, if Scripture is not terribly concerned with gender roles and norms, why is the church so caught up in promoting them?  People seem to fall back on them because cultural expectations are comfortable and feel ‘right’ in any given moment in history; it’s just easier to go with the grain.  If we have heard them justified with Bible verses (taken out of context) they even feel Christian, but we have to remember that our ideas of femininity and masculinity are not biblical.  They are products of our culture in this time and place.  For instance, the Bible does not require men to provide and protect the people in his family.  In Scripture, we have plenty of examples of women’s bodies being used to protect men, for better or worse, and the passage most often trotted out to describe the ideal wife (Proverbs 31) depicts a woman providing for her family.  In addition, the texts of Scripture were originally addressed to people primarily in agricultural societies where everyone’s work is necessary; men, women and even children work hard to keep the family economy going.  The man as ‘provider’ seems particularly linked to cash economies and to middle class status; in 19th century America, for instance, having a wife who “stayed home” became a symbol of male success, (that is, masculinity).  But that doesn’t make it Christian and arguably that cannot be a sign of Christian faithfulness, since it would mean that poor, working class families where everyone has to earn money, would be less pleasing to God.  

The Wesleyan tradition has stood for the equality of all people and for each person’s responsibility before God.  When it comes to the community of the redeemed, we stand shoulder to shoulder because we are all sinful humans who have been addressed by the grace and love of God. In Scripture, God is said to give gifts and then invite people to use them for God’s glory, without the question about gender roles entering into the equation.  Simply, don’t bury your talents in the ground!  With regard to marriage, we take seriously the call to “Submit to one another out of reverence to Christ” (Eph 5:21) and believe that it is what we are called to model in our families, in our churches and in the society, rather than cultural ideals of manhood and womanhood.  In fact, all the instructions about how Christians should interact—encouraging one another, putting each other’s needs above our own, bearing each other’s burdens, etc.—apply to both people in a marriage.  When it comes to parenting, then, both partners are to love their children unconditionally, as far as humanly possible, and both are to model for their children what it means to be a follower of Christ and what it means to lay down one’s life for the other.  

Part of the grand adventure of being Christian is living into the full personhood that God created us for. Scripture does not ask us to wedge ourselves into a box of cultural (or church or family) expectations about how a woman should act or how a man should act, but invites us to ask how do I live a life that most fully uses the gifts and passions that God has placed in me? How do I bring my whole self to my relationships and not hide or diminish myself in order to adhere to gender roles or rules? Let’s remember that God doesn’t ask us to tamp down our individuality in order to follow cultural patterns, but invites us to develop our full, unique selves.  Let’s live into the lovely diversity with which God has created us. ★

Categories
Opinions

 Chapel can be Worth Your Time

By Will Allen

Have you ever felt like attending chapel is a chore that you get little out of? Do you find yourself stressed or preoccupied during worship and distracted during the sermon? I sure have, and I have an idea or two about why this is and how we can get more out of chapel.

Ah, junior year, when my first class on MWF was chapel. Oh, the dreams I dreamed of productive mornings… but after evenings (and nights) of intentional procrastination, in which no homework was done, I would wake at nine and languidly spend an hour preparing myself for the day. The stress would hit me at ten as I worked feverishly to complete my many German assignments. And in order to get everything done, I had to study for Frau Meilaender’s dreaded bi-weekly “vocabletest” (if you know, you know) in chapel. 

Cut, Copy, Paste, and that’s most of my junior year. I got the chapel credit, and I passed the tests, but I remained stressed and tired, and I sure can’t tell you what “washing-machine” is in German or many other words for that matter. In short, my time became contaminated, and as a result, I was stressed and learned nothing. And that makes for a pretty hollow college experience. Ideally, I’d want to be not stressed and to have learned a lot, but because I refused to focus on one thing, I got the worst of both worlds. 

By the grace of God, I passed German, and this year, I decided to not do homework in chapel. Instead, I’ve used some chapel skips to finish assignments, and doing so has helped me focus in chapel. I’m glad to say that it’s been a much more fruitful experience, not because I remember the message of every sermon but because putting aside my homework and its accompanying stress has helped me open space in my mind for God. However, to make space for God, I’ve had to do more than let go of external stressors like homework.

I also often struggle to overcome internal stressors affecting my focus. My own doubts, worries, and feelings of inadequacy tempt me to use chapel as a pick-me-up. When I look to chapel to fill me up with comforting emotions, my soul acts like a vacuum that takes everything and judges it as useful only if it makes me feel good. The focus shifts from praising God to comforting myself, thus making the methods I use to do so idols that I worship shadows that bear only the connotation of an open and reverent heart. Even closing my eyes and folding my hands can become an idol when I allow my need to feel the comforting feeling I’ve felt before while worshiping to overshadow and steal my focus away from the real purpose of worship, which is honoring God. 

So what should I do? Should I give up on good feelings? Well, this situation reminds me of something Jesus once said. “If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you’ll lose it, but if you let that life go, you’ll get life on God’s terms” (Luke 17:33 The Message). So the way I see it, if we’re just willing to let go of our desires and focus on the goodness of God, we’ll receive the comfort we were ignoring God to get in the first place. 

Whenever I find myself needlessly criticizing the worship because I don’t like the song or phasing out during the message because I think it’s boring, I just remind myself that chapel is not about me getting my desires gratified. It’s not about us. It’s a chance to encounter Emmanuel – God With Us, if we trust Him enough to let go of our stressors and focus on Him. When we offer God space in our lives, God enters that space and fills it with His presence. And God’s presence assures us that we are loved unconditionally, giving us real rest from the stresses we face. And in turn, this assurance helps me trust God enough to tune back in.

I think this quote from The Message sums it up nicely.

“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Mathew 11:28-30

Chapel can become an unforced weekly rhythm of rest that reminds us that we are God’s Beloved Children. If we give God a little bit of space and a little bit of focus, we can find in Chapel an emotional security from which we can face the rest of the day. 

So, in summary, if you want to get something out of chapel, put away your phone or homework and focus on God, not on your own needs. You’ll get so much more than you would if you were distracted by your responsibilities or only focusing on whether your experience is satisfying. 

Focusing on God can take some focus. It may be a yolk, but the yolk is light, and the burden is easy. It fits us and refreshes us more than we could ever on our own. Perhaps according to the Community Covenant, chapel is technically a forced rhythm, but we all know that it’s oh-so-easy to hit the “scan and scram”. I think missing chapel isn’t so much a punishable offense as it is a missed opportunity to let God reassure us that He loves us no matter what. And on the flip side, going to chapel does not make us righteous, but it might be a real opportunity to recover our lives as individuals and as a community in Christ. ★

Categories
Opinions

Flesh is Cringe, Embrace the Machine (April Fools 2024)

By Christian Welker

People often ask, “Why go through the trouble of replacing every part of your human body with electronics and mechanical components?” Social stigma around Cyborgization has been a prevalent issue in America since the late 2080s. Unfortunately, the conversation has never progressed further than “Why would you not want to be human?”

Therefore, my fleshy friends, I will try to boil down my reasoning for abandoning humanity into something your feeble organic minds can understand. Starting with, of course, the most important subject:

  1. Your minds are feeble and organic.

Sure, a millennium ago, the human mind may have been more powerful than any computer, but nowadays, using a human brain without augmentations is like trying to run a marathon with Jupiter’s gravity: impossible, and you’re stupid for trying.

Even the strongest champions for organic humanity have at least a basic neurolink chip. How else are they expected to do basic stuff like connect to the internet or remember that person’s name from the conversation they had five minutes ago? People who have gone down the Cyborgization process like me will be able to outthink any organic “genius” that you throw at us. It should be celebrated that I only have 1% of my original brain, yet everyone still has to make comments like “That’s not what I meant by small talk” and “You just ruined dinner again, Christian.” Which leads me to my next point:

  1. Eating food here sucks.

Seriously, you would think the dining hall would have better options. How did we manage to make it even worse than it was in the early 2000s?

For “organics,” eating is still something you must do to survive, but meals are fun social events for me. The nuclear reactor in my chest provides all the energy my body needs to get me through the day, with no “vitamins and nutrients” required. Sure, it cost me all of my internal organs and most of my skeleton due to the radiation leak, but I’m pretty sure the new models don’t have that problem anymore. I can last for decades in inhospitable situations without food or water, like space, the desert, the Arctic, trapped in the basement of an abandoned University’s Campus Center…

The “superior organics” on the other hand have two days before their amazing natural body starts shutting down. That’s barely a second for people like me.

Speaking of natural functions…

  1. Immortality

How old are you?

I don’t care, actually. I’m nearly 2,000 years old. I remember when everything we have around us was nothing but science fiction cooked up by the failable minds of writers and scientists. When I first started getting my cyborg parts, they called me crazy, but I’m not crazy… I’m perfectly sane. They wouldn’t let a crazy person run a newspaper for so long…I’m not crazy…

Organics will try and tell you that people who live that long will  lose their grip on reality and go insane, but you shouldn’t trust them. You should trust me. They were the crazy ones, those doctors and psychologists. They were crazy, not me…

Anyways, moving on.

  1. The smell

This is more of a pet peeve of mine, but humans just reek, like all the time. I hate to say it, but if you’re reading this and you’re a human, you smell.

On the other hand, I have built-in air fresheners and no sweat glands. I could run a mile and come back smelling like fresh pine. I won’t because I don’t want to, but I could. I could run a mile at any time. I just want to be here in this room, working. I don’t want to go outside. I don’t want to run a mile. I want to be in here working! But I’m not stuck here. I could leave any time I want…I could go and run a mile in the Houghton Woods right now. I have great endurance.

And the last point…

  1. Durability

Have you ever broken a bone?

Again, I don’t actually care. My skeleton is made of titanium alloy. If you throw me out of a plane, the only damage will be to the ground I land on. Also, if the impossible happens and I hurt myself, I can just grab a spare part and replace it in a maximum of 20 minutes. There are plenty of spare parts here in the office. I could use any of them.

I’ll end it there for the sake of time and space, but trust me. The list goes on forever. I could spend the rest of my life in this office writing about Cyborgs being superior to Organics, but I can’t. I’m working on the paper; I’m too busy working on the paper…

If I haven’t convinced you, that’s fine. You can go about your little organic life bragging about how you have all your organs and brain matter while I’ll continue living forever as a college student in the basement of the CC, working on a newspaper that still exists with my friends and fellow editors, who are all real…They’re real…I talk to them all the time…

Who’s the real winner here? ★

Categories
Letter to the Editor Opinions

Letter To the Editor: Controversy?

To the Editors of the Star,

Last week, Hannah Smith wrote an excellent opinion about Metz, targeting students who claim that Metz is the sworn enemy of student satisfaction. And that has been the most controversial opinion in the Star this year. 

For contrast, find a copy of the Star from five or ten years ago and turn to the opinions. You’ll find thought-provoking responses to issues like immigration, carbon taxes, sexual education, the March for Life, the Republican primary, and Houghton’s handling of racism. Where are those issues in the Star today? 

We claim to be an institution that values hard conversations, yet we no longer represent those conversations in our student newspaper. Maybe those conversations happen privately; maybe we’re overly sensitive to others’ opinions; maybe we’re tragically apathetic. In any case, students do not engage with hard issues in a way that contributes to the common good. We cannot be the institution we claim to be when our public discourse is watered down by disengagement. 

We must be brave enough to use forums like the Star to broach those issues, learn from one another, and engage with the world beyond the Houghton Bubble. Surely, students have opinions that go deeper than the menu in the dining hall. I hope they will use the Star to share those opinions and contribute to our public discourse so we can be the institution we claim to be.

Cody Johnson ’24

Cody,

Thank you for your letter. The Opinions Section of the STAR has always been a place where students can freely express their thoughts in a public setting. While we cannot explain the shift away from controversial opinions over the last decade, we want to make it clear that we have never closed the door to these types of opinions. The STAR would love to publish articles on the topics you discussed if any student wished to work with us to publish them.

Our only requirement for Opinion pieces is that they do not unjustly attack an individual person or group. For example, “Christian is a terrible human being, and everyone should hate him” would not be accepted, but “I do not agree with Christian on X because he never considered Y” would be a perfectly valid response. As long as you are considerate of the other side, we are willing to publish your piece.

So, to the Students, Staff, and Faculty of Houghton, if you are willing to express your opinion on hot-button issues facing either Houghton or the world at large, we are willing to help you do exactly that. Please feel free to send either a Letter to the Editor or an Opinion Piece to either star@houghton.edu or Victoria.Arndt25@houghton.edu.

Thank you,

The STAR Editors★

Categories
Opinions

Jesus Take the Reins 

By Hannah Lee

The equestrian world is an ever growing career that has gained more popularity each year. Though it’s primarily a female dominated field, it can be quite diverse, embracing both men and women and people of all shapes, sizes, ages, and ethnicities. That being said, that  diversity does not end there. Within the realm of Houghton’s equestrian related activities such as competitions, ownership, and academics, there is a strong central faith guiding the program. The program is designed not only to help its students grow in their equestrian knowledge, but also connects them more to their faith as they go forward. I am honored to be a part of Houghton’s equestrian legacy and to have the opportunity to write about the program. 

I have had personal experience with trusting God’s process in my time here at Houghton. Many equestrian students, if not all of them, will experience a setback that requires a level of trust that we can only find by leaning on God’s understanding. Trusting the plan God has in store is not always easy, but waiting and listening for His guidance yields the greatest outcome of success and peace.  Last fall I had a riding accident that left me with a broken bone and nerve damage to my dominant arm. It’s not uncommon to meet equestrians who have had similar injuries, and most of them will tell you it does not change their view on the sport, but it teaches us how to adapt to new challenges. These challenges are like the valleys we walk through in faith. They test us, and it’s easy to want to give up. My encouragement is to not give up and trust God’s process. I was terrified when I got my injury diagnosed, but there was nothing I could do to change it. I was told it could be a year before I gained all function back in my hand, and even longer before I could ride again. I had to change my major, albeit not an extreme change, but it was and is a setback. I had no choice but to trust God and His plan for me. We equestrians experience setbacks all the time, and the outcome will most likely not be what we want if we do not have faith in God. 

 As equestrians, it is our passion to care for and learn from the creatures we work with. I think of it as the special calling God has for us. We are stewards of one of God’s greatest creations, the horse. We are able to forge a unique bond with the animals that allows us to better one another. The bond between horse and rider is so special. We can see the fruits of our efforts in our dressage tests, jumping courses, and even trail rides. It can sometimes look like riding horses is effortless, but it requires time, dedication, and love to get to those levels of trust between horse and rider. I like to think of it in how I engage with my relationship with God. I am not going to have a good personal relationship with God and my faith if I do not put any effort into it and do not cultivate the relationship. The same can be said for horses. I won’t have a good ride if I go into it with a negative attitude and then don’t try to  get better. There won’t be any progress in my riding skills if I don’t try. Faith is important in our daily lives as Christians. We all know that, but how much more important is it when we are in hard times? Sometimes equestrians will go days and maybe even weeks without the good ride they were hoping for, and it can be really discouraging. As I said, we have to keep our faith; otherwise what are we in this for? 

The community of equestrians here at Houghton is very different from what we see outside of campus. Unlike most commercial barns and competitive teams, Houghton’s program does not focus on competing and good scores at shows. We care about supporting each other and becoming equestrian professionals. We want to develop our skills as people and Christians. The development entails being good stewards to the horses and each other. In my experience, there are many barns that are very toxic, and they thrive on tearing one another down. Our equestrian program encourages us to lift each other up and give each other constructive criticism so we can improve.One verse that has been very encouraging for me has been Proverbs 21:31: “The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord”. We sometimes battle for each day, but we do not have to do it alone. We support each other at shows every semester, and the program is a tightly knit community that we all cherish.

Our horses, whether we own them or not, are teachers for us. They can teach us to be better riders, better people, and better Christians. It seems odd, but it is my belief that horses are some of the greatest faith teachers God has given us. The horses are what give equestrians the greatest challenges and the greatest tests of our faith, and that is what keeps me going. That faith—in the horses, ourselves, each other, and God—is what keeps us all going. Sometimes we just have to let Jesus take the reins. ★

Categories
Opinions

In Defense of Metz

By Hannah Smith

“Metz is terrible.”

We have all heard that one before. Metz has no options. Metz is nothing compared to home cooking. Metz is simply inedible.This comes up in conversations early in the morning, sometimes at lunch, and definitely at the dinner table. But I argue that there are more people in favor for Metz than we know. It’s too easy to get caught up in the rut of complaining and shortchange a good thing rather than appreciate what is there. 

According to a comment from senior Abigail Young, “It’s not a restaurant, but it’s not bad food.” If we really look at Metz with open eyes, we can see that the options are much more varied than the typical college fare. Bethany Smith from Eastern Nazarene has said that almost every night they have a fried food option: chicken tenders or pizza. There are no self-cook stations or fruit stations. The best that can be done is to go to the store yourself to get some strawberries.

Houghton has cooking stations, a sandwich bar, a fruit bar, a salad bar with dependable vegetables, and a pizza station. Pretty much any option for what you’re feeling or can make yourself. True, there’s not always a hit at the Main Plate section, and it may not be home cooking, but as Abigail previously said, it’s not bad.

Junior Brynn Dixon says part of her own attitude towards Metz is because “I think I get disappointed sometimes because I’m tired. We live in the middle of nowhere and I can’t just run out to Wendy’s and get my four piece chicken nugget meal.” It’s hard! Living in a space where the closest restaurant is the local Chinese restaurant and Dunkin Donuts is twenty minutes out is difficult! Especially when most of us come from areas much more urban than Houghton is.

I think wishful feelings about missing home cooking are felt by a large portion of Houghton students. Home is far away, along with the comfort of a homemade meal, and college food can feel subpar compared to it. But we don’t hate Metz. They do a fantastic job and we appreciate the effort they put into changing and addressing our needs. But there isn’t much they can really do to subdue this feeling of wishing from Houghton students. It is simply the way it is when living in such a rural space. And Three Bums Pizza is not exactly a great option to get away from dining hall food. 

Metz has done a lot to accommodate students in terms of changes to meals and food options. In past years we had limited access to fruit, but they heard our desire for fruit, and this year we have a fruit bar. There were a lot of complaints about Poblanos being all day-every day, and this year we have a weekly rotation on that station. They hired a professional dessert chef. There’s even an ‘Ask Us’ board up next to the coffee station. They make sure to respond promptly to comments students post and do the best they can to make the changes asked for. That’s a 10/10 in my book.

Metz will never be home cooking. It will never cater to our taste buds specifically. But they do their best with cooking for the university body. I think it’s important to remember to be grateful for the blessing of the people who work to make our lives easier. Metz is fun to complain about, but we should be careful not to convince ourselves that it really is terrible, because convincing ourselves that something is terrible is surprisingly easy. ★

Categories
Opinions

The Constant Pursuit of Something Greater

By Evelyn Simanowski

What is a Vocal Performance major’s art? Short answer: I spend a lot of time singing songs I think are pretty. That probably seems like a rhetorical question and an even more obvious answer, though it’s not an answer I’m adverse to giving. I could say “I spend hours in a tiny practice room every day,” or “I’m taking 19 credits before ensembles,” or best yet, “I’ve shaped my entire lifestyle to meet the physical demands of being a vocalist.” Are these answers dramatic? Absolutely; but they hold just as much truth within them as they hold drama. I wouldn’t be in this major if these truths weren’t worth it.

I consider the art of singing to be one of complete connectivity and a far more dynamic art form than it appears at surface level. My career as a vocalist relies almost entirely on my ability to interpret and bring life to song, requiring me to view the piece through its historical, cultural, and artistic contexts. This idea of connection begins when I start studying a new piece of music. I’m first connecting with the notes and rhythms on the page, that’s a given, but during that time I also consider myself to be connecting with the composer and their intent. Despite having never met any of these composers, there’s a real closeness I feel with them when I consider what inspired them to write this music and exactly what they were trying to share with their audiences. There’s no guarantee that the circumstances and narrative they were writing in will fit my own; they hardly ever do. There is, however, a guarantee that each of these composers I’m honoring is an image bearer that shared in the human experience and used their God-given talents to express such experiences. 

My connection with the piece only grows as I spend more time with it and begin pouring my own personal experiences into the piece. The art of song, like any art form, requires interpretation. In this case, I the performer can interpret the piece in a way that is personally meaningful to my story and maintains the integrity given to it by the composer. Most of the music I choose to sing is by composers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. While they’re not working with me in person, the intentional time and consideration I spend interpreting their work makes it feel as though there’s active collaboration going on between the two of us. They spent hours writing these pieces and now I have the privilege of spending hours working them in the practice room to bring them their due respect.

Any time I perform a piece of music, I believe that life is truly breathed into it when it’s shared with others and given what my voice professor and I call “people energy.” The exchange of energy that happens at this point in the process is electrifying and quite frankly what keeps me coming back for more. Within a single song, I’m exerting pure energy in my performance, exchanging energy with my collaborator(s), and feeling reciprocated energy from the audience. This dynamic energy exchange grants me the opportunity to share the meaning I’ve found in the composer’s piece with a group of individuals that can receive the meaning and interpret it through their own personal experiences and convictions. Standing on the stage and baring a little bit of my soul to an audience is, of course, a vulnerable experience. But in that vulnerability, there’s an even greater opportunity to share the joy and meaning I’ve found in the music.

My job doesn’t end when I step off the stage, nor is there any discernible goal or finish line I’m trying to reach. There are goals I have along the way, each of them indicative of a certain accomplishment or level of progress, but none of them representing perfection. It’s a grim thought, honestly, that no matter how hard I work or how talented I am, I will never achieve perfection in my performance, just as I will never be a perfect Christian. Still, I strive for excellence in all that I do, reminding myself that it’s okay to never achieve perfection. I remain conscious of the fact that I am honing the gifts God has given to me to be used to the best of my ability for His glory. I recognize the gift it is to bring new life to the work of my predecessors and to connect with countless individuals through a language that only He could create. I thank God for the art He has given me and the course He has set before me so that I may be in the constant pursuit of something greater. Soli Deo gloria. ★

Categories
Opinions

The Power of Faith in God

By Rebecca Dailey

It seems impossible that I once sat writing about coming to Houghton. I can remember a crisp summer turned fall day, being in my room working away, never thinking I would follow that particular article to write its sequel. God has a way of making things happen even when we least expect it. The original article that I’m referring to was from the September 2, 2023 issue, which doesn’t seem that long ago. I wrote about transitioning from my community college to Houghton and how wonderful it had been so far. It’s been a full semester and we’re four weeks into the second semester with a whirlwind of new experiences.

I’ve learned, and not only in class or practicum, which is required for Education majors (it simply means I’m out in the field in a school setting). I’ve learned a lot about myself and strengthened my relationship with God. I come from a very religious family, but it didn’t quite feel like something for me at the time. However, the older I’ve gotten, the more I have come to understand it: God’s undying love for me, for all of us. It’s not just something we say we are, it’s something we do. We choose to not only follow God, but to actively spread His love and show grace and support to those around us. It’s not something that can be simply done like a snap of your fingers. It takes time to build a relationship with anyone, but God especially, because it is so easy to forget His sacrifices for us. However, the community of Houghton builds upon this love to bring their community together, whether it’s sports events, activities around campus, or just even morning Chapel.

The building of community has been such an important aspect to my growth in God and Christ, knowing that there are others who have walked for years and those like me who are just coming to terms with what it truly means to be a person of God. Not only coming to terms with it, but also knowing that it’s not just about reading the Bible or attending church weekly. It’s about loving everyone around you, serving others, even simply helping with homework or comforting a friend after a long day.

I was reading a book the other day called The Love Stories of the Bible Speak by Shannon Bream. I didn’t even pass the dedication page without pausing to stop and think about what it said. The verse came from I John 4:19, “We love because he first loved us.” He loves us when we’re wrong, He loves us when we’re right, He loves us when we’re upset with our friends and even when we’re upset with Him. He loved us and loved us still to sacrifice His only son for us so that our sin could be washed away. And yet sometimes we still do things that we know are wrong but we do them in anger, loathing or envy for another person. Being purely good is an uphill battle that we will win because we have God on our side and the knowledge of His love for us. 

God’s love doesn’t only directly come from Him, it comes from those around us who live God’s word and serve the community around us. The entirety of humanity is a steadfastness of God’s love for us because we are created in His image. We are created to love and to be loved by all. With His love comes our faithfulness to Him and for Him. We are God’s children and brothers and sisters in Christ. It’s who we are as people and who we are as Christians. 

Coming to Houghton was probably one of the most wonderful things that has ever happened to me. I came here because it was God’s plan for me. He wanted me here because He loved me and wanted to show me that even in my darkness there is still a life with Him. There is a life for all of us as an earthly community and with God. Whether we have admitted that or not, there are documents for all of us. In those dark moments, we can either hide or we can cry out to God because He loves us to show us the way out of the darkness and into the light. We will come into the light in our own way, on our own time, but in the end we will all come together as children of God. ★

Categories
Opinions

Volleyball: The Sport For Life

Lindsay Seddon

I remember my first day of modified volleyball practice when I was in 7th grade. My mom, who played volleyball in high school and here at Houghton, encouraged me to give it a try. I remember the majority of my friends heading to the soccer field while I headed to the outdoor makeshift volleyball court since the girl’s varsity team had priority for gym time. I remember in those first few days of practice finding the sport really hard, but I wanted to keep trying since it captured my interest. I couldn’t get my serve over the net, passing and setting to target was nonexistent, and a “kill” wasn’t even in my vocabulary at that point. However, volleyball was different from other sports I played throughout my life, and it was the beginning of what became (and still is) a huge part of who I am. 

You see, volleyball is so positionally technical, yet each member of the team has a very important role in the sequence of the game. You can’t get a swing without a set, and you can’t get a set without a pass. Everyone needs to work together to make an organized play happen. Culturally, it’s always been a very polite sport since it’s non-contact, yet the power and aggressiveness especially when going up for a swing or serve can be brutal. When you break it down, volleyball is all about being organized as a team, dominating your position, and keeping the ball in play on your side at all times. I love that. 

They say volleyball is a lifetime sport, and I agree. For example, our assistant coach for the HUMVB team, David Bourne, plays for a 55’s and over team who qualified for nationals this past fall. The game changes as you get older, but that doesn’t mean you can’t play. Often you see older teams beat younger teams because their game IQ is so high from playing for so many years. They know how to change up the pace and read the opposing offense which keeps them one step ahead, positioning exactly where they need to be on the court at all times. Another example is our very own Men’s Volleyball team. We have a range of experience levels as a beginner program. However, when they brought home their first win in program history this past weekend, it proved you can pick up the sport and succeed when you train hard and work together as one unit. 

Someone once said that watching our high school varsity volleyball team play looked like a ballet. Not because of its delicate nature, but how we flowed and synced as a team on the court. That’s how organized we were as six individuals behind a 7’4” net working close together in a 30x30ft perimeter court. We knew each other’s tendencies and thought processes. Our setter tailored sets perfectly to each hitter for a flawless swing resulting in a kill. We knew when we were going flat how to reset and pick one another up; finishing what we started together. If we were out of system on the court, we knew as a team we had each other’s backs to better the ball for the next person to keep it in play. I had full faith in our defense because I knew they would never let a ball touch the floor. As a team we weren’t perfect, and we had our losses, but we built trust and respect for one another through it all, and that took us to heights we never imagined. I can see why this person thought it looked like a dance, because we knew how to work together.

After modified volleyball, I began the pursuit of earning an athletic scholarship when making the varsity team my freshman year. During those four years we won sectionals, regionals, and went to states. I played club volleyball all year round where we participated in tournaments across the country, and a dream was fulfilled when I received an athletic scholarship to play for the women’s volleyball team here at Houghton (this is when we were NAIA). To say I loved every minute of it all would be a lie, but how do you learn to work with others and grow in character when you aren’t challenged or go through setbacks? Sports in general are a great teacher of that. However, there is something about volleyball that is so unique. 

Volleyball is a game that takes you on emotional and mental highs and lows. In soccer or basketball a mistake can be quickly erased by stealing the ball back, etc., since the game is in constant motion. If you shank a serve in volleyball, that’s it. The point is gone forever and given to the other team. Between every point in the game of volleyball is the opportunity to mentally train yourself to keep moving forward or dwell on mistakes that can bring a whole team down. Momentum, communication, anticipation, and organization are key, and if you lose it, a team needs to work fiercely to get it back.

Seeing the sport grow over the last decade is proof that it’s rapidly capturing the interest of generations to come. 2023 saw the highest number of men’s volleyball programs added in the NCAA (including Houghton!). In August, a Nebraska Women’s Volleyball match broke the world record for the largest crowd ever in a women’s sporting event, beating the Women’s Soccer World Cup final crowd record just a few months earlier. And last week was the launch of the Pro Volleyball Federation, a professional league for women’s volleyball here in the USA. I love sports, but I love volleyball the most. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think volleyball is the sport for life, and I’m so thankful to know it. ★

Categories
Opinions

The Language of Music

By Katrina Kaufman

“Where words fail, music speaks.” This was the Hans Christian Anderson quote on my piano teacher’s wall before coming to Houghton. This is a quote that many musicians likely have come across, and while it may be overdone, it is not incorrect. Music contains power. Music can both heighten and express emotion. According to a neuroscientist, music has the power to rewire your brain chemistry. In my own life, music has helped me to process emotions as well as process hard truths in life. Music is soothing as well. We see this in the Bible when David soothes Saul’s inner demons. I recently learned that musicians are hired to choose/compose the best music in advertising to make sure that even the music helps convey the exact message that the advertising company is trying to convey to their audience.

Music also has the power to connect people. When a musician is able to be vulnerable and share themselves with their audience, the audience is able to connect both with the music and the musician. The joy of performing with other musicians on stage and getting to create music together rather than alone is a fulfilling experience that is unforgettable. 

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a class discussion where we dug deeper into questioning music. Something we discussed is the idea that music is not truly essential when it comes to survival. Back in the ancient days, cavemen were struggling to survive. They were fighting to live, and yet they still made rough instruments for themselves. While music was not essential to them the way food, water, and shelter was, music still filled a less tangible need they had. Our ancestors must have felt the need to have music as a vehicle to feel connected and a sense of community, as well as the use for spiritual purposes and not just social. Keith Richard said “Music is a language that doesn’t speak in particular words. It speaks in emotions, and if it’s in the bones, it’s in the bones.” 

I believe we as humans make music because God put music inside of us. I believe I experience a little of God’s glory and awe when I am filled with awe soaking up all the beautiful music at a symphony. I also feel a sense of beauty and awe in my soul when I am listening to a beautiful soft rock song and feel a progression and cadence happening in the music. 

Another aspect of music that I love is its healing properties. Music helps people in their suffering. Music helps people to feel and process their emotions. Music also helps people to feel understood and validated in their suffering, therefore making them feel less alone and more seen and validated. One of the wonderful things about music is its ability to meet a person where they are at. A song that expresses the emotion or idea that a person is experiencing can help that person find more meaning in their suffering and give them courage to keep moving forward.

Most importantly, music can connect us to God through the act of Worshiping. Koin is an excellent way at Houghton to experience connecting to God through Worship music. As a Performance major, I have been exploring what it means to worship God through the act of pursuing excellence in music as an act of worship and devotion. I really appreciate the atmosphere at the Greatbatch School of Music and how the music professors live out what it means to be a Christian musician who is making music for God’s glory rather than a secular music school that provides an environment where self-glorification is easy to pursue, or where music is worshiped rather than God. I value GSOM’s commitment to putting Christ first and creating a healthy environment to grow aspiring musicians. ★