Fly the Flag

In my email signature footer, I include the following:

• A Bible verse.
• A web link to my testimony.
• A web link to a document I wrote after reading Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion” about my personal assessment of the arguments for and against the existence of God.

None of my students will be in any doubt as to my beliefs.

I get feedback from Christian students that they find this encouraging, and I get the occasional comment from other students who mention that they’ve read my arguments about God’s existence and found them “interesting” or something to that effect.

While students are in my classes, I don’t want to blur the boundaries of my position as lecturer, so if they seem interested, I point them in the direction of the Christian student group if they want to explore these ideas further.

However, one day I received the email below from a former student:

I wanted to make contact with you to share with you a cool story. Back in 2013, you taught me in Seps 1 and 2. At that time, I was an atheist. I had recently started dating a Christian and so I was exploring the possibilities a little more.

One of the biggest belief blockers for me was how can I, someone who thinks very scientifically, rationalise all the things I was learning about Christianity.

So one day I went trawling through the echo recordings of the first lecture and found the link to the site which you shared your story. For me, it was reassuring to know that it is possible for an engineer to believe (I’ve since come to realise whichever church you go to, you’ll find an engineer). It played an important step in my journey.

… I am writing to you because I wanted you to know how God used you to help change the path of someone else’s life. … I hope you are encouraged by this email.

To say “I was encouraged” by this email would be an understatement indeed! I praise God that he was able to use my testimony and reflections to help someone in their faith journey.

Now, please, don’t get me wrong; I’ve only had one email like this in 15 years. However, it does give me hope that even whilst I may not always get to hear and see the fruit, making known my faith can be used by God to guide people towards him, even after they are no longer in my class.

So let us all persevere in flying the flag for Jesus!