What I Really Learned
Matt Hohenberger
January 7, 2008
Junior Theology – Faith
What I Really Learned
The First Semester of Junior Theology was different than what I had hoped for and what I thought it would be like. I was looking forward to a more spiritual course where I could search deeper for my Faith and get more in touch with it. Instead of being given time to reflect on our discussions and to personalize with what we were learning, we were lectured and told what the right way was to think about Faith. At times I felt like we were only given one way to think about things and it didn’t seem realistic for me. Although what I got out of the class wasn't what I had been hoping for, I did eventually get a lot from it.
The basis to my building of faith and willingness to strive for a relationship with Jesus was the Michelangelo painting that I encountered during Sophomore Theology. Mr. Stewart had explained the painting extremely well, and at the time I thought it was a nice piece of Christian artwork. It was an image that was stored in the back of my mind. When Mr. Sciuto reintroduced me to the painting, I became even greater aware of the power of God’s love and how we have to work towards loving God. At a recent Luke 18 retreat I participated in leading, the first talk was “Our Father’s Invitation.” While I listened to one of my college friends talk about his experiences of finding God, I realized just how much I had learned in this class. He began his talk about how he was hanging out with friends that were not true friends, and how his actions were not glorifying God. I realized that he was deep in the cave during these times. I began reflecting on the times in my life that I was in the deepest part of the cave, and I came to the conclusion that it is now. And right there, during this talk, I made a resolution for myself that I was going to allow my Youth Group help pull me out of the cave. He talked about finding God in nature, in the sunset, in our friends, family, and teachers. He talked about finding God in our experiences, and how we can come closer to the truth through reason. As he continued his talk, I found that in ten minutes he had summed up most of the ideas in our first semester course, and for once I was able to connect with it. I reflected a lot on this talk that was given, and I realized how much it opened my heart to God’s love. And then, he showed the Lukers the Michelangelo painting, I was amazed. I couldn’t believe it. I knew that this was a sign. I knew that this was God’s message working through one of my friends. Through his experiences that he shared with us, I realized how much God wants to be with us. I believe that the talk I heard changed my life forever because I now have a desire to reach God’s love. While he is struggling and fighting off everything just to connect with us, I am resolved to not hold my hand out laxly, but with strength and compassion to reach Him. I think that if it hadn’t been for Junior Theology this year, I wouldn’t have realized some of the subtleties in the talk. This class has truly taught me to see God in my life around me.
For those who did not have the experience that I had, they might have never had this strong metanoia. I also wish I could have had this type of revelation earlier while in the classroom. I think that if the class had taken time to be reflective, this might have been achieved. As a way to do this in the future, I think that journals are necessary. These are personal, in class journals that we are allowed to write on faith/Faith. I think if we had been given five minutes at the end of every other class, or maybe twenty minutes at the end of a week, to write and reflect solely on how our lives are affected by what we had learned, I would have gotten a lot more out of this class. I am just glad that I was able to connect when I did, and I am really excited to live my new life in Jesus.
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