Convo recap: Challenging students to serve God in every aspect
Liberty University’s second week of Convocation for the spring semester welcomed two speakers to the stage: David Jeremiah and Scott Harrison.
On Wednesday, Jan. 25, David Jeremiah, an evangelical Christian author and founder of Turning Point Radio, took to the large platform placed at the heart of the Vines Center to speak about wholly following the Lord. He began his speech with the story of Caleb.
“Caleb was enthusiastic about life,” Jeremiah said. “When you read of him, you realize that something unique was going on. One of the ways he stood out is because he never lost his joy for life.”
Caleb was an 85-year-old man with a deep excitement for the future. Despite his age, Caleb was strong in his faith and followed the Lord wholeheartedly. Jeremiah relayed the story about Caleb choosing from a list of tasks, ranging from easy to hard. Caleb chose the hardest task — the task that nobody had asked for.
Caleb took on the challenge because he had a big vision and an even bigger God. Jeremiah said that because of Caleb’s strong, unending faith for the Lord, he was able to accomplish a seemingly impossible task.
“Caleb teaches us that the way to accomplish things is to wholly follow the Lord,” Jeremiah said. “Every day, make that
your purpose.”
Jeremiah continued by relating the audience’s actions back to Caleb’s story. He spoke of aging and its impact on society.
“We live in a world with a lot of older people who age and quit. There’s no word for retirement in Hebrew, but in our culture, we’ve come up with an easy way to lose: retirement. There’s no law that says you have to stop serving God at a certain age,” Jeremiah said.
He explained to the audience that God hasn’t called us to the same routine. Our mindset for the future is made when we’re developing our purpose for life. If God calls us to serve, he calls us to serve with our whole life — he’s setting the stage to give us what we need.
“What are you going to do next when you graduate?” Jeremiah asked the crowd. “You don’t start to wholly follow the Lord when you graduate. You start when you realize that he has called you to follow him. Wholly follow the Lord from the moment he calls on you all the way through life, and you will be a Caleb,” Jeremiah said.
On Friday, Jan. 27, Scott Harrison, the founder and CEO of Charity: Water, spent his time on stage sharing his life’s journey and teaching the audience about the absence of clean water around the world.
Harrison relayed how his journey began when he worked as a nightclub promoter in New York City. After 10 years of turning from God and living in a repetitive pattern of sin, he made the decision to change the direction of his life, taking a job documenting mission trips in the country of Liberia.
Throughout his time in Liberia, Harrison was able to see first-hand the struggles that many people had to undergo. Many American luxuries aren’t present in countries like Liberia, and the thing that impacted him the most was the absence of clean water.
Harrison explained that children would routinely drink from parasite- and leach-infested waters, often becoming sick. The quality of life without clean water was detrimentally worsened, and as medical conditions increased, the amount of doctors available decreased.
“After seeing a place in Liberia where there was no clean water anywhere, I decided to make it my mission to bring clean water to those in need,” Harrison said.
He then began bringing his mission to life, starting a nonprofit organization called Charity: Water in 2006 to start bringing clean water to areas around the world in need of it. Through advertisements, sponsorships and awareness, Harrison has had over two million people join the cause since it was created 16 years ago.
“I’ve learned a lot throughout my journey,” Harrison said. “God can redeem anyone and anything. Maybe you’ve made mistakes, but it’s never too late to change the course of your life. Step into the plan that God has for you and obey.”
Since its start, Harrison’s nonprofit has drilled wells in over 29 countries, taking money and turning it into fresh water. Even through all of this, Harrison mentioned that the work is far from done.
“We’re only 2% of the way there,” Harrison said. “If your time, talent and money is focused on ending suffering, it is endless work. As someone who’s done this for 16 years, I would encourage you to spend more time thinking about how you can use what God’s given you to help others in the world.”
As he stood in the center of the arena, he ended with a quote from Avot de Rabbi Natan.
“Do not be afraid of work that has no end,” Harrison said.
For more information on Charity: Water, go to their website.
Hess is the asst. news editor. for the Liberty Champion. Follow her on Twitter