Os Guinness and Jamie Winship inspire students

Os Guinness spoke at Convocation on Valentine’s Day and shared with students why love is so important to Christians and the deep meaning love has in his life.

Guinness opened by talking about his grandfather. He shared these words from a letter between his grandfather and grandmother: “To one who is dearer than life, with a love that is stronger than death.”

Guinness continued to talk about how he believes that love is not valued the way it used to be or how it should be.   

“We need to be champions and guardians of the great biblical view of love,” Guinness said.

Guinness called students to find the biblical meaning of love, which he described as more than a relationship; it is a deep commitment to something or someone.

Guinness explained the biblical view of love and how God is the center of love.

“God loves, and God is love,” Guinness said. He talked about how a loving god is unique to Christianity.

“My favorite thing about Os Guinness was that he was very knowledgeable,” junior Allison Van Sluys said. “He had some very incredible and interesting insights that I would not have thought of.”

Van Sluys pointed out that Guinness didn’t even have notes with him on stage.

Guinness explained to students how Exodus shows God’s love for his people by freeing them so that they could be closer to him and have a deeper relationship with him.

“Exodus at the end of the day is a great love story,” Guinness said.

Guinness pointed out several stories throughout the Bible of loyalty and love and how they paint a different picture than current views of love.

Jamie Winship spoke to students at Friday’s Convocation Feb. 16. Winship opened his message with Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

Winship is a former Washington, D.C., metro area police officer and he spoke about his calling and journey in becoming an officer but also how God’s word has cut through many different situations in his life.

“God still speaks, and his word still cuts,” Winship said.

When Winship was in the eighth grade, he snuck into a movie theater that happened to be playing a movie about a New York police officer. He felt the need to cry; all he could think was something or someone was calling him to become an officer. He started to shape his identity around one day being an officer.

“Identity is not about trying to do stuff. Identity is about becoming someone,” Winship said.

When he was 17 years old, he got into a wrestling accident, and he worried that the injury would prevent him from passing a police physical. The physical therapist told him that his injury would heal, but his anger would kill him.

She told him that he needed Jesus to fix his anger, and he reacted in anger, causing the physical therapist to walk out of the room. She told him that she would see him the next day.

“Come on, let’s go, I’m going to help you get well, but only Jesus can heal your heart,” she told him the next day.

This took Winship by surprise, and he reacted in anger again. This began a cycle of him meeting with her again for five days.

“Something that convicted me was when Jamie Winship was talking about the physical therapist and how she loved him despite his anger,” Van Sluys said. “Many times when someone says anything slightly mean to us, we shut down on them and turn away, but just as Jesus did, we need to love our enemies as he has loved us.”

This cycle made Winship realize that the therapist’s love for him was far greater than the anger he showed her.

“Her identity wasn’t her vocation,” Winship stated. “She was bringing her identity into her vocation.”

Bigham is a news reporter for the Liberty Champion