FOX News’ Shannon Bream encourages Liberty students to boast in their weakness during special Convocation

Liberty University welcomed alumna Shannon Bream (’93), anchor of “FOX News Sunday” and a former attorney, to the Vines Center stage at Friday’s Convocation. After a special recognition for Liberty University School of Law’s 20th anniversary, which is being celebrated this weekend, Bream spoke on sharing one another’s burdens and boasting in weakness before telling some memories of her own time as a student at Liberty.

During the opening of Convocation, a video honoring the history and accomplishments of the School of Law was shown, and President Dondi E. Costin introduced 2014 Liberty Law graduate Jonathan Alexander, an attorney and vice president and senior counsel for governmental affairs at Liberty Counsel, who sang the national anthem.

School of Law Interim Dean Timothy Todd then spoke about Liberty Law’s milestone.

“Today we celebrate and remember 20 years of God’s faithfulness toward Liberty University School of Law,” he said. “We have an incredibly special community. We have incredible faculty who pour daily into our students, staff who love our students and desire to pour into them, and we have an incredible student body. Liberty Law is truly a special place.”

Todd noted that the vision of the School of Law that started 20 years ago with 60 students has turned into over 275 current students and a community of 1,200 alumni serving in all areas of law all over the country and around the world. He recognized some of Liberty Law’s accomplishments in the past year, including placing third in the ABA Championship, winning the National Negotiation Championship, and having an alumnus argue before the United States Supreme Court.

“When Jesus was asked to summarize the law, he responded essentially with ‘Love God, love people.’ That’s what we strive to do at Liberty University School of Law,” Todd said. “We love God by growing closer to Him; we love God by helping our students grow closer to Him. One of the ways we love people is by serving them with excellence.”

Todd told the students God has a unique purpose for each of them, and he expressed his hope that they consider law school throughout that journey, emphasizing the important calling lawyers have in serving others.

Liberty Law continued its Founder’s Day celebration by hosting a symposium at the law school Friday afternoon and a special Founder’s Day Dinner for alumni on Friday night. The festivities continue Saturday with an open house event and tailgate.

After a time of worship, Bream was introduced in a video by her husband, Sheldon (’93), a former Flames Baseball player who earned a bachelor’s degree in sports management at Liberty and accompanied her at Convocation.

Shannon Bream, who earned her bachelor’s degree in business at Liberty before attending Florida State University College of Law, started her message by reflecting on her time at Liberty and the advice she would give her younger self and students today. She said Christians should not try to hide, but instead boast in their weakness. Reading from 2 Corinthians 12:7, she discussed the thorn in the flesh that the Apostle Paul endured and how God used it to humble him.

“(Paul) radically converted from Saul to Paul, where instead of now chasing down Christians and trying to get rid of them, he was shipwrecked, jailed, beaten, persecuted, stripped of all the status he had as a pharisee; he is now the one who is humbled.”

Bream shared a period in her life when a chronic disease caused her extreme daily pain and how her husband was the only one who knew what she was going through.

“I was struggling; I was hiding it from all of my coworkers, from my family,” she said. “I took all my extra energy covering it and hiding it and really getting to a very dark place.”

Though she searched for doctors and answers, she could not find any explanation for the pain.

“I prayed, just like Paul did, ‘Take this thorn away from me.’ But, like with Paul, the Lord said, ‘No, I’m not going to do that.’”

She prayed again that the Lord would send her answers, and she happened to find a specialist who had a cancellation and could see her the following day. Though the doctor was able to make a diagnosis, he explained there was no cure. She left the office discouraged, thinking she could not continue living in the pain she was in.

“As I’m sobbing (in my car), I heard the Lord say to me, not audibly, but in my spirit, ‘I will be with you.’ Not ‘I’m going to heal you,’ not ‘I’m going to take this away; here’s your miracle,’ but ‘I will be with you.’ That has been enough,” she said.

Bream continued to see the doctor, and after having surgery, her pain became manageable, even though she still deals with it to this day.

“I live with this thorn, this awareness that I am flawed and human and I need my Savior. I need Him to get me through every day, through every issue, through every problem, personal and professional,” Bream said. “I found that when I started to share with people the truth about how difficult that period was and how much I hurt and what a dark place I got to, it began to be a source of healing, not only for me but also for other people who will then share vulnerably.”

She compared it again to Paul’s example of voicing all of his struggles to others, knowing that “God gave him this thorn to keep him from being boastful in himself.”

“Boast about your weakness, because there’s something to be made about making your personal faith more personal to other people, to bearing each other’s burdens,” she said.

Bream said she would also tell her younger self to believe for the impossible.

“When people know that we’re flawed and that we need help and that we can’t execute these amazing, mighty, wonderful things by ourselves, it gives us a chance to point to our Heavenly Father. Believe for the impossible,” she said.

Bream pointed to the story of Deborah in Judges 4, where God called the Israelites to fight against the Canaanites. Even though the odds were against them, they won.

“When you have the Lord, you can do the impossible,” she said.

Bream’s third piece of advice was to “be about His business.”

“The mission for this school has always been that you will be equipped to leave here and go serve a world in need,” she said. “Whatever you are going to do, this school is about equipping you to go and do that for the glory of God.”

Bream said Liberty founder Dr. Jerry Falwell, who officiated at her wedding, would be proud to see all that Liberty has achieved, and she noted how the university has become a community that has a place for everyone. She encouraged students to understand that even if they don’t know what they are going to do with their careers, God is still equipping them for the future, and they can bring Him glory.

“The mission of this place is so unique; it is special. You have each other to encourage each other, and you have professors and people who love you and want to equip you to get out there and do whatever it is that God has called you to do,” she said. “May you never depart from that here at Liberty University, to bring glory to the name of God and make Him known around the globe.”

In addition to anchoring “FOX News Sunday,” Bream is a chief legal correspondent for the network and host of “Livin’ the Bream,” a podcast on FOX News Radio (FNR) where she shares inspirational stories, personal anecdotes, and an insider’s perspective on actions and rulings from the high court. She is also a bestselling author with FOX News Books, publishing “The Women of the Bible Speak: The Wisdom of 16 Women and Their Lessons for Today,” “The Love Stories of the Bible Speak,” and “Mothers and Daughters of the Bible Speak.“