Your light will shine in the darkness

This week marked our first week of full-time ministry in France – since we finished our language school courses last week. With our new schedule, we spend an hour each workday morning (Monday, and Wednesday-Friday) together as a team praying. We pray for specific students we have met, for different outreach events coming up, and really for anything God has laid on our hearts. After prayer, we eat lunch (as a team, individually, or with students), and head to campus. There are 13 total campuses in Montpellier – but there are three main campuses that are part of the University of Montpellier where we focus much of our attention. These three are the science campus, the business and administration campus, and the liberal arts campus (also known as Paul Valery). Most of our afternoon is spent initiating spiritual conversations with students on campus, often through tools like the soularium picture survey or the perspective card survey.

Going on campus to talk with students can be extremely encouraging, incredibly heartbreaking, and often just frustrating. Every student and every conversation are different, but there are definitely common themes I would like to share to give you a better picture of ministry here. One very encouraging aspect is that many French students are willing – and some even eager – to discuss the deep, fundamental questions of life. Unlike many American students, controversial discussions and disagreements are not taboo; in fact, they are seen as very normal parts of life. Students are unafraid about sharing their own thoughts and convictions, and are often very interested to hear what we have to say. I have even been invited by many students to share my own convictions and beliefs – and often we have been able to share the Gospel in response to their questions.

Most French students we encounter on campus consider themselves “non-croyants” (non-believers), and put themselves either in the atheist or agnostic category. The majority have grown up in families who are non-religious or at least non-practicing. The most common responses I hear from students when we ask how they arrived at their beliefs are: they were raised that way, they don’t feel like they have ever experienced God in their lives, or they don’t think there is any way to have certainty about God because no one can prove He exists. For many students, evolution and scientific explanations for life make the most sense – they are very naturalistic in their view of the world. As a result, even talking about spiritual things can be somewhat of a foreign concept (no pun intended!). For some students I have talked with, imagining God exists is so far outside their realm of possibility; they have literally never considered a spiritual or Christian worldview or explanation as an option.

This week, I had the opportunity to talk with several students on different campuses, but none as interesting and (for me) as tragic as Jimmy. Darrin (one of our International Campus Staff – or ICS – working in Montpellier) and I went together to the science campus to initiate spiritual conversations with students. We were walking across a green space where different groups of students were assembled, when we saw two students sitting together a short distance away from the others. We approached them, explained who we were, and asked if they had 15 minutes to take a quick survey. Jimmy introduced himself to us and said he could take the time to talk; the girl who was with him introduced herself but quickly excused herself because she had a class starting soon after. Jimmy explained that he is a third-year university student in fundamental mathematics (something like theoretical math in the U.S.). Through posing the questions of the perspective cards, (What do you believe about the nature of God? What do you think is the purpose of life? and What do you believe about human nature?), we discovered that Jimmy has very logical, well thought-our convictions about each. He considers himself an atheist, and when Darrin asked him how he arrived at that belief, he agreed right away that atheism, like any belief, is based on faith. Unlike many French students I have talked with, he recognized the scientific logic that any answer to the question of the nature or existence of God (monotheist, polytheist, deist, atheist, agnostic, etc.) is really a belief because none of them can be proven. When we asked him what he was living for, he responded that as a result of his belief that there is no God, and that we are all here by chance, he could not see that any of us (as individuals) have any real purpose. He thinks it is possible that the universe has a goal or purpose, but that ultimately each human being has nothing to live for. Each of us is here by chance during our short lifetime, and after we’re gone there is no real change – we have no lasting impact. As he shared these things with us, I wasn’t sure how to react. I was completely dumbfounded and taken aback by his answer. Finally I asked him if that didn’t make him sad. He thought about it for a moment, and then shrugged and responded that it sometimes did.

Once again, I was speechless. It was difficult me to process, and I wondered internally how Jimmy was able to get up every morning. Why do anything at all if we are really here for no reason, and can have no lasting impact or purpose? I listened, my heart aching within me for the hopelessness of his worldview and the impact it must have on his daily life. During the course of our conversation (which lasted about 3 hours in total!), we were able to ask many questions that pushed him to go deeper and share with us, and also had the opportunity to share the Gospel with him. While he was not very receptive, he listened very intently and seemed very interested in understanding what we had to say. At the end of the three hours, Darrin realized he had to be somewhere. Before we left, we shared with him about the different events that we host (including English Club) and Darrin asked if he could have his phone number to contact him. Jimmy was happy to share it, and then we left.

Even after praying for Jimmy with Darrin, and praying and reflecting on my tram ride home, I just couldn’t get Jimmy out of my head. He is living a hopeless life because he doesn’t know God…and yet, he is completely unaware of his need for a Savoir. God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope,” is as much for Jimmy – and all French students – as it is for me. The only difference is that I have accepted God’s gift of restored relationship, and thus I am able to live in hope that God will take care of me.

Thank you for your faithfulness in praying! Please continue to pray that Jimmy (and students like him) would have their eyes and hearts opened to their need for Jesus. Pray that God would bring us to the students He has been preparing in advance to receive the Gospel. Pray that I would continue to learn more about God’s heart for the lost, and to be willing to ache and grieve for students who do not yet know Him. Finally, pray that God will continually use us to shine His light into the darkness.