A Lesson From My First Term In CCF
Out of all my time spent at Waterloo, I found that this term was particularly special. Though there might’ve been many reasons, I’d have to say that joining CCF was the biggest one. I got to meet so many new people, more than I have in my entire undergraduate career. Everyone was really friendly, the hangouts were cool, and I got to learn a lot about being a Christian. But there’s more to it. There was something that was hidden. It was subtle, and no one really talked about it, but everyone did it or had it. What was it exactly, and why did I feel like it so was special?
It started off with the first SG night. I was really nervous. I didn’t know anyone in the fellowship, and I wasn’t exactly a Christian. Being new to all of this, I was expecting the activities to be heavily centered on religious ideas, painfully serious, and in some sense, I’d be held in contempt for being an “outsider.” Thinking back to that makes me wonder why I even decided to come in the first place. To my surprise, it was the opposite of what I thought it’d be. The mood was light, people threw tons of jokes around (being “degen” in their words), and overall, it was lots of fun. It’s like everyone had the right attitude, but it was more than just attitude.
For the people I met, something about the way they acted seemed real, or genuine. They weren’t worried about what others thought of them, rather the opposite. Everyone knew who they were, and they were being just that. Naturally, some people were loud and outspoken, while others were reserved and shy. But it didn’t matter what they were, because they fit right in and everyone always ended up having a good time. It meant that this was a place where you really could just be yourself.
Something else I noticed was that lots of people were passionate; about being in the club or just in general. Passion is a very delicate thing. It’s something that describes all those things that magically call out to you as if they were natural. I read in the book Flow: the psychology of optimal experience that things you are passionate about allow you to enter a state of flow more easily. You know you’ve been in this state when you are doing something like hanging out with friends, playing games, or listening to music, only to say “wow, it’s been three hours already, where’d all the time go?” Everyone just had lots of things they were passionate about.
The thing with passion is that it builds you more into a person, or you could say it adds substance to your character. I was always excited to meet other people because everyone was so unique and talented. Some people were great at music, others athletic, some book-smart, and lots were great leaders. Everyone owned themselves and it made them lively. Because of that, the rooms always seemed brighter and more colourful when they were filled with CCF members.
I was really fortunate to have met someone in the club who shared a similar passion with me for reading. Knowing that I was new, they decided to give me The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren. In one of the chapters, the author talks about how we’re shaped for serving God. God created every one of us uniquely, each with our strengths and weaknesses. The strengths that we possess are a gift given to us by God, and their purpose isn’t for our benefit but for the benefit of others, hence the name gift. To me, this meant that we should be seeking out the things we’re passionate about. In doing this, we can bless the people we meet with our gifts and create a sense of community. And when I looked around, that’s what people were already doing. The people who had a love for music played instruments for worship and formed worship teams. The people who were athletic created groups to play sports, made intramural teams, and went on the occasional morning run. The people who were book-smart shared lots of their ideas of history and theology during Bible studies. Anywhere you looked, there was a group for it. The thing about this is that everyone wanted to do it, meaning that it was intentional.
And so, I realized what made this term so special was that everyone I met had the right heart. Everyone was real, genuine, passionate, lively, and intentional with themselves and the people they met. It was a really heartwarming experience, and I’m thankful to everyone that made me see it this way. I hope that I could use this gift and share it with others so that they too could experience how I felt in my first term in CCF.
