President and senior Kevin Tong enjoyed reading Philippians 3 because of its focus towards getting to know Christ better and putting one’s faith in God. Tong felt that Paul’s advice to rejoice in the Lord really reminded him to embrace Christianity more fully.
“[It’s so important to] rejoice in the Lord, not only in your victories and happiness but also rejoice in the Lord when you are feeling down, when you’re sad, when you’re angry,” Tong said. “Every time you return to God, it gives you this moment of peace, for me at least, and that will help you ultimately to get through these hard times.”
One of the moments where Tong felt that embracing the Lord helped him was in freshman year when he suffered a sports injury.
“In freshman year, I suffered a concussion because of the basketball season, and I had to take two weeks off school. It was really, really frustrating and a time where I was very angry,” Tong said. “And for me, Christianity helped my belief in God, and my trust in Him helped a lot in terms of getting me through it and helping me understand the purpose of it. And the purpose of it was because I needed to slow down my life. I need to focus more on Him.”
Tong thinks that slowing down and reflecting on the goal of finding peace through God links back to one of the ultimate goals of the Christian club. Tong hopes that the clubRoots can become a place of discussion and camaraderie for both Christians and non-Christians, and that through the club’s discussions and activities, those who do not believe can have a chance to contemplate joining the faith.
Junior Emerald Lam serves as the main technological expert and troubleshooter for Roots Christian club. One of the more memorable moments she has with experiencing God is when she feels anxiety during testing.
“When I have big tests or presentations, I pray to Him and ask Him for wisdom and peace because I get extremely nervous for assessments,” Lam said. “The Bible tells us to give all of our worries to the Lord. And I think that’s exactly what I do and it helps.”
Lam believes that part of the message of Philippians as a whole fits with the main goal of Roots.
“The whole book of Philippines tells us as Christians to be true to our faith and worship together as a community because we’re stronger together,” Lam said. “It also tells us to not take the wheel in our lives and let God guide us through through life, and to give him control and I think that it’s a good book to read as a Christian club because we can talk together and discuss what Paul is saying.”
Sophomore Elvis Lang can relate to Lam’s invocation of God in times of stress. He too finds that God gives him comfort when it comes to looking at the future.
In the end, when thinking about praising God, Lang thinks that Philippians 3 also ties back to what God thinks of you, and that having confidence in oneself is a part of the plan that He has for humanity.
“In God’s eyes, there’s nothing about you that you need to be worried about. There’s no need for being really self-conscious or anything, because you’re perfect in the way He wanted to create you,” Lang said. “A lot of people say, like, ‘Oh, I don’t look like this, I’m not that smart’, or something like that. Well, He made you perfect in His eyes. So if you keep on saying that bad stuff about yourself, you’re kind of undermining how perfect God thinks you are.”
