Dear OneLife sponsors, supporters, students and alumni,
As my family and friends back home in Wisconsin ask me what I have learned from my OneLife experience, I am able to reminisce in all the blessings and renew a gratitude of my unique opportunity. Where to begin? How do I explain the profound impact this program has had and continues to have in shaping who I am becoming? I usually start with who I was: prideful and arrogant of the things that really mattered, such as the continual growth and nurturing of my romance with Christ. I then express my newfound joy in learning how Christ is still perfecting who I am into someone more like Himself. Or, I simply state: I learned how much I have left to learn, and I learned to love the realization that the more I know, the more I have left to discover. I came to realize it is equally important to learn the gospel to its increasing fullness as it is to believe this truth. I came to realize that no matter how much I hope to “arrive” at a full understanding of Christ, this “full arrival” may simply not be what was best for me. I came to see that God and His gospel is not so much an idea to master but a gift to receive and trust in, in order to have a greater process of sanctification beyond my meager understanding.
I often find myself wishing OneLife had a four year Bachelor program. Now that it’s over, I find myself wanting to go back. This is a statement coming from a student who disliked high school and had lost faith in a big part of the education system–now wanting to back to a thirty-credit institute. OneLife taught me to appreciate the learning process and gave me the stamina to continue my college experience. Onelife taught me my strengths and weakness through countless personality tests, trips, and its community. OneLife gave me ideas for careers I would excel in–careers I would enjoy and that would be life-giving to me, not just a way to pay the bills. I am so thankful that OneLife met me on a personal, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual level and that the staff walked beside me to my sense of wonder for all I have yet to learn.
As I move forward from this year of wonder, I feel a temptation to sink into regret. Regret can take many forms: for me, I tend to experience this as a hope to change the past, or a wrestling with countless thoughts of all I could have done differently. I implore the alumni and all reading with a charge to strive toward forward-facing freedom, a mindset of healthy hindsight in view of a greater blossoming future. I challenge all reading to be free from that shadow of “what if” or the ebbing voice that poisons the fond memories to ones of discontent. My prayer now is to have a mindset of gratitude and a hope for the future–because the best is truly yet to come.
– Maggie Triller
