Ralph Pedley heads up Campus Awakening UK, a ministry that equips students to live out who they are in Jesus and bring transformation to their campuses. We've been chatting to him about what his prayer is for students in this time...
"I was talking with Laura, my wife, last night and she asked me how I was feeling. Initially I didn’t quite know how to answer. I’m concerned, obviously, bordering on anxious at times. I’m also hopeful, too. I’m a naturally positive person and have been keen to look for the good for amidst the chaos.
Conflicted about which was the more authentic (or proper) place to settle, I then realised exactly how I felt… present.
And I still do. I feel sensitised. Alert. Awake.
Quite simply, the world is a different place. None of us know how this will turn out. No amount of positive spin is going to take away from the fact that there is going to be hardship, and most likely for an extended period of time.
Yet I was reminded as I put words to my feelings, that my prayers have so often been for the things I now feel.
I prayed to be more aware, more present, more awake.
For me ‘waking up’ in the spiritual sense looks like three things. And even as the whole concept of a campus gets turned upside down, it is these three things that will continue to guide us in these coming months:
- Devotion. Our first move in waking up is towards our heavenly father. To know him more intimately and see him more readily. As we become more aware of who He is we cannot help but re-orientate our whole lives around him.
- Mission. We love and serve. We identify with our brothers and sisters. We bear witness to Jesus. We play our part in bring God’s kingdom in whatever ways we can. The second move is all about finding our place in God’s masterplan for humanity; recognising the Good News, and then moving in response to that.
- Reality. There are things that are more real than that which we can see with eyes or hold in our hands. And our lives can be a signpost to those things: a prophetic message that aggressively undermines the lies that imperfect worldly structures are built upon. The third move is one of holiness and purity; not one of impossible standards and perfection, but one of integrity to the kind of people Jesus is asking us to become. Like him.
Who on earth knows exactly what that will look like for students?
Everything is being re-written. We’ve always been convinced that what God does on a campus and through students has the potential to impact the whole world. And that conviction remains as strong as ever.
There lies in front of everyone an opportunity to reimagine the kind of life you want to live in partnership with God.
I believe in this generation of students.
I believe there is a hunger for God and creative expressions of his kingdom waiting to be unleashed.
I believe that in the times of greatest darkness we will see the brightest lights.
And I believe that hope has a name, and that his name in Jesus.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.
See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the Lord rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.”
As we begin to stumble our way through this re-arranged landscape, I pray that we’ll do so with our eyes open, our heart engaged and our spirit expectant for God to do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine."
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