He shared three main ideas with us and illustrated his points with some very powerful personal experiences. I will attempt to relate some of what he said, however, it will not be quite the same since he has a wonderful way with words and such a meek spirit that he brings to the room.
Since he is in academia he took an insightful approach to rather common questions and problems that we all have. He posed the question, "what is a good theory and how can it be useful?" He stated that Satan is a practitioner of bad theory. For example, what is the truthful answer to this question, "Is it okay if I talk about my faith in God at work?" When he was trying to figure out the answer to this he wrestled and realized that he spent time with the family on the weekends, so if he never shared his faith during the week then he would never be able to do this all during his working years.
He shared a story about a doctoral student that he was working with a while back. This student had offers to work in four different cities around the world. He came to ask advice about where he should go. Dr. Christensen said to him, "first you need to figure out what are the right questions to ask, then you will be able to receive the answer to your questions." He asked the man if he believed in God, which he did, and then shared and example from the New Testament about when the people were asking Jesus the wrong questions. He then invited the man to come over to his home to talk about how to get the right questions. He mentioned that he would also invite two friends over as well to help him out since he was still recovering from his stroke and often could not remember things the way he used to. The student came over and together they all discussed how he could find the right questions to ask that would lead him to the answer of where to move and work. The missionaries shared the story of the brother of Jared when he asked the Lord for help. He had three main questions after building the ships they were to sail in: 1) how will we breathe? 2) how will we propel ourselves toward our destination, and 3) how will we see in the darkness? The Lord answered the first two questions directly and provided an answer, but for the third He told the brother of Jared to think about the problem and come up with a solution and bring it back to Him.
Dr. Christensen then asked the student, "are you a religious person, do you attend a church?"
The young man responded that he did belong to the Anglican church.
Dr. Christensen: "Do you want to continue growing closer to God?"
Young Man: "Why, yes, of course I want to grow closer to God."
Dr. Christensen: "How are you going to stay close to God if there are no churches to support you in those areas?"
Young Man: "I had never thought of that before..."
He now understood what questions to ask regarding his future.
He shared, "If I just use the truth to help solve someone else's problem it is so effective. God does not make a distinction between religious and academic truth."
The second point was a story about how he was able to change his perspective after suffering depression due to the affects of his illness. He realized that the more he focused on himself and his problems, the more unhappy he became. Then the Lord inspired these thoughts, "It doesn't matter what your problems are, I want you to spend your life helping others." He realized that God will measure his life through the individual talents he has been given to help others be happy.
He related the following experience when he was studying at Oxford. The program usually took 3 years, but he had to complete it in 2 years. During that time he was called to be the Young Men's President. There were no Young Men attending the ward at the time, but he was given a list of 48 names to follow up on. He decided that in order to complete his studies and fulfill his calling he would get up at 6am each day and spend time studying the scriptures and exercising. Then from 7am-6pm he would devote his time to his studies. From 7-9pm each night he devoted his time to his calling and worked on bringing back Young Men into the church. When the time came for his exams they said he would not be able to pass because of all the time he had spent doing his calling vs. studying. He went to the Lord in prayer and asked him to help him know the questions he would be asked so that he could focus solely on studying this material. He knew he did not have time to study it all. He went to the office where he studied and began to write down questions that he thought the examiners would ask. When the time came for the test, he opened up the questions and found that every question he had previously written down was on the test. He shared the scripture in Matthew 6:33, " But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
Wow! What a story....I had chills as he was telling it. He was trying to say to a bunch of ambitious, young, MBAs that a career and money are not the most important things in life, helping people and serving the Lord are. It sure made me think again about my priorities in life.
Lastly he shared the idea that we must remain humble. We must ask ourselves how we can learn something from every person we come in contact with during this life. The leader who thinks they know everything becomes a very bad leader. As humans we think that people who are responsible for bigger numbers are more important. God understands us as individuals, he does not have to aggregate us to together to understand a situation. He will most likely as us about the individuals in our lives that we helped, but never mention a calling or title that we held. This life is about relationships, not titles.
To end on a fun note - I bought a black and white cookie at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was delicious! For anyone who liked Seinfeld, you will know what I am talking about, but if not, check out this little clip:
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