I came to UT knowing that I wanted to get involved with RUF - since I had been once before, I knew that I really liked the whole atmosphere of the group. But I was pleasantly surprised with how great it was once I got here. Not only did so many older students seem genuinely interested in meeting me, but I also met a lot of freshman that I know will be good friends.

I have also been challenged in ways I hadn't been before. I have been pushed in directions that I didn't think possible, and I feel a combination of conviction, assurance, and peace with all of it. I feel challenged to make changes in my everyday life and to strive to be more Christ-like and joy-filled.

I also notice now more than ever my hesitation to open up and become more vulnerable to people. I am, for the most part, an introverted person who may like to be the center of attention from time to time, but who really likes to keep most of her feelings inside, or concealed to most people. And I just feel like God (through RUF) is changing so many of my perspectives about my personality and habits.

- Kelsey, Freshman at The University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK)

My name is Jennifer Harris, and I graduated in June 2006 from Stanford University. I want to share with you how God has used RUF in my life.

In just a few months eager freshman and their parents will be crowded in the picturesque, tiled quad at Stanford, listening raptly as the president announces, as he has every year, that the entering class is the smartest, most talented, and most diverse class to enter Stanford, and that these students will be the future leaders of our nation, the movers and shakers. I remember hearing those words as a freshman, conscious of the burden that lay upon me to change the world.

Five years have passed since then. It’s funny how my time in college was so contrary to that opening convocation, as it was college that exposed my weaknesses and inadequacies. I was surrounded by people who were so much more brilliant than I, more thoughtful, more mature, even better at doing Christianity. Basically, any area I could think up as my defining unique trait, there was someone else who had me beat. Academically, I struggled with classes (public enemy #1: organic chemistry). Spiritually, I couldn’t get my act together. No matter how hard I cried out for deliverance, there were times when depression and bitterness choked me like a vise. Humbled and broken, I was forced to answer to my dark unvoiced fears: what if I was really only mediocre? What if, even rallying all my talents and will, I was in no way better than anyone else? Am I a failure? Am I worthless?

It was here, in the middle of my crisis, that God really used RUF in my life. There are so many things I appreciate about RUF: the thoughtfulness of the theology and the cohesiveness of the worldview, how David and Mindi’s (our campus minister and his wife) gifts are so well suited to serving the students, the music, the unpretentiousness. But what changed my life the most was really hearing the Gospel for the very first time. I had grown up going to church, but conceived of the Gospel as something I had outgrown; the Gospel was really baby food for non-believers. Week after week at RUF, I heard the true import of the Gospel for believers, and came to see it was powerful stuff too strong for my stomach. The Gospel confirmed my fears, saying in essence, “Yes, indeed, you are unworthy, incapable, and sinful. You can do nothing to elevate yourself and make you chosen by God.” And God chose to love us as we were and bestow grace and status and power and worth—that floored me. With the Gospel, I had security. I had the freedom to be a failure, but still be loved by God. I had the freedom to be honest with myself and with God about my ugliness, my sin, and my doubt. The Gospel meant my life wasn’t about how I could change the world, or even how I could advance God’s kingdom. The Gospel meant that God was about to change my world.

Through the ministry of RUF, God showed me how the Gospel transformed how I pursued a vocation, my role in the church, how I ate and drank, how I went about dating and marriage. The application has been far from easy, and I am still discovering what the Gospel means, especially now that I have graduated and am working and married to another Stanford RUF alumni. My senior year of college, David Jones taught a series on marriage, sex, and dating, in which he stressed how the marriage vow echoes God’s promise in the Gospel that “I see all of you, and I will love you and never leave you.” I am reminded of that when I am petty and cruel, and wage a cold war against Adam, and yet at the end of each day he takes me in his arms and offers forgiveness. I catch a glimpse of God’s faithful unchanging love, and am amazed that a God who can choose who to make his child, would pledge his love and die for me. I suspect that on my deathbed I will still be unraveling further mysteries about the Gospel.

I have also seen God work in students through RUF in various ways. One overseas graduate student, lonely, depressed, and with thoughts of suicide, found new life in Christ at RUF. She has been baptized, and it has been so wonderful to see her flourish in the community of RUF. I have seen the teaching and fellowship of RUF deepen and mature the faith of a new believer, and form the foundation for her marriage. There are so many for whom RUF has served a pivotal role.

Very soon you may find yourself in a crowded university quad for a commencement ceremony, intoxicated by the freely-flowing excitement and promise of freshman year. When you find yourself there, I encourage you to connect with the RUF ministry on your campus. The education I have received through RUF on the riches of the Gospel merits far greater excitement, for this promise will be fulfilled. May God use RUF in your life as he has in mine!

By grace,

Jennifer H. Harris