By CeCe Tovar-Murray
I continue to practice my faith in college–and forevermore–because I cannot see myself doing anything else. God has transformed my life for the better, and if I don’t have God in my life, I literally will have nothing. God is my everything. All things on this earth will pass away; money, fame, and fortune will pass away, but God is forever. All I can do is follow Him with my whole life, and that includes through college.
I go to a non-denominational church and I have an evangelical background. The nondenominational church and evangelical church and are both parts of the Protestant Church, which is basically a large sector beneath the overall umbrella of the Christian faith. The nondenominational church I attend in Chicago believes that we, being the Christian faith, are all the same due to Jesus Christ and that He draws us together. Everything else, like different faith traditions, should not prevent us from seeing ourselves as, in truth, a single-family.
I have many friends from different Christian backgrounds–some who are Catholic and some who are Baptist, for example. I find so much beauty within the different Christian denominations, and I think we lack unity amongst ourselves. We worry too much about whether “my denomination is the right one,” and this really hurts my heart. Jesus calls us to be united. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He even prayed that WE will be one like He and God are one. So seeing that our differences are causing a division within the family leaves a big burden in my heart and I really want to end this division.
This is a big reason why I feel called to be an Ecumenical Scholar. Being in a posture of continual learning and discussion is something that I feel called to do, and being someone who can see past these denominational divides, while creating that unity with the difference, is something that I yearn for, and my nondenominational church for sure sees that vision as well. God has called me into loving the Family of Christ and looks past the differences. I love God’s family so much, regardless of denominational background, and so I am thrilled to serve the Family as an Ecumenical Scholar, promoting the unitive love of Christ.
