Student Stories

“I sat in the large temple that we biked to on one of the days in Kyoto, listening to the monks chanting and watching them sitting in peace. I checked myself as I sat there wondering where God was in all of this that I don’t understand. In that moment, I remembered something I had vowed to acknowledge earlier in the trip while our group visited different shrines and temples in the days touring in Japan. I asked, ‘Where are You, God?’ Immediately after silently speaking these words, I saw a tiny white and pink butterfly flutter up to the front of the temple from the open doors behind me. There was God. God was and is there amidst all of this confusion in beliefs. God was, and is, still there in and among the beautiful faces of the people that do and do not know that God created them.

It was crazy to find myself feeling trapped when I participated in Zen meditation. I would get caught up in questioning if it was beneficial or right for me, as a follower of Jesus Christ, to participate in practices of other religions. However, when I remembered to find God, I would get to a place where I would say, ‘God, find me in this place, and be present so that I can find You.’ In those times, I was able to focus on what I was doing, find beauty in it and in the people participating as I think God would see it. I found God in those times, and it was beautiful. I thank God now for the opportunities that I was given in Japan to learn about other religions and beliefs and for the ways He taught me to find Him in my times of doubt and disbelief. But even more than that, I thank God for the people He allowed me to meet and to sit in silence with in Japan, so that I could discover why my faith is so important to me.”

Abby McPhearson, Junior