A Letter of Exhortation
Four years in one place gives you time to invest and grow. It also gives you time to adapt, to acclimate, and to notice the inadequacies and shortcomings of an institution. Who can say what the primary cause of this is— whether we are simply dissatisfied creatures with a natural propensity to critique, whether the pattern of complaint from our peers is imprinted upon us, or whether by God’s design as rational creatures we notice the brokenness of the world where we are at.
This is an exhortation to you, no matter your year, whether disenchanted now or discouraged later in your college career by the goings on around you at Furman.
One well-known passage in Jeremiah—perhaps most famous as a promise that God knows us and has a plan for us—also contains an imperative: “But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (Jeremiah 29:7 ESV).” Jeremiah wrote to a people with real reason to be downtrodden: the Israelites in exile from their promised home. Despite their circumstances and separation from their home, Jeremiah encouraged them not only to not disengage with the culture around them, but further, to take initiative and actively seek the good of the city and community therein. The Israelites to whom Jeremiah wrote were yearning for the promise of their home while finding themselves in a place where they were not citizens. So, too, we as modern believers find ourselves in a place where we are longing for our spiritual home while walking as strangers in the land (Hebrews 11:13) for the short life we are given.
Augustine writes in City of God of a heavenly city whose citizens exist throughout time and space, unknown to each other now but united in Christ. These citizens of a heavenly city, working for the goal of peace which is in the life to come, cannot therefore also be members of the earthly city which knows not peace because it knows not the Giver of peace, the Lord God. However, Augustine is in accordance with Jeremiah in calling for citizens of the heavenly city to engage with the earthly and pursue the good of the earthly city.
The idea of a city in the ancient political thought of Plato and Aristotle is a political community where you are at. The city works together to provide for its citizens and pursue the common good, which most would agree on as peace and the ability for individuals to pursue the good life.
During your time at Furman, the university is your city. It’s the political community working together towards a common goal in which you are directly involved. Therefore, for those reading this as citizens of the heavenly city, you have an obligation to seek the welfare of this earthly one you find yourself in. Love the believers around you, that your love may be known to others; love others who are not believing, so that through your love they may come to know the Father who is love (1 John 4:7-21). Do not let the cynicism of peers and previous generations cloud your capacity for pursuing the good. Seeking the welfare and peace of Furman is a gift to your fellow students who are not believing, as it grants them a higher level of freedom to choose to pursue Truth, which ultimately points to God, whether they recognize it or not.
If you continue reading in Jeremiah 29, you find the promises of God to give you a hope and a future. Those are promises to cling to as you live out a life of seeking the good in your city, and for now, at Furman, for the betterment of your own soul and for your fellow man.