What Lessons Can We Learn From College Orientation?

When I was seventeen, my parents took me 750 miles from home to a Bible college I had chosen but had never visited. I knew one person on campus and knew of another person among the five thousand students enrolled there. God cared for me and supplied new friends for me quickly. I met some of them in orientation. I can’t say I remember much about orientation except the friends I met.

I’m sure in orientation we learned about the meal passes, how to register for classes, about the prayer meetings in the dorms, where the bookstore was, rules for dating, etc. The orientation must’ve been successful because four years later I graduated. So I’m sure orientation was an important time.

Matthew 5 introduces what we can think of as orientation into Christ’s kingdom. The Beatitudes (the word refers to blessing) explain what life is like inside the kingdom. Verses one and two set the stage simply by saying that somewhere in the region of Galilee Jesus saw the crowds that had gathered from far and wide because of His ministry, and He went up on a mountain where His disciples gathered around Him, and He began their orientation session so they, in turn, could orient others.

Why is orientation needed? Because life in the kingdom is different from life outside the kingdom. The Beatitudes are not commands you keep in order to gain access to the kingdom. Instead, they inform you of what the King is making all His subjects to be. So you can understand what you as a believer are becoming and pray in faith for God to perform in you all that He has promised.

There are a couple introductory things that other Scriptures tell us that are helpful to be aware of as you approach kingdom orientation. Titus 2:14 says that the King “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” In other words, the King gives what He commands.

Also, the King is supernatural. Some years ago I took classes from a school by distance. My advisor was a very busy man. I had taken two weeks of classes with him on campus, and he had worked with me on an independent study. On graduation day, he did not remember who I was until I told him my name. Not so with our King. He knows each of His subjects better than we know ourselves, and He loves us (John 10:27-30).

I read recently a biography of a pioneer missionary to New Guinea in the late 1930’s who was held in a Japanese prison camp, while her husband (from Cambria County) was held in a separate camp. She was treated cruelly, and her husband died. Yet in spite of intense grief and suffering she shared the Gospel with the Japanese camp commander. To me this is an illustration that life inside the kingdom is different from outside the kingdom.