In Everything Give Thanks

You mustn’t wish for another life. You mustn't want to be somebody else. What you must do is this: 'Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks.' I am not all the way capable of so much, but those are the right instructions.

– Hannah Coulter, Wendell Berry

I’ve had a new way of looking at the commands of God lately. Commands like the one in Wendell Berry’s quote, in everything give thanks. We can be tempted to see God’s decrees as arbitrary or constraining. But if God is who He says He is, Creator of the world, source of living Truth, then perhaps we should see his commands as the most solemn secrets. He leans down and whispers to us, live like this because I’ve made the world like this.

His decrees are windows into the workings of the universe. The more we walk in them, the more we’ll see the true nature of things and grow into the people He first willed us to be, when he breathed life into fine-crafted dust and awoke the pinnacle of his creativity. 

If God tells us to give thanks in everything, might He be trying to show us that all of life is worth our gratitude? It would make no sense, after all, to be thankful for something of no value. If He commands appreciation for our days, it is because those days, particularly this one right in front of you, is brimming full of goodness.

But that goodness is not a light thing, nor a thing often easily perceived. Today, it may be at the back of boredom or pain or anxiety or loneliness. We certainly walk in shadowed lands, and perhaps for you, those shadows are looming large and blocking any errant ray of light.

There are sleepless nights and spilled coffee. There are severed friendships, unanswered longings, and deep grooves of injustice. There is despair welling up on a Monday morning. There are the unheeded cries of the innocent and those who live in bondage to the opinions of their neighbors. 

And yet. 

Gratitude isn’t blindness or a lie. It is not a blatant denial of reality. 

Gratitude is grasping hold of that second sight, the inheritance lost by our first parents and reclaimed by the new Adam.

It is a constant turning toward our lives, opening ourselves up to both the surprising moments of grace glimpsed clearly and to the hardships where grace is working out our transformation just outside the reach of our senses. 

It is a trust in the goodness of our Creator, who speaks in everything give thanks as a promise, pulling us ever onward toward resurrection.

And while none of us are all the way capable of so much, the first step is to believe these are the right instructions.

Kari

Our Spring 2020 Programming

Seminars

Augustine’s Confessions
9 weeks, led by Matt Hoehn

Join us for a study of Augustine’s Confessions, the gripping spiritual journey of the greatest post-biblical Christian thinker of the Church’s first thousand years.  We will walk alongside Augustine through his youthful spiritual wanderings, his insatiable quest for love and truth, his grief over death and loss, and the eventual heart-rest he discovered in the good news of the Gospel.  Augustine has been called ‘our post-modern patron saint’ and though written 1600 years ago, it is amazing how relatable Confessions is to our questions and our questing today.

Called By God: A Study on Calling, Discernment, and Vocation
7 weeks, led by Dr. Jeremy Purvis, Matt Hoehn and visiting professionals

Dr. Jeremy Purvis (UNC Associate Professor, Genetics), Joy Purvis, and Matt Hoehn are co-leading a seminar on faith, work and vocational discernment using Tim Keller and Katharine Leary Alsdorf’s book Every Good Endeavor. In addition to readings and discussion that establish a biblical framework for understanding ‘work’, the seminar features a series of guests from different vocational fields sharing with students about how the topic explored that week maps onto their life and work.

'Meat with Local Business Leaders
6 weeks, led by Dan Copeland and Benton Moss

You may be thinking about a job at a big company, a small family company, or even starting your own thing. Local businessmen from Chapel Hill, Carolina students, and recent graduates will be getting together to talk about work and how to make it fulfilling. They'll work their way through the Praxis Business Course, 'meating' six times throughout January, February, March and April. Yes, this is a 'meating' — smoked sausage, ribs, baked potatoes. So come and feed your mind, body, and spirit and experience growth in Christ through conversation about faith in the workplace.

Life and Thought of Walker Percy
Weekly, led by Bill Boyd

Recipient of the U.S. National Book of the Year Award for his debut novel The Moviegoer (1961), author Walker Percy is one of UNC’s more underappreciated alumni. A sincere Christian, Percy’s novels and essays explore in one form or another the plight of modern man and the place of faith in contemporary America. While the reading group is designed to introduce artistically or literarily inclined students to this important Christian thinker and author, all are welcome.

Major Events

Why are Americans so Afraid of Death? | January 27

Christianity in Conversation Luncheons are hosted jointly by the North Carolina Study Center and InterVarsity Graduate & Faculty Ministries.  The format is to host a faculty whose scholarship is in some way significant for Christian thought.  The goal is to leaven the intellectual life of UNC, to provide a forum for ‘the big questions’ (God, truth, meaning, the good life, etc.) that too often go unaddressed, and to serve as a sustained Christian presence within the institutional life of UNC.  The primary target audience is faculty members, graduate students, intellectually leading undergraduate students and to a lesser degree, community members.

An Evening with James KA Smith | February 20

Join us at UNC for an evening with Christian thought leader and award-winning author, James KA Smith!  Smith is professor of philosophy at Calvin College where he holds the Gary & Henrietta Byker Chair in Applied Reformed Theology & Worldview.  He will be sharing about his newly released and much celebrated book On the Road with Saint Augustine in which Smith is our guide, showing us how "Augustine’s timeless wisdom speaks to the worries and struggles of contemporary life, covering topics such as ambition, sex, friendship, freedom, parenthood, and death."

Parents Conference | February 22

Parents of current UNC students are invited to enjoy a weekend in Chapel Hill and a Saturday morning program, hosted by the North Carolina Study Center Parent’s Council, in collaboration with the staff.  This year’s conference speaker is Bill Boyd, Director of Spiritual Formation.  He will be speaking on ‘Establishing Expectations During the College Years.’

An Evening with Dr. Robert P. George and Dr. Cornel West | April 3 

Join us to hear Dr. Robert P George and Dr. Cornel West host a collegial and thought-provoking discussion about faith, friendship and dialogue across deep personal and political differences.  Cornel West is a prominent and provocative intellectual.  He is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University and holds the title of Professor Emeritus at Princeton University and has also recorded three spoken word albums.  Robert P. George is McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. He is also a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School.  The NC Study Center is serving as a cohost of this event in partnership with the UNC Program for Public Discourse in the College of Arts and Sciences.

LDOXA | April 24

Inspired by the Greek word doxa (meaning ‘glory’), our annual LDOC (Last Day of Class) celebration is a time for students to drop by the Battle House and celebrate the last day of with smoothies and lawn games.