Thoughts from a Cambridge Student

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We are now moving towards the end of Lent term at Cambridge, and one of my more controversial tutors decided to enlighten our English class with a piece of advice: "always be a coward." This struck me as slightly odd, since the tutor in question certainly has no fear in telling his students when their ideas are no good! It made me wonder, though, whether this is a worthwhile motto; should be really be cowardly in all we do?

Life at Cambridge is notoriously work-orientated: whether an arts student reading and writing essays all day or a science student spending six days a week in the labs, there is a constant demand to work hard. "Work hard, play hard" is a tagline which the university seems to have adopted, and for good reason! Life during term time seems to be full of work. Work work work work work.

So it came as a bit of a surprise last week when one of the girls from my small group at church suggested that maybe sometimes we should be half-hearted with our work in order to be whole-hearted with God; maybe we should belt out an essay in order to free up time to pray. I kid you not, a visible wave of shock rippled around the group.

But I'm going to stick my neck out here and suggest that this girl was right. I believe that we are called to work by God; He has plans for each one of us, but sometimes we have to work in order to get there. Whether we are set out to become a lawyer, an artist, a nurse, a home-maker, a chef or whatever, all of these things take work. Personally, I have absolutely no idea what I want to do as a job... but I figure that I've got this far, so it makes sense to keep working hard and to see where God takes me. Don't get me wrong, it's sometimes really hard working towards something when you dont really have a clue about what that "something" is. But what I do know is that God has plans for me, and working hard is part of those plans. Sometimes I wonder whether I'm really cut out to be where I am, not only in terms of university but in friendships, relationships, church... but then I remember that God ensured that I got this far (although it took a lot of hard work too), so clearly I'm here for a reason!

So I think that ideally, we can be whole-hearted for God through our work. If, by working hard, we are able to glorify God and give our work to Him, that's amazing! But in practice, it's not always so easy. With deadlines looming and exams coming up, it can be really hard to stay focused on God. So should we give up our work completely? No, of course not. But maybe, just maybe, we should every once in a while put our work aside, spend time with God, make ourselves right with God and then continue with our quest to work for God, not against Him.

So, should we really be cowards in all we do? No no no no no! We should, in fact, endeavour to do the opposite: to be brave enough to work hard for God. To be brave enough to make time for God. To be brave enough to put aside work every now and then in order to make ourselves right with God. To be brave. After all, if the girl from my small group had been a coward, she would never have spoken this idea which shocked us all so much, but revolutionised our thinking.

You can also read Alex's blog: The Frugal Student