This was written during a summer Master's of Education class that Deb took at Calvin.
Rather than being in charge of my own destiny or existing for no significant reason, I believe that I am created by a loving and good triune God and live here on earth because I am valued as an individual and contributing community member. I believe that God created our world and designed it so that it would reflect God's glory. I believe that God created humans in God's image; this is manifested in our abilities to make choices and to love and in our essential need to exist in community with each other. As a natural consequence of this, I believe that God gave humans the responsibility to rule and take care of His perfect and good creation.
However, I also believe that our world and thus, human nature, has become completely tainted with sin as a result of our selfish human desires. God's perfect design for our lives and the shalom that God established has been destroyed. The consequences of this are the pain and suffering that is everywhere evident in our world: death, sickness, injustice etc.
Thankfully this is not where my worldview beliefs end! I believe in a loving and good God; thus, I believe that God did not just let the world exist in its suffering. I believe that out of God's faithfulness and grace, God sent God's own self into this world, through the life and death of Jesus Christ. I also believe that God has revealed Godself through Scripture and continues to show God's love and grace to our world every day. It is through belief in Christ's sacrificial death on a cross that I can be forgiven of my sinful nature and deeds and attempt to reestablish shalom on earth and live eternally with God in heaven.
Because of these beliefs, I live my life out of service to God. I want my relationships, my vocation, and my priorities in life to glorify and witness to God's love. This means that I identify the affects of sin in everything but yet cling to the understanding that God originally created everything good. This gives me rationale for trying to transform what is around me back to the good. Though the world in which I live is not an eternal world, I must use my God-given gifts to redeem the culture around me. This also means that I must see myself as a community member called to love those around me. Since we are all made in God's image, I must value each and every person around me however different they are. My motives for doing things must not be selfish but rather, selfless and driven by a desire to serve others.
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