Almost 500 years ago, at the gates of St Andrews University a young student called Patrick Hamilton was burned to death. His crime: sharing the good news that Jesus Christ saves sinners by His free grace and through our simple faith in Him. Recently I visited the same spot, where Patrick Hamilton’s initials can be found spelt by bricks in the road. It was my way of saying: we continue the work that you began all those years ago.
It was a privilege to spend the week of February 9th to 13th serving the St Andrews University Christian Union. They had arranged a programme of ten evangelistic events for their friends, course mates and anyone else interested in thinking more about the question: What’s the purpose of life?
Much has been written about the meaning crisis that has engulfed the western world. Having turned our back on the story of God and His love, we have been cast adrift in a meaningless universe. We’re like characters in a story without an Author, who are forced to invent our own scripts to make sense of our otherwise absurd existence. It doesn’t make sense – because it isn’t true! We have been created by God and redeemed by Jesus to play a part in His great story.Each evening we ran an event which explored an ingredient that makes up a recipe of a life filled with meaning and purpose: a purpose that unlocks IDENTITY… A purpose that transcends PERFORMANCE… A purpose that fosters COMMUNITY… A purpose that brings JOY… A purpose that promises LOVE. Each event had a different flavour, appealing to different audiences: acoustic music, taskmaster challenges, international food, gin and jazz, cake decorating.
Then each lunchtime there was a free lunch with a talk addressing one of the big questions of life that tied into that days theme: is life pointless or purposeful? Am I matter or do I matter? How to survive the culture wars? Is there any hope? Why does God care who I sleep with?
It was wonderful to see signs that the so called Quiet Revival has come to St Andrews. The students report that this was their best attended mission since the pandemic. Each day the room was full of guests, many of them coming for multiple events and signing up for follow up (doing the Speak Life 3,2,1 Course or reading Uncover Luke). Three times we had to restock our supply of gospels because they were being taken away in droves by guestsThe afternoons were spent camping out in the Student Union, inviting any one interested in asking more questions to come hang out. These were often stretching but always stimulating conversations!
The highlight of the week was after speaking on the resurrection that a fifth year astrophysics student was introduced to me. He announced: “I’m convinced”.
We pray that God will water and cause the seeds sown to grow into a great harvest of salvation – with many more people testifying: I’m convinced!
