CSF: A Conduit of Power in My Life

From Luke Corwin - August 2005

I graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics, summa cum laude. From graduation through the present (August 2005), I have been a graduate student in Physics at The Ohio State University. Currently, I am part of the delegation from Ohio State working on the BaBar experiment at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California. I expect to earn my Ph.D. in the next 2 to 4 years.

In September of 1999, having graduated as Valedictorian of my high school class, I moved from my hometown of Independence, WI to the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. Independence had a population of slightly more than 1000 people; my freshman dormitory, Middlebrook Hall, had about 700.

I have heard that Christian parents are often afraid of sending their children to large public Universities like the U of MN. They fear that their children's faith will be crushed by the secular behemoth. However, during my first year in Minnesota, I concluded that I liked the behemoth. While a crowd of more than 50,000 students allows you to be lost easily, it also contains sufficient variety for most (if not all) of its members to find their niches. I found two.

In one niche, I finally found other students who enjoyed science and learning. In the other, I found CSF and Campus Crusade. In Wisconsin, I had more fingers than committed Christian friends. For the first time in my life, I felt that I truly belonged somewhere.

I did encounter opposition to my faith from fellow students, some professors, and my own questions and doubts. These opponents forced me to examine my faith and my reasons for it. CSF was critical to this process. Its members and leaders taught me emotional and academic responses to opposition. More importantly, they taught me how to find and develop those responses myself, primarily through bible study, reading Christian literature, and prayer. Through opposition and testing, my belief and trust in Christ grew stronger.

The members of CSF also showed me genuine Christian love in a variety of ordinary collegiate contexts. The most common context was a car ride. Since I do not like driving and have always lived near campus, I have never owned my own automobile. Therefore, my CSF friends transported me to restaurants, houses, meetings, retreats, parties, and churches throughout the Twin Cites, Minnesota, and the upper Midwest. I deeply appreciated the simple gesture of cheerfully burning gasoline and time for my sake.

CSF also offered me love in the form of spiritual teaching and edification. We learned about biblical principles, history, and archeology. The teaching I received at CSF made clear that Christianity is not merely a set of beliefs; it is a relationship with God and a way of life demonstrably different from the ways followed by the rest of the world.

Since becoming a Christian, I have occasionally become afraid that Physics is not a legitimate calling. Dave Burkum and I conversed extensively about this, and he helped me to realize that even if I was still not sure how a Physicist could be a good Christian, only a Christian Physicist could discover how.

During my junior year, Dave asked me to join the CSF Student Leadership Team, which had about 10 members, and I agreed. I was on the "Spiritual Growth Squad," which was one of three divisions of the Team. Being a leader required a level of assertiveness that I had never used before; it also required me to accept the legitimate rejection of many of my ideas.

When I became a leader, I volunteered to organize a series of film discussions; they would come to be known as "Theater for Thinkers." I also had the task of writing discussion questions and leading discussions for some of the films. While challenging, I learned so much from the experience that I was able to organize a similar event during my second year in graduate school.

I hope my testimonial has given you some insight into the affect and impact CSF had on my life and spiritual growth. My life and actions are still flawed, but through Christ, I believe I am becoming more like him every day. I shudder to think of what I would be now without the power of God in my life, and I thank God that he used CSF as a conduit of that power.

Luke A. Corwin
Menlo Park, CA
2005 August 15