Inspired by a response to The Urban Resident's series on Christian Personal Statement and building upon my conversation with Mary Poplin regarding Is Reality Secular? Testing the Assumptions of Four Global Worldviews? (InterVarsity Press, 2014), I asked Mary to share a personal statement that describes her calling/vocation as a Christian professor in a secular university. May you find these words an encouragement as you seek the Lord's insight in articulating, bearing the marks of, embodying the call to be a … [Read more...] about On Alert and On Call: Armed Only with His Mind and His Love
Christian Personal Statement
Writing a Christian Personal Statement: Part 3
In today's culture, there is no greater sin than to be a phony. No offense to the lawyers out there, but Holden Caulfield said it well: “Lawyers are alright, I guess —but it doesn't appeal to me", I said. "I mean they're alright if they go around saving innocent guys' lives all the time, and like that, but you don't do that kind of stuff if you're a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hot-shot. And besides, even if you did go around … [Read more...] about Writing a Christian Personal Statement: Part 3
Writing a Christian Personal Statement: Part 2
My essay for admission to medical school was brutally honest. I talked about my low GPA, my relationship with my parents, my obsession with the problem of suffering, quotes from my personal journal, and how it was all driven by a radical faith in Jesus Christ (and images in my head of suffering children). It was my attempt at being really, really honest and was the product of many careful hours of meticulous revision. Note: Click here for Writing a Christian Personal Statement: Part 1. It was also really, really … [Read more...] about Writing a Christian Personal Statement: Part 2
Writing a Christian Personal Statement
Writing any application for a school can be difficult, and writing the Personal Statement can become the most challenging part of it. By the time you are preparing to submit an application, most of its elements are already fixed: your GPA, your MCAT or GRE scores, the activities you did (or didn't do). The Personal Statement, however, is an open field of possibilities in self expression, and that sense of ambiguity lends itself to great liberty and/or great anxiety. Admittedly, the title is somewhat misleading. A … [Read more...] about Writing a Christian Personal Statement