The name Lincoln Christian University is deceiving. It’s actually a very small, remote, and cozy feeling campus (in my opinion). It used to be Lincoln Christian College, and being only an hour away from my parents, this was a college I wanted to go to after high school. I visited Moody, Mequon, Lincoln Christian, and Seward. Chicago was too big. Olivette Nazarene where Susan was going didn’t appeal to me. Mequon had the gazebo next to beautiful Lake Michigan, but that didn’t seem like a good enough reason to go there. Josh was in Seward and loved it there. I felt torn and unable to discern what God’s will was. Was I supposed to go to Lincoln or was I supposed to go to Seward?

About this time Josh had taken Psychology 101 with Professor Moulds. From him he learned there was no such thing as God’s will, at least not in the way that I was trying to find it. God didn’t care what college I went to. I could go to Lincoln and God would be happy. I could go to Seward and God would be happy. I remember taking the same class and having my mind blown. I sometimes felt like Dr. Moulds took too much pleasure in disrupting his students’ former ways of thinking. You don’t just go from seeking God’s will to suddenly believing God would be happy with me no matter what.

All that to say, I’m glad I still get to come here. Due to longer standing financial reasons, the school recently underwent drastic changes. They cut nearly all their undergraduate programs, got rid of athletics, and as of next year will no longer have on-campus dorms or student housing. I don’t think I realized at first how serious and devastating this was for some people. Much of the faculty and staff have lost their jobs. Many of the students lives have been upended. As of right now, they say the MAC program isn’t going anywhere, and remains one of their healthiest and most-enrolled in programs.

Last night in class we talked about PTSD and anxiety disorders. I found myself sitting in the back shaking my head along with much of the lecture. My professor specializes in Family Systems Therapy and acute trauma therapy (different from complex trauma, which is trauma extended over period of time as opposed to a major one time event). She said when you first start working with clients who’ve been through trauma, their story sounds more like a box of pictures that’s been dumped out all over the floor. As she works with them and listens, the story begins to make more sense, to where they can tell it in a more coherent way. She says that’s how you know they’re getting better.