New Levels, New Glory
“Angela,
Fun, delightful, unique. God’s breaking you out of comfort. You’ll begin to do things delightful and tasteful to the LORD. I see you as a warrior with a sword. FIGHTER. You’ll be faced with many challenges. but God has given you the necessary tools you’ll need to OVERCOME. New Levels, New Glory. Begin to operate in His will and who He’s called you to be.
Love you, Grace U.”
This is a message from over a year ago given to me by one of my teammates at Bethel Campus Fellowship (BCF) Pulse Conference 2014. As I look at it now, I can see how God allowed what Grace said to come to pass in my life.
My name is Ebun Falade and I am an upcoming freshman at Cornell University. Even today, a few days from moving in, I am in awe that God has blessed me with acceptance. Senior year was one full of insane ambition, followed by insane faith. I chased after God like never before and sought for His guidance every step of the way because I knew that missing His instruction could allow me to spend the next four years of my life in the wrong direction. So when I shot for Cornell, and I shot for becoming a Pediatric Surgeon, I trusted that if it was His will, He will make a way for me.
During the application process, many supported me, while others discouraged me. Some told me I was being risky by not applying to more in state/safe schools and that I should stay in Maryland and save money that’s going to be useful for medical school. All good reasons, I refused to accept simply because God taught me not to settle and to expect more from Him. So I applied without hesitation: I got confirmation from God about my essay topic. I prayed, I fasted, I fellowshipped, but, most importantly, I believed. And on March 13th, I got my acceptance letter into Cornell University.
After acceptance I was still faced with the challenge of figuring out how my tuition was going to be paid. FAFSA is known to be not so generous, and submitting my financial information applications late made me even more concerned, but nevertheless God made a way for me. Just a few days prior to May 1st, I received my financial aid package from Cornell with basically my whole tuition covered with grants and scholarships. It doesn’t end there though; along with my acceptance I was enrolled in a summer program at the school, completely paid for. In this pre-freshman program, I took classes for six weeks and got familiar with campus in order to improve my transition to the school come fall semester. Knowing that Cornell had prestigious academics, I was ready and excited to take on the challenge, or at least I thought I was.
This summer was actually one of the least favorite summers of my life. Yeah I said it. And this was not totally because I couldn’t spend my final summer before college having fun with my friends and family, (I had already come into terms with that when found out about the program in March) it was because my academic performance was severely poor up until the final days of the program. I started off poorly, just as everyone else and for the same exact reason; we’re all straight out of high school. We did not know how to study, work, or manage our time like a college student. However overtime we were expected to gain better study habits, learn exactly how we learn, and efficiently maximize the little time on our hands. All these things I failed to do week after week.
This summer I took Chemistry and Calculus, which were both very difficult courses, and juggling the workload became a major challenge for me. Chemistry usually consumed majority of my day leaving me with little time for calculus. And even when I thought I found some type of a balance my grades reminded me that whatever I was doing was not working. I stayed in the D and E range of my class on the chemistry exams for about four weeks, and I had the lowest and second to lowest scores of my calculus class. These courses were pass/fail, which meant that I needed above a 60 to be considered a pass, and I was not even sure I could obtain that. I was scared that my acceptance could possibly get revoked because of my poor performance, so that anxiety lingered in my mind as I continued throughout the summer. On top of that, I found out my dad was in and out of the hospital back home, and not being able to be there for him for the first time took a great toll of me.
Though I spent the six weeks with about 200 other students, I often felt as though I had no one. My friendships merely touched the surface, and the only people I could really express my frustration to were my friends and family back home. “It’s okay Angela, keeping pushing, God’s is going to work everything out, it’s going to get better” was basically what I was told through every facetime call and text message. But it’s hard hearing that and praying and working harder just to see the same results. It was not getting better. I felt defeated, and for the first time I started questioning if I was even going to be able to handle the rigor of Cornell. But then I texted Olamide, the awesome creator of this blog, and she gave me two pieces of scriptures that I stood on for the rest of my summer journey.
“Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go. Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”
Joshua 1:7-9 NIV
“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
James 1:4-6 NIV
One of the beautiful things about following Christ is that He believes in us, even when we don’t believe in ourselves. We have to learn to lean on Him and wait on Him when things get tough, because being optimistic isn’t enough, especially not through college. Positivity without faith turns negative quite and fast once we look at our circumstances. If we know God’s promises, if we know His Word, and if we trust in Him, we shouldn't focus on our circumstances no matter how bad they are, but we should focus on His will for our lives.
“.. being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 1:6 NIV
God doesn’t open doors for us just so we can walk right back out of them. If He got us to it, then He will get us through it. We have all the tools that we need, and if we’re in lack of anything, we can simply ask God for it. The end route is success and prosperity in Christ and looking at the bigger picture makes it a little more bearable to through the roller coaster of college.
I asked God for wisdom and He gave it to me during the last week of the program. I realized that I wasn’t spending enough time studying alone; I was always working with peers or teacher’s assistants or professors. I knew the material, but I didn’t know it for myself, and without mastering it by myself I performed poorly on my exams. So during the last week I minimized my group studying and maximized my individual studying. I socialized less, I got better sleep, and I even had a little more time to myself. I got a C on my third chemistry exam and A on my final, boosting my D average in the class to a C, which was amazing for me seeing how I started. Calculus was a different story: my third exam was a twenty point increase from before which was a pretty good improvement. However, to this day I do not know what my final exam grade or my final grade was, I just know I passed... and that’s enough for me.
In the end, some would say I learned how to study like a college student a little too late. But God’s timing is the best timing whether we like it or not. I waited on Him and trusted in Him and finally I saw the fruits of my labor. And I know that if I continue to keep this mindset of faith, God will get me through these four years just as He got me through this summer. With fall semester coming up, upcoming freshman are filled with excitement and nervousness, but this summer has taught me that I CAN and I WILL do this. It may take a while figuring out how, but I am going to walk across the stage in the next four years and move on to another chapter in my life. As God takes me to new levels in life, the enemy is going to attack even harder. As I fight through these trials I will build my faith and endurance in the process, seeing God reveal new glory in my life.
To everyone going back to school, especially rising college freshmen, don’t give up. The transition is not going to be easy; you’re going to have to drop many of your bad high school study habits and take on new ones. The pressure is harder, the competition is stronger, and you’re going to work harder than you’ve ever worked before to get the grades you want. But just remember that you have Christ on your side. If you continue to have faith and persevere then you will be successful. Get ready for your New Levels and New Glory!
My name is Ebunoluwa Angela Falade and I live in Bowie, Maryland. I recently graduated from Flowers High School, and I am now freshman at Cornell University. I have been saved for about 2 years and I'm aspiring pediatric surgeon.
Post Grad: What's Next?
Around this time last year, I had just graduated from Morgan State University, after five long years of transferring from college to college and switching from major to major (read “The Longer Road Taken”). Despite the journey, college was an amazing experience that shifted my vision in life and instilled purpose in me (read “A Woman Made"). Despite the growth in life and your walk with God in college, it doesn’t quite compare to the transformation one experiences after graduation. Post graduation is a beautiful experience and I am grateful for it. I have learned some things along after graduation and I want to share some, not all, of them with you, Class of 2015.
Sallie Mae and Uncle Sam
Don’t let these names fool you. They aren’t as nice as they sound, they don’t know who you are, and they don’t want to know who you are. They are looking for their payments, and you can't tell them you don't have it. But if you don't pay, they will look for you, they will find you, and they will kill you. Jk. They will just kindly remind you that you owe them money.
It is okay to cry
You will find yourself crying. At times, you may not even know why you are even crying. With the weight of the world on your shoulders, you may just have to let it all out. Don’t feel ashamed, cry out to the One that has the peace you need and can carry your burdens.
Be Devoted To Your Devotion
In college, skipping classes to fellowship with the Holy Spirit, while your classmates listened to a boring lecture was cute and admirable. But in the Real World, that is not happening. When you work a “9 to 5,” you can't tell your boss that you can't come into work because you are engaging with the Holy Spirit. Nah, not happening.
While trying to balance out work, ministry, quality time with loved ones and having a personal life, sometimes your quiet time with God suffers. Don’t let that happen. Be Devoted To Your Devotion. Be intentional with your time with the Lord. Purposefully set aside time in your day to spend time with the Lord. I suggest that you wake up early to seek the Lord’s face before you start your day. It helps to position your day.
Love Life will not be on fleek
I just want to warn you in advance about a season in your life for that matter, where there will be a swarm of proposals on social media. Pretty soon, there will be a season of engagement photoshoots and then “Save the Dates” being mailed to you. [Warning: Do NOT let your parents open your mail]
If you are single, please do not let another’s milestone make you feel like a failure and have you doubting God’s plans for you. You are in different season in life. God has every aspect of your life planned out for you, including a significant other. [Jeremiah 29:11] So enjoy your years of singleness, because it’s a season that can’t be repeated, only cherished.
Once you get out of college, you will have a harder time meeting new people. Don’t worry, your family will remind you. Don’t feel that if you aren’t in a serious relationship once you walk the stage, that you missed finding a partner. Nothing is impossible for God to do.
Ministry
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
2 Timothy 4:1-5
As an adult, your free time will dramatically decrease and you will treasure Saturdays and Sundays like mini-vacations. With that being said, you don't have the luxury to serve the way you may have when you were in college. Please don’t stop serving! You don't have to do everything, but select an area of ministry that interest you to serve in and be diligent there.
Your Job
We all say that a “9 to 5” is not for us. *Blank Stare* HAHAHAHA. That’s so cute, but all jokes aside, you will most likely work a “9 to 5” or overtime. Don’t let Instagram feed you fantasy and lavish lifestyles. There is nothing wrong with working a “9 to 5.” You may spend few months filling out millions of applications and going from interview to interview. You may end up with a job you never knew existed and doesn’t have anything to do with your major, but don't be discouraged!
Your Career
A job and a career are two different things. A job is a temporary situation, but a career is where your knowledge and education is put into work and you are doing what you have a passion for.
When (temporarily) working at a job, do not get comfortable there. Have and keep a vision of where you desire and are called to be. This is a season, at this job, that can only be used to be built upon for your next season, in your career. It’s not in vain.
You are not a child
When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.
1 Corinthians 13:11 (AMP)
Legally speaking, you are not a child anymore. You are an Adult. All Groan Up! Duh Duh Duhhhh. I know. How did this happen!?
When you graduate, the world doesn’t stop for you to gradually transition into adulthood. You literally have the night of graduation to get your life and act together. That means some things and beliefs you developed in college, need to mysteriously disappear before someone calls you out on it. You have to mature and renew your mind on things happening in your life and the world around you. So being late, oversleeping, not planning in advance, not being financially responsible are habits that have to cease. As an adult, you have to leave childish ways in the past and use wisdom, knowledge and understanding in many areas of your life.
Your parents: Frienemies
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with promise: "that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth."
Ephesians 6:1–3 (NKJV)
They gave birth to you, but they can be the death of you. Literally. When you left for college, you probably planned to not move back home after graduation. HAHAHA. That’s so cute of you. It’s good to have dreams, but let’s be real here. Moving back home after 4 years of freedom can be the biggest set back you’ve experienced. You got a degree, but your dad wants you to wash the dishes. You want to hang with your friends, but your mom left you a voice mail, followed up with a text asking about your whereabouts. Your parents aren’t out to hold you back in life (they actually want to see you be great), but they may still see you as their child and not a ‘full blown’ adult. The first few months back home is just a time of learning to respect their authority and learning to submit. Learn as much as you can from your parents, saved or unsaved. This season is one many of us do not cherish and learn from.
My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck. When you walk, they will guide you; when you sleep, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you. For this command is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and correction and instruction are the way to life...
Proverbs 6:20-24
Your health and personal care
After years of eating over processed meals and going to bed at crazy hours, your body will have the last laugh. Take care of your temple. Make sure you take your vitamins. Drink more water. Get your yearly physical exam. Grab a friend and work out. Learn to eat and cook well balanced meals that seem to honor the food pyramid. We are tri-beings, let’s start to take care of our bodies, inside and out.
Your relationships
There are "friends" who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother.
Proverbs 18:24
When you are out of college, staying up with your friends, talking about God knows what, is a thing of the past. It will still happen, but barely. I mean rarely. You are in a different journey of life. You are walking down a different path. You will find yourself unable to relate to one another at times. You may even grow distant from one another, but that common bond that holds you together isn’t college, but the mutual love you have for God and one another. Be intentional with your current relationships. You will also make new relationships after college. Make sure you pursue healthy relationship and strive to glorify God in them.
The Future: what’s next?
I can’t tell you what’s going to happen after you walk across the stage. I don’t know what tomorrow brings. Like Sway, I don’t have the answers. What I do know is that God has a plan predestined for YOU. Before you entered college, before you were conceived, before the earth was formed. He has the answers and is ready to share it with you. But you have to seek Him. Your life, your desires, your dreams and aspirations is hidden in Christ. So get lost in Him. Rest and abide in Him and trust that He has your path paved for you to walk. Don’t worry about the future. It’s already written, just take the first step of faith.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[?And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:25-34 NIV
THE LONGER ROAD TAKEN
Finally, graduation season is winding down and people are done having their many celebrations. I didn't mind because I don't have food in the house and their many celebrations had fed me through this tough time in my life, but I digress. It's so good seeing those that you love graduate, they have made it through that tough period and crossed the finish line. At the same time, if you were or are like me, then you will know that watching all your friends graduate, while you are just taking another summer vacation kind of, well, it sucks. You're so conflicted because they're crossing a finish line that you may or may not have any idea when you will cross it or even where it is for you.
Trust me, I understand. I'm 23 years old and am only a sophomore. Every time someone asks me what year I am, I cringe a bit inside. This is because when I say sophomore, I always think that they see a 19 year old or something. It's not bad being seen as 19, except I'm 23, so I'd rather not be seen that way. I have changed my major about 3-4 times, not even officially some of those times, sometimes just in my head. I think by the time I graduate, I would've been in undergrad for about 7 years and I'm not even an engineering study nor have I ever been a major that "should've taken" more than the typical 4 years. I have even been to graduations of people I consider younger brothers and sisters in the faith that I advise myself, but you know what, I'm completely happy with my situation and would go through it all over again if you asked me.
This is not necessarily an article, it's a piece to encourage those who are seeing their peers excel in a way that seems that they are surpassing you. I felt the exact same way. Only until recently did I really see that I was happy with where I am now. I am finally in a major that I LOVE and even in it, I have found opportunities that I love as far as internships and jobs. I don't think I would thrive in any other major the same way and I thank God because I learned so much in my, what seems to be long, process.
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
Jeremiah 29:11-13
I clung to His words, I literally had to because I had no hope for myself at one point in time. I didn't know when I would finish school, but I knew I was in it and I hated it. What I hated more was seeing my friends complete it and recognize that I still had to be there.
Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
I transferred into Howard University after about 2 years of being in school and all they accepted from me was 16 credits..........16?! I almost lost it in that office, but I remembered this verse, Philippians 4:6. It didn't solve my problems but it helped me to realize something, that God has everything in His hands, whether I chose to believe or not. A friend came to me and told me to see it in a way where I would go through it all again, but with knowledge from my mistakes and knowledge that I gained the years I had already been in school. This helped me because I saw that now I'm in a place where I have an advantage and was hungrier than those around me, which makes me stand out in certain environments. All this time, I looked at my situation the wrong way; I had always become sad when I thought about how I was still in school, but God spoke to me through someone and showed me to instead get the most out of it while I'm still here. I have the opportunity to build my resume, network more, get my GPA higher and and equip myself better because I still have the opportunity to do so.
If you’re in a similar situation as me or have had academic downfalls, don't think down on yourself or feel any kind of way. This article isn't to say that the rest of it will just be easy once you take it all to God, but you will know for a fact that He is helping you and that He will change things. I ended up not having to pay for the rest of my education and I'm thankful to God for that, but if I didn't go through what I went through in an academic dismissal from my original university, I would have maybe finished there with a major that I was iffy about, and would've had to resort to loans. So don't only be happy for your peers when they graduate, but also be happy for yourself knowing that you have more time to build and equip yourself for the "real world.” I have been told by many older than me to see my prolonged time as a blessing more than a curse, so I do that and it has helped me see things much better. I pray you do the same and if you need any kind of encouragement. please feel free to email us and let us know so that I or the rest of the team may encourage you!