Choosing Undergraduate Major: My Decision or God’s?

(L) Doing fieldwork as an environmental consultant in 2019 | (R) E2S2 Year 1 Week 3, 2014

Versi Bahasa Indonesia dari tulisan ini sudah lebih dulu dimuat di WarungSaTeKaMu.org dengan judul Menentukan Jurusan Kuliah: Pilihanku atau Pilihan Tuhan?

While I was still an undergraduate in the Environmental Earth Systems Science (E2S2) major in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore, I received lots of queries from relatives and friends, which mainly revolved around this set of questions: “How did you end up studying that major? What do you learn there? What are the future career paths?” At first, I was annoyed about having to answer the same questions over and over again. But then I realised that there are indeed not many people—especially from Indonesia—who are aware of this major, moreover study it. In this writing, I will indeed touch on what courses I took in E2S2 albeit briefly, for its main focus is to recount how and why I came to choose environmental sciences for my study in university. As you may guess from the title, my decision to study E2S2 relates closely to the will of God, in the sense that I understand my decision to be the decision that God wanted me to take. 4 ways God leads His people
What did I mean? Before moving forward with my story, I'd like to invite you to first be aware of the different types of the will of God as revealed in the Bible. In his article, John Piper distinguishes four kinds of the will of God, which I summarise as follows:

1. His sovereign decree, through which God accomplishes all of the plans He has devised so that every single minutia of His creations exists and function per His design. God exercises this type of will completely without humans’ knowledge nor contribution. An example of God’s decree in action is the event of Paul and Silas’ imprisonment that leads to the repentance of their warden and his entire household (Acts 16:23–24). The decree of God involves the other types of the will of God and cannot be thwarted (Job 42:2).
2. The direction of God comprises His commandments and teachings that are written in the Bible. This type of will specifically directs what we are (not) to do. Instances include the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20) and the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7).
3. God’s will of discernment applies to human’s decisions that God doesn’t specifically direct in the Bible, like undergraduate majors and which funds we are to support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Obedience to this type of will requires our sensitivity to apply the right Biblical principles to the situations we face. Paul describes this type of will in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” For many decisions in our life, God doesn’t give us specific directions, but by the Holy Spirit He renews our mind through spiritual disciplines—e.g. Bible reading and prayer—that we may discern and make the decisions that most glorifies Him, gives us His joy, and blesses others and this world.
4. The type of declaration is the rarest will of God encountered these days. By this will God communicates directly His purpose to us like He did to Philip in Acts 8:26 and 8:29.

From the explanation above, it’s clear that the “will of God” I mentioned above is the third type, the will of discernment. The remainder of this writing is devoted to discussing what practical applications we can derive from God’s will of discernment, which I will do in the context of deciding the undergraduate major. In practice, you will find that the following steps apply not only for choosing the field of study but also for making decisions that God doesn’t direct us specifically in the Bible.

Can you guess what the first step is? Hint: I touched on it in the explanation of the third type of the will of God.
#1: Practice spiritual disciplines that our minds are renewed by the Spirit Although there are other spiritual disciplines like stewardship and fasting, prayer and reflecting on the Word of God are the two most foundational disciplines that bring us to know the LORD who is sovereign over our lives. In our daily encounters with God, we give every inch of ourselves to be examined, taught, and corrected by the Holy Spirit through His Word and hence have our minds renewed (Rom. 12:2b). We no longer want to be conformed to this world (Rom. 12:2a); on the contrary, we want to be more like Lord Jesus (Rom. 8:29) who can discern “what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2c). In other words, our lives are truly transformed by the Holy Spirit that we can reflect the image of the LORD who is holy and good and perfect in all aspects of our lives, especially in making decisions. So radical is the transformation that there isn’t a single inch of our lives that are not touched and renewed by the Holy Spirit. Why is this step so important? John Piper in his sermon explains, “[B]ecause 95 per cent of what you are doing you are doing spontaneously [following the desires of sinful flesh] and if you are not a new person [whose minds have been renewed by the Holy Spirit], then out of the mouth the heart speaks wrong stuff [and decisions].” How can we decide on the major decisions according to the will of God? By firstly deciding on the minor decisions according to His will. I believe that my decision to study E2S2 began from the moment I decided to confess and believe that Jesus is the Lord and King of my life. Had God not brought me to be reconciled to Him when I was in grade 10 and nurtured me in spiritual disciplines, I would’ve made wrong decisions with wrong motivations: not helping my classmates who were struggling with school lessons, lived in arrogance for representing my high school in the province-level mathematics olympiad, lazing around and grumbling in my preparation for NTU entrance exam (which was harder than Indonesian National Exam), and others that are similar to the ways of this world. Thank God, through my encounters with Lord Jesus in His Word, prayer, discipleship group, and ministries, the Holy Spirit renews my mind that I may make decisions that accord with His will. The renewal of our mind doesn’t only help us to not be conformed to this world, but also aids us to know better one significant party in our decision-making process. #2: Personal preferences also need to be understood While contemplating the various implications of the discernment will of God, I came to observe that many of the related decisions are dominated by personal matters. On one hand, God has given us the general guide for the decisions we have to make with regard to His discernment will: “what is good and acceptable and perfect”, His will of direction in the principles found in the Bible. On the other hand, as long as those decisions are made according to the Biblical principles, we are free to decide according to our personal preferences. In other words, good self-knowledge is this step’s key to success.

Concerning the decisions of undergraduate major and career choice, I would ask the following two questions to myself and those who know me closely before making any decisions:

1. What talents/strengths has God blessed me with that He can use to glorify Him and bless others and the world the most?

2. What field of study or topic that weighs my heart and mind the most?

My parents had actually directed me from the beginning of high school to study Civil Engineering in university, considering my then considerable interest and talent in mathematics. Since I was still clueless about undergraduate studies, I followed along with their suggestion. But when I entered my final year in high school and began preparing for NTU entrance exam, I started questioning that direction. Do I really want to study Civil Engineering, or it’s my parents who want me to study it? I began praying harder to God concerning this matter and reflecting the two questions above more. I didn’t record the details of my journey in finding the answers, but more or less the answers are so: I want to be exposed to and understand the world from a wider point of view, the big picture of the many processes that occur in the world. I’m not satisfied just learning the mathematical formulas nor memorising social science theories in a classroom. I want to plunge into the world out there, see what happens, and offer my unique contributions that reveal the glory and truth of God to the world. In a term that I would know later, my ideal undergraduate major is interdisciplinary in nature. Unfortunately, NTU didn’t offer such a major, initially. Approximately one month after the entrance exam in the middle of January 2014, NTU announced the launch of the E2S2 major in the academic year 2014/2015. At first, I had zero interest in it, but after my parents’ constant nagging to check the major out, I reluctantly opened and read the e-brochure that NTU had sent. Thank God I did it, for I was interested instantly. In the first three semesters, we would learn the basics of environmental science—like Geology, the Biosphere, and Environmental Anthropology—before specialising in one of the following streams in our fourth semester: Geoscience, Ecology, or Society and the Environment. The last specialisation fits perfectly with my interest due to its focus in understanding the underlying development and dynamics between human society and the natural environment. After praying it before God together with my family and friends in church, I submitted the additional documents to apply to the major. This world says, “Follow your heart,” but God says, “Follow your heart only when you have offered your whole self as a living sacrifice before Me” (Rom. 12:1). For only those whose hearts have been searched and thoughts tried by God does He ever promise to be led in the way everlasting (Ps. 139:23–24). #3: Pray and surrender your decisions to God, then step forward I have accidentally mentioned this last step a few sentences ago. Yes, when we feel that we have made our decision according to the principles in the Bible and according to our personal preferences, and also ask the more objective opinions from others who know us well, there is nothing left to be done but surrendering that decision into His hands and stepping forward in prayer. At every upcoming step, the promise of God in Psalm 32:8 is a firm foundation, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” As simple as that. That’s what I did in the following stages of the admission process. After submitting the additional documents, I thought I only had to wait for the announcement from NTU on whether or not I was admitted. Turned out it was not as simple as that. The following week, the faculty asked me to submit a short essay explaining my interest in the major. Then, a few days after submission, I was invited for a Skype interview with some of the faculty members. All these happened when I was preparing for the Graduation Exam, so I had to juggle between exam tryouts, practical exams, tuitions, and now writing the admission essay and preparing for the admission interview. Thank God, I managed to finish all of them well, one step at a time, until I finally saw myself as the only Indonesian in the inaugural batch of Environmental Earth Systems Science major in NTU. Six years have passed. After studying in E2S2 for four years and working as an environmental consultant for one and a half years, I can certainly say that I have no regrets at all. On the contrary, such experiences—which I experience more often since my repentance—are my mood lifters when I am down. Through them, I am constantly reminded of the glorious cross of Jesus Christ who redeemed all my sins and gave me His Spirit to dwell in me and renew my mind. It is this work of the Holy Spirit that enables me to discern and make decisions according to the will of God, then continues to step forward in the way that God decrees and directs me to go. Closing: the freedom of our decisions under the sovereignty of God In closing, I invite you to imagine the following situation, where God had given us a book that lists every detail of every decision that we had to make, which guaranteed that every decision we made would be according to His will. Consider the implication: we would never have to struggle every time we were to make a decision, nor would we need to put all those tremendous efforts to study the Bible and discern “what is good and acceptable and perfect”. We only had to follow what’s written in that book, then all of our decisions would surely accord with God’s will. How would you react? Would you feel so grateful, for your remaining days had already been spelt out by the content of the book? Or would you be suspicious as such a book is not consistent with the characters of God you know? Notice the verbs that God uses in Psalm 32:8—“instruct”, “teach”, and “counsel”. What is the parallel between the three words? They are all open-ended verbs, Lord Jesus’s invitation for us to give ourselves and be instructed, taught, and counselled by Him. The imaginary situation above more fittingly illustrates a robot that has no choice but to execute its programs than our condition of freely executing our free will under the sovereignty of God. Like parents who want their children to discern every background and consequence beneath every existing decision and then make the best decisions without having to be told all the time, so does God want us to really know Him and make the best decision in obedience to Him. Of course, we need to ask for the opinions of others who know us closely, but ultimately our decisions are our own before the Lord. That’s one of the reasons God sent His one and only Son Jesus Christ into the world: so that He may be the archetype of obedience for those who believe in Him (cf. Hbr. 5:8–9). How do we know that? “Yet not what I will, but what You will,” said Jesus as recorded in Mark 14:36. Jesus chose to obey the Father’s will and died on the cross so that every decision that we make no longer conforms with the world but instead be made according to the Father’s will. I pray and hope that you may persevere well in the spiritual disciplines and make every decision with Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus bless, soli Deo gloria. Reflection questions

1. Have you been relating closely with God and His Word?

2. Have your decisions been founded on Biblical principles?

3. Are you aware of your personal preferences?

4.Have you surrendered all your decisions to God in prayer?