Some Thoughts on "Vocation in the Kingdom of God" (Chapter 5)

Some thoughts on “Vocation in the Kingdom of God”
About the coming Kingdom of God
When I was reading this chapter, there is one thought that called my attention. As the book was written, “Your kingdom come,” Christians pray, and hope it won’t. “Your kingdom come,’ they say, “but not right away.”
To be honest, I have the same thought sometimes. When I pray for “Your kingdom come”, actually, I was a little bit afraid of the coming kingdom. I still remember one day, when my family drove back from a night worship service. That’s night’s topic was “Coming of God’s kingdom”. It was 11P.M. there was no star in the sky; the radio was playing some Christian songs. I looked into the sky, suddenly, I felt very scary: Is Jesus going to come back today? What if he suddenly appears in the sky and come down, and took all the Christians to the heaven? What if he burns (I don’t know why I think that Jesus wants to burn pagans) all non-Christians? Since both my grandparents are non-Christians, dose this mean that I am not being able to see them anymore? NO!
I don’t know what God’s kingdom looks like, but I know that there will be only happiness there. However, if there is no conflicts exist, wouldn’t life be boring? I am an easy-to-be-satisfied person. It is more like the book described, “When our earthly kingdoms have had a good year, we don’t necessarily long for the kingdom of God to break in. We like our own setup just fine.” We know that there is a wonderful place we can go after death, but we are just not ready for it.
I am afraid of death, and I am a little afraid of trying news things too, so I think I am not for the kingdom yet. Although I know that I will someday.
All in all, I would like use one of my favorite Bible verses to comfort myself, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3: 5-6)

About our Vocation in College and College’s Vocation
In Chapter 5, Plantinga talked about “Kingdoms inside Kingdoms”. God’s Kingdom is the supreme kingdom, but not the only one. In the book, Plantinga indicated that every community is a small kingdom. When we were born, our families are our kingdoms. When we went to schools, those schools are our kingdoms; rather, our churches are our kingdoms too. And at this time, Calvin College is my kingdom. Since all kingdoms belong to God’s Kingdom, living a good life in Calvin would mean that to live as a good citizen in God’s Kingdom.
Everyone has a vocation to complete in this world. People also have different vocations at different times. To be honest, I am not sure what my life’s vocation is, but I know that my vocation right now is to be a good student. In our “English Syllabus”, Lewis indicated that most Christians thought that by receiving a better education, people could serve God more properly with their knowledge. I think that one main purpose of Christian Colleges is that we are not preparing students to find a job in the future, but to teach them how to honor God through their work. In other words, Calvin College is teaching us how to fulfill our life-long vocation.