Jonathan Huggins, college chaplain

Welcome back to Berry for another great school year. I want to give a special welcome to all of our First-Year students. Welcome to the brilliant, beautiful and beloved Berry College! I love this place and I know you will too.

I look forward to meeting you or seeing you again. You have come to a wonderful community with great people and countless opportunities to learn and grow in every area of your life, including your spiritual life. I hope you will take advantage of this important time in your life.

As Chaplain, I want you to know that our office is here to serve you. These are anxious times, and starting college can be challenging at any time. We get that. We’re here to walk alongside you whenever you need us.

The Chaplain’s Office offers many opportunities to explore and express your faith through on-campus worship, Christian concerts, guest speakers and lecturers, Bible studies and several student fellowship groups. One great opportunity for regular worship, nurture, and service is College Church — a Sunday night worship gathering at the main college chapel, every week at 7 p.m. This is a college-wide, inter-denominational, Christian worship service. Check out our social media: Instagram, YouTube, or Facebook for details, or better yet, stop by and see us in Krannert 305. We have coffee!

During your college years it’s important not to neglect your spiritual life, but to nurture it. Spirituality has to do with one’s inner life — sometimes referred to as one’s “soul” or “spirit.” Spirituality is not only about one’s inner life, but it does often begin there. I tend to think of humans as thinking, feeling, doing creatures. The health of our thinking, feeling, and doing is largely connected to our spiritual wellness. These three aspects of an individual correspond to Berry’s mission to provide education for the “head, heart, and hands.” In other words, one of Berry’s core values is to promote spiritual wellness.

How does one go about seeking to be spiritually healthy? Or, to put it another way, How does one aim to think well, feel well, and do well?

There are historic practices that have proven helpful in cultivating spiritual wellness. These include: Prayer, solitude, meditation, reflective writing or journaling about one’s experiences, thoughts, and feelings, mutuality —caring for others in a community­ — devotional study of sacred texts like the Bible, service to others, religious worship, and rituals which can provide meaning and stability to life. Any or all these are great to consider.

A sense of overall personal wellness has many positive effects. It creates an internal climate for one to think deeply and clearly, to feel compassion, joy, hope, and peace, and to do what is just and good — not simply for one’s own sake, but for the common good. Imagine such a world for just a moment where everyone sought such spiritual health, where all were internally full and free to give to others. The Hebrew word for this kind of wholeness is “shalom,” often translated as “peace.” Shalom is a state of over-flowing goodness, peace, and flourishing. The effects of healthy spirituality should be both personal wellness and universal shalom.

So while at Berry, take advantage of the opportunities for learning, worship, spiritual formation, and service. Allow the landscape of this beautiful campus, and your years here, to become the space in which you seek and find spiritual life.