As a way to continue the conversations in The Biola Hour, we've invited Hannah Harkness to blog her thoughts after each episode. This is a response to Episode 56 on faith and exile. Feel free to interact with Hannah's thoughts in the comments below.

One Monday afternoon of my freshman year, I sat outside Commons after having 5 one on ones with people I wanted to be friends with. But even after those hours of small talk, I still wondered where I belonged - who where my people supposed to be? Where was my home? These are common questions for college students, but they are heavy ones nonetheless. But over the years of being in college, I have found that they seem more manageable because of a big lesson that Biola has taught me - the need for resilience. This ability to recover and grow in the midst of challenges is needed throughout life, but especially as we look to the big world and wonder where we fit. 

This week, David Kinnaman mentioned that this generation faces the big question of how to hold faith and connection in the midst of digital exile - the idea of wondering about one's place in the world and striving for belonging. However, this generation also has a large focus on what it means to be resilient. God has built us as biological and spiritual systems that we may be resilient in the world; which, in connection with the need to be deeply rooted in Jesus, gives hope in the middle of the questioning. We live in exile, but also have a home in Christ. This might seem a daunting tension, but step by step, we learn our capacity to recover from challenges and see how God has given the ability to do so.