God Looks on the Heart

After telling us people don’t care about essays from young journalists, Dr. Les Sillars of Patrick Henry

College assigned us to write some. With powerful excerpts from Augustine, Mark Twain, G.K. Chesterton,

and Whitaker Chambers still ringing in our ears, the assignment sounded a little daunting.

We had 45 minutes to write a 200-word essay—on anything. We scattered around campus with laptops and

notebooks, under trees or out in the sunshine.

I looked at the whirligigs spinning from the trees around me and decided to write about them. I thought

how much like them all of us were here at WJI—whirled around in the hustle of interviews, editing, and

last-minute assignments. The little whirligigs landed right side up, though, and so would we. Like the seeds

they held, God’s purposes for our live anchor and guide us with beautiful promises for the future.

We gathered back together in the lecture hall, where each of us got up, faced the amphitheater of faces, and

read our essays aloud from the podium. There was a short time for comments after each one, and then it

was the next person’s turn. We all laughed, and some of us teared up. Our essays were as different as we

were are, but the honesty and beauty amazed me.

I think, since then, we’ve seen each other differently. Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks

on the heart. (1 Samuel 16:7) When we shared our hearts, we came one step closer to seeing each

other—and loving each other—like God does.

- Olivia Hajicek