By Xiao Yuan, China

From an early age, I always got good grades and would often get the highest grade on tests in my class. Each time grades came out for a test, my name and picture would always be displayed on the school’s honors board. Seeing how my teachers looked at me with smiling eyes full of satisfaction and commendation and hearing the praises of my classmates, my heart would burst with joy and I would feel so honored. Upon returning home, neighbors I encountered in the streets would greet me saying, “This girl is a great student. You make your parents so proud. In the future you’ll certainly go to Peking University or Tsinghua University!” I would give them a shy smile, but inside, my ego had been thoroughly stoked. Later on, I tested into a top university in my province and was ranked number one in my major as a freshman. I felt so happy—my classmates all praised my talent, admired and envied me and my teachers placed high hopes in me. I felt like I had become a standout among my peers. However, university life wasn’t as busy as high school and would oftentimes be downright easy and carefree. In classes we often had to study some social science theories and rote memorize these theories and terminology and I would sometimes wonder: “What is the point of learning and memorizing all these theories?” Most of the time I just studied purely to be able to handle the tests. Outside of class and in their free time, my classmates just idled away their time in pleasure, while I would just sit around scrolling on my phone, bored to death. I would often think, “Were we really put on this earth just to kill time like this? Shouldn’t we as humans have some goal or direction in life?” However, I didn’t know how to answer these questions.

In the summer of my freshman year, a sister spread God’s last days’ gospel to me. Through eating and drinking God’s words, I learned that God performed three stages of work to save mankind. I saw how the Lord Jesus was crucified to redeem mankind of their sins and, in the last days, God incarnated again to thoroughly save mankind, expressing many truths to judge and purify mankind, allowing them to completely break free of the fetters of sin and enter God’s kingdom. I got a deep sense of the sincerity and kindness with which God saved mankind as well as a feeling for God’s love of mankind. I was deeply moved and resolved to put faith in God and pursue the truth. Later on, my brothers and sisters fellowshipped on how it was a crucial time for the expansion of the kingdom gospel. They said it was an incredibly valuable thing to be able to contribute to the expansion of the gospel and bring more people before God to receive His salvation. A sister then asked if I would be willing to do a duty. I felt a bit hesitant, “It takes time and energy to do a duty. Competition at school is quite strong and what will I do if my grades are affected? Should I choose to put my faith in God and do my duty as a created being or put my time into studies to get good grades and ensure a good future and the admiration and respect of others?” I didn’t know which path to choose and so I told the sister I would think it over. For the next few nights, I would often find myself at a loss as I walked along a road at my university, observing other students working hard late into the night to achieve good grades, wondering, “Should I choose to pursue academics and a good future like most of my peers, or follow God and do a duty?”

Later on, I came across these passages of God’s words: “Because of the Creator’s sovereignty and predestination, a lonely soul that started out with nothing to its name gains parents and a family, the chance to become a member of the human race, the chance to experience human life and see the world. This soul also gains the chance to experience the Creator’s sovereignty, to know the marvelousness of the Creator’s creation, and more than that, to know and surrender to the Creator’s authority. Yet most people do not really seize this rare and fleeting opportunity. One exhausts a lifetime’s worth of energy fighting against fate, spends all of one’s time bustling about, trying to feed one’s family and shuttling back and forth between wealth and status. The things that people treasure are family, money, and fame and gain, and they view these as the most valuable things in life. All people complain about being ill-fated, yet still they push to the back of their minds the issues that are most imperative to examine and understand: why man is alive, how man should live, what the value and meaning of life are. They spend their entire lives, however long they may last, merely rushing about seeking fame and gain, until their youth has fled and they have become gray and wrinkled. They live in this way until they see that fame and gain cannot stop their slide toward senility, that money cannot fill the emptiness of the heart, that no one is exempt from the laws of birth, aging, sickness, and death, that no one can escape what fate has in store. Only when they have to confront life’s final juncture do they truly grasp that even if one owns vast wealth and extensive assets, even if one is privileged and of high rank, one still cannot escape death and must return to their original position: a solitary soul, with nothing to its name” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique III). “Everything in man’s life is empty and unworthy of commemoration, apart from believing in God, pursuing the truth, and fulfilling their duty as a created being. Even if you have accomplished the most earth-shaking of feats; even if you have been to the Moon and back; even if you have made scientific advances that have been of some benefit or help to mankind, it is futile and all of it will pass away. What is the only thing that will not pass away? (The word of God.) Only the word of God, testimonies to God, all of the testimonies and works that bear witness for the Creator, and people’s good deeds will not pass away. These things will last forever, and they are so valuable” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Only in Performing the Duty of a Created Being Well Is There Value in Living). God’s words had a deep impact on me. God arranges for each person to come to this world to recognize God’s sovereignty, understand His wisdom and authority, and learn to submit to and worship God. If people do not realize God’s intention, their time in this world will be empty—they won’t know why they are born, why they must pass or what they should live for. I would often see news reports about famous people who, despite receiving adulation, making lots of money and living in luxury, developed depression and ultimately committed suicide. Other stories detailed how rich people with high status suddenly became ill and died. I also observed how my own grandparents, who were intellectuals with advanced degrees, had worked hard their whole lives and had once had their moments of glory now spent their retirement years chatting, killing time, emptily passing their days without knowing the meaning of life, and aimlessly awaiting death. I saw that no matter how much one studies or what great accomplishments one achieves, it is all transient and impermanent. Ultimately, when the evil, old world is destroyed, everything will be laid to waste. These scientific achievements and personal accomplishments cannot guide people toward an understanding of God, to come before God and come to know the meaning of life. They also cannot allow people to cast off their corruption and live out a human semblance—even after achieving these accomplishments, they are still as corrupt as ever. What’s more, knowledge is completely incapable of changing the dark state of society and fails to put people on the right path and direction. Knowledge and achievements just aren’t meaningful. Only God’s chosen people’s testimony to God and what they gain from experiencing God’s work are eternal. If I were to invest myself in seeking knowledge, pursuing the fruits of this mortal world and rushing around after fame and gain, family, academics and a career, failed to pursue the truth and know God, and ultimately failed to comprehend any truth, failed to gain knowledge of God and my disposition did not transform, would I have not lost out on a golden opportunity to experience God’s work? God had guided me to find my direction in life: I realized that in life we ought to pursue the truth and pursue knowledge of God. Only by fulfilling my duty as a created being would I be worthy of God’s salvation and only such a life would be valuable and meaningful. It was my responsibility and an exaltation by God to be able to put my effort into expanding the gospel and bring more people before God. I had to stop wasting time on my studies and decided to make faith my priority. After that, I gave up my chance at guaranteed admission to graduate studies and decided to do my duty.

At the beginning of 2020, the pandemic hit while I was passing the Chinese New Year at home and I ended up getting stuck there and being unable to contact my church. For half a year, I was unable to attend gatherings or eat and drink God’s words. I was a senior at that time and getting ready to graduate. Some of my classmates had already been accepted to graduate programs, while others had found good jobs. As for me, I still hadn’t found a job. My father would often sternly exhort me, saying, “So and so’s child just got accepted to a graduate program at a famous school. These days, getting a graduate degree is the current trend and it will make you more competitive in the job market. You should have decided to get a graduate degree anyway, but you wouldn’t listen to us. If you don’t get a job soon what do you plan to do after you graduate?” Hearing the exhortations of my father and seeing how all my peers were working hard for a better future, I thought to myself, “He’s right, I’m about to graduate. Do I really want to be jobless after I graduate? What will people think of me? Won’t they think I’m a good for nothing?” I felt absolutely miserable. One time at a get together with former classmates, everyone began talking about their future plans: Some excitedly said they had been accepted to some or other famous university’s graduate program, others got jobs at SOEs, while others had gotten jobs as government employees. They lavished praise on each other and talked about their experiences before and after being accepted, but as for me, I had nothing to say. Seeing the prestige of my peers, how their faces were lit up with smiles and pride, I couldn’t help but lower my head in silent despair, thinking, “I used to have even better grades than them and they all looked up to and admired me, but now they’re graduate students at top schools and I only have a bachelor’s degree. They’re so far ahead of me, so how can I hold my head high in front of them going forward? Hasn’t my image and esteem in their eyes plummeted now?” It felt like I had been enveloped in gloom. When my classmates asked me what my plans were going forward, I just stammered and awkwardly ducked out of their questioning, afraid to see their disapproving glances. Throughout the get-together I felt incredibly repressed—I thought I hadn’t accomplished anything and my classmates would certainly look down on me. After coming home, I broke down in tears. From an early age, I had always been admired and commended by others, but now I was lagging far behind them and that massive gap of feeling between now and before dealt a difficult blow. I wasn’t sure what path I should take going forward. Given my current academic credentials, there was no way I was going to get a respectable job. Did I just have to resign myself to being a cut below those graduate students? I couldn’t accept that, so I resolved that I would take the graduate entrance exam.

Later on, I got in touch with my church and told the brothers and sisters that I was preparing to go home and take the graduate entrance exam, but would still attend gatherings when I could. The brothers and sisters told me that they needed more people to do a certain duty and asked if I would consider doing it. At the time, I knew that believing in God and pursuing the truth were good things and that by failing to do my duty, I would be letting down God, who had supplied me with so much, but then I thought about how there were only a few months left to prepare for the entrance exam and this was my last chance to save face. Being accepted to the springboard of a graduate program was the only way I could remain on the same level with those highly credentialed classmates, fulfill the expectations of my family, and be able to hold my head high around my friends and relatives. If I gave up on taking the graduate entrance exam, wouldn’t I lose all hope of distinguishing myself among my peers? I just wasn’t willing to do that. Thus, I told my brothers and sisters that I couldn’t do a duty full time and could only do as much work in a duty as I could while also preparing for the exam. I was under a lot of pressure and stress for the next few months. During the day, I would do my duty or attend gatherings, then I would return home at night to thick stacks of test preparation materials. I was so tired, but I forced myself to keep my eyes open and power through whatever study assignments I had given myself for that day. Every morning at the crack of dawn, I would get up right away regardless of how tired I felt and dive right back into that deep sea of knowledge. I didn’t dare give myself the slightest chance to relax—even when I went out to buy food, while cooking or cleaning dishes, I would put on audio files to continue studying. Then, finally, after several difficult months of preparation, I tested into a graduate program. I was so excited when I saw my test score—now I could finally get back some of that prestige I had once had, hold my head high amongst my relatives and friends and stop worrying about others looking down on me. When my classmates heard I had tested into a graduate program, they all showered me with congratulations. My dad was so happy that he was smiling from ear to ear and couldn’t wait to tell the good news to all our neighbors and relatives. When I returned home, my neighbors all gave me the thumbs-up and praised me, saying, “You got into a graduate program, way to go! You’ve been a talented student from an early age. Your dad must be so proud of you!” I felt so pleased with myself and could finally hold my head high.

In no time, the school year had started and I balanced my time between studies and doing my duty, but graduate students had to take several classes per day and complete homework in their free time, so I didn’t have any time to practice devotionals and read God’s words. Sometimes I would realize that I was revealing corruption in my duty, but I didn’t have time to reflect on myself and would feel agitated and miserable. Sometimes I would think, “How will my life progress if I don’t have any time to read God’s words and seek the truth? However, my homework kept piling up and I had to complete it. What’s more, my classmates were studying and researching even harder, putting in all their efforts to increase their abilities and level—if I didn’t make time to study, wouldn’t I fall behind them and never distinguish myself?” This made me worried and tormented—why was it that I still wasn’t happy after testing into the graduate program of my dreams?

One night, my school announced that it would be sealing off the campus due to the pandemic, so starting in a few days, students that entered the campus would not be able to leave whenever they felt like it. I realized it was time for me to make a decision. If I decided to continue my studies, I wouldn’t be able to practice faith and do my duty. If I was to put aside my duty and was unable to attend gatherings at such an important moment, my life would certainly be damaged. What’s more, if I spent all my time at the school and couldn’t attend gatherings, I would certainly put everything into seeking a future in the secular world and it would be difficult to walk away from that. If I didn’t attain the truth, my views on things were not transformed and I ended up wallowing in the mire with other nonbelievers and pursuing evil trends, I would ultimately be a living image of Satan and would be doomed to perdition and destruction. The disasters had already begun and it was also a crucial moment for the expansion of the gospel—if I carried on with worldly pursuits and didn’t do my duty and prepare good deeds at all, I certainly would not receive God’s care and protection and would be swept up in the disasters just like all the other nonbelievers. Yet, I couldn’t give up my studies either; it had been no easy feat to test into the program, so how could I just withdraw so easily? If I did withdraw, wouldn’t I lose my prestige and fame again? Then wouldn’t I be a cut below my peers, live a repressed life and be unable to raise my head with pride? When I considered withdrawing, I felt so miserable that I didn’t feel like doing anything. Every morning when I awoke, I would think of the choices laid out before me and sink into distress.

Later on, I came across a passage of God’s words: “God does not merely pay a price for each person in the decades from their birth to the present. As God sees it, you have come into this world countless times, and have been reincarnated countless times. Who is in charge of this? God is in charge of this. You have no way of knowing these things. Each time you come into this world, God personally makes arrangements for you: He arranges how many years you will live, the sort of family that you will be born into, when you will build a home and a career, as well as what you will do in this world and how you will make a living. God arranges a way for you to earn a living, so that you can accomplish your mission in this life unhindered. And as for what you should do in your next incarnation, God arranges and delivers that life to you according to what you ought to have and what ought to be given to you…. God has made these arrangements for you many times, and, at last, you were born into the age of the last days, into your present family. God arranged an environment for you in which you could believe in Him, He allowed you to hear His voice and come back before Him, so that you could follow Him and perform a duty in His house. It is only with such guidance from God that you have lived until today. You do not know how many times you have been born among man, nor how many times your appearance has changed, nor how many families you have had, nor how many ages and dynasties you have lived through—but God’s hand has been supporting you the whole time, and He has always been watching over you. How much God toils for a person’s sake! Some people say, ‘I’m sixty years old. For sixty years, God has been watching over me, protecting me, and guiding me. If, when I’m old, I can’t perform a duty and I can’t do anything—will God still care about me?’ Is this not a silly thing to say? God does not have sovereignty over a person’s fate, and watch over them and protect them for just a single lifespan. If it were just the matter of a single lifespan, a single lifetime, that would fail to demonstrate that God is almighty and has sovereignty over everything. The labor that God does and the price that He pays for a person is not merely to arrange what they do in this life, but to arrange for them a countless number of lifetimes. God takes full responsibility for every soul that is reincarnated. He works attentively, paying the price of His life, guiding every person and arranging each of their lives. God toils and pays a price in this way for man’s sake, and He bestows upon man all of these truths and this life. If people do not perform the duty of created beings in these final days, and they do not return before the Creator—if, in the end, no matter how many lives and generations they have lived through, they do not do their duties well and they fail to meet God’s demands—would their debt to God not then be too great? Would they not be unworthy of all the prices God has paid? They would be so lacking in conscience, they would not deserve to be called people, as their debt to God would be too great. Therefore, in this life—I am not talking about your former lives, but in this life—if you are not able to give up the things you love or external things for the sake of your mission—like material pleasures and the love and joy of family—if you do not give up the pleasures of the flesh for the sake of the prices that God pays for you or to repay God’s love, then you are truly wicked! Actually, any price that you pay for God is worth it. Compared to the price that God pays on your behalf, what does the tiny amount that you offer up or expend amount to? What does the little you suffer amount to? Do you know how much God has suffered? The little that you suffer is not even worth mentioning when it is compared to what God has suffered. Moreover, by doing your duty now, you are obtaining the truth and the life, and in the end, you will survive and enter into God’s kingdom. What a great blessing that is! While you follow God, no matter whether you suffer or pay a price, you are actually working with God. Whatever God asks us to do, we listen to God’s words, and practice according to them. Do not rebel against God or do anything that brings Him sorrow. In order to work with God, you must suffer a little, and you must renounce and lay aside some things. You must give up fame, gain, status, money, and worldly pleasures—you even need to give up things like marriage, work, and your prospects in the world. Does God know whether you have given up these things? Can God see all this? (Yes.) What will God do when He sees that you have given up these things? (God will be comforted, and He will be pleased.) God will not only be pleased and say, ‘The prices that I paid have borne fruit. People are willing to work alongside Me, they have this resolve, and I have gained them.’ Whether God is pleased or happy, satisfied or comforted, God does not only have that attitude. He also acts, and He wants to see the results that His work achieves, otherwise what He requires of people would be meaningless. The grace, love, and mercy that God shows man are not merely a kind of attitude—they are a fact, as well. What fact is that? It is that God puts His words within you, enlightening you, so that you may see what is lovely about Him, and what this world is all about, so that your heart is filled with light, allowing you to understand His words and the truth. In this way, without knowing it, you gain the truth. God does so much work on you in a very real way, enabling you to gain the truth. When you gain the truth, when you gain that most precious thing which is eternal life, God’s intentions are satisfied. When God sees that people are pursuing the truth and willing to cooperate with Him, He is happy and contented. He is then of an attitude, and while He is of that attitude, He goes to work, and approves of and blesses man. He says, ‘I will reward you with the blessings that you deserve.’ And then you will have gained the truth and the life. When you have knowledge of the Creator and you have gained His appreciation, will you still feel an emptiness in your heart? You will not. You will feel fulfilled and have a sense of enjoyment. Is this not what it means for one’s life to have value? This is the most valuable and meaningful life” (The Word, Vol. 3. The Discourses of Christ of the Last Days. Paying the Price to Gain the Truth Is of Great Significance). Through God’s words, I realized that it was He who had guided and protected me every step of the way on my path to the current moment. God had not allowed me to be born in the last days and be lucky enough to accept His last days’ work just so I could go pursue prospects and a career. No, He wanted me to receive the supply of His words, come to understand the truth, and fulfill my duty as a created being. The family and work that God arranges for people is just temporary. If I rejected God’s salvation and refused to do my duty as a created being just so that I could live up to my family’s expectations or attain a level of material enjoyment, fame and gain, wouldn’t I be unworthy of God’s supply and lose a wonderful chance to be saved? If I decided to do my duty, I might relinquish certain personal interests, but I would attain the most precious truth and would ultimately attain God’s salvation and survive—these were the most tangible benefits of all! After realizing this, I was very moved and motivated and felt that God was spurring me on and guiding me face-to-face. I then watched an experience testimony video called A Choice Without Regret in which a sister resolutely gives up an opportunity to study at Tsinghua University in order to practice faith and spread the gospel. In the video, when the sister spreads the gospel to her teacher, he becomes incredibly excited and bursts out in tears of joy, because he has been waiting an agonizingly long time for the Lord’s coming and has finally found the gospel of God he has awaited for so long. This video had a particularly deep impact on me. I thought of all my classmates and friends who didn’t understand the true meaning of life and still lived in misery under Satan’s power. I was lucky enough to have accepted God’s last days’ gospel, so I should bear a responsibility, pursue the truth as best I could, equip myself with truth and spread the gospel and bring even more people before God to receive His judgment, be purified, attain salvation and live with the blessings and guidance of God. How wonderful that would be! Realizing this, I decided to abandon my studies and focus on believing in God. However, when it actually came time to make my decision, it was still a bit hard for me. I thought, “If I don’t continue my studies, I’ll never have a chance to distinguish myself in the future.” The praise from my family, relatives, friends and neighbors was a kind of prestige that I found hard to let go of.

In the midst of my suffering, I came across this passage of God’s words: “During the process of man’s learning of knowledge, Satan employs all manner of methods, whether it be telling stories, simply giving them some individual piece of knowledge, or allowing them to satisfy their desires or ambitions. What road does Satan want to lead you down? People think there is nothing wrong with learning knowledge, that it is entirely natural. To put it in a way that sounds appealing, to foster lofty ideals or to have ambitions is to have drive, and this should be the right path in life. Is it not a more glorious way for people to live if they can realize their own ideals, or successfully establish a career? By doing these things, one can not only honor one’s ancestors but also has the chance to leave one’s mark on history—is this not a good thing? This is a good thing in the eyes of worldly people, and to them it should be proper and positive. Does Satan, however, with its sinister motives, take people on to this kind of road and that’s all there is to it? Of course not. In fact, no matter how lofty man’s ideals are, no matter how realistic man’s desires are or how proper they may be, all that man wants to achieve, all that man seeks for, is inextricably linked to two words. These two words are vitally important to the life of every person, and they are things Satan intends to instill in man. What are these two words? They are ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ Satan uses a very subtle kind of method, a method very much in concert with people’s notions, which is not at all radical, through which it causes people to unknowingly accept its way of living, its rules to live by, and to establish life goals and their direction in life, and unknowingly they also come to have ambitions in life. No matter how grand these life ambitions may seem, they are inextricably linked to ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ Everything that any great or famous person—all people, in fact—follow in life relates only to these two words: ‘fame’ and ‘gain.’ People think that once they have fame and gain, they can then capitalize on those things to enjoy high status and great wealth, and to enjoy life. They think fame and gain are a kind of capital that they can use to obtain a life of pleasure-seeking and wanton enjoyment of the flesh. For the sake of this fame and gain which mankind so covets, people willingly, albeit unknowingly, hand over their bodies, minds, all that they have, their futures and their destinies, to Satan. They do so genuinely and without even a moment’s hesitation, ever ignorant of the need to recover all that they have handed over. Can people retain any control over themselves once they have taken refuge in Satan in this way and become loyal to it? Certainly not. They are completely and utterly controlled by Satan. They have completely and utterly sunk into a quagmire, and are unable to free themselves. Once someone is mired in fame and gain, they no longer seek that which is bright, that which is just, or those things that are beautiful and good. This is because the seductive power that fame and gain have over people is too great; they become things for people to pursue throughout their lives and even for all eternity without end. Is this not true?” (The Word, Vol. 2. On Knowing God. God Himself, the Unique VI). Through God’s words, I gradually realized that those views, ideas, and survival principles like “Stand out above the rest,” “Bring honor to your ancestors,” and “Other pursuits are small, books excel them all,” which I had always relied on came from Satan. I thought that studying hard to attain an advanced degree and being a cut above the rest was a positive goal to pursue. To achieve my goal, I worked extremely hard in my studies and was willing to persevere through any suffering. When I observed that some of my classmates were getting higher degrees or excellent jobs, I felt a cut below them and worried I’d be looked down on. To save face and be able to hold my head high in front of my peers, I let go of an opportunity to do my duty full time, choosing to put all my time and energy into preparing for the graduate entrance exam. I didn’t consider the church’s work or God’s urgent intention to save mankind in the slightest and feared that doing a duty would delay my preparations for the test. While preparing for the test, I would spend all day and night studying, didn’t give myself the slightest chance to rest and became anxious and miserable in spite of myself. It was absolutely exhausting! I saw people online discussing how after they met with failure while testing for graduate programs or looking for work, they began to suffer from anxiety and depression. A friend also told me about a student who graduated from our school that failed to test into a program and ended up in a psych ward due to the psychological torment of the whole experience. Every day at the ward he could be heard screaming, “I want to go to grad school, I want to go to grad school!” There were also many people that met with failure while testing for college or graduate degrees and ended up killing themselves because they thought they had no future prospects, no chance of attaining fame and gain and that living was meaningless. Were these vivid examples all not the result of Satan’s torment? It was just the same for me: I put everything into pursuing prospects, fame and gain, plunging into the deep abyss of fame and gain and not feeling motivated whatsoever to practice faith, pursue the truth and pursue dispositional transformation. It was only then that I truly saw Satan’s sinister motives. It used fame and gain to lure me in; it not only made me suffer mentally and emotionally, but also tried to keep me from coming before God to pursue the truth and attain salvation. I thought of this passage of God’s words: “If someone’s social status is very low, their family is very poor, and they have a low level of education, yet they believe in God in a down-to-earth manner, and they love the truth and positive things, then in God’s eyes is their worth high or low, is it noble or lowly? They are valuable. Looking at it from this perspective, what does someone’s worth—whether high or low, noble or lowly—depend on? It depends on how God sees you. If God sees you as someone who pursues the truth, then you have worth and are valuable—you are a valuable vessel. If God sees that you do not pursue the truth and you do not sincerely expend yourself for Him, then you are worthless and are not valuable—you are a lowly vessel. No matter how highly educated you are or how high your status in society is, if you don’t pursue or understand the truth, then your worth can never be high; even if many people support you, praise you, and adore you, you are still a contemptible wretch. So, why does God see people this way? Why is such a ‘noble’ person, with such a high status in society, with so many people praising and admiring them, with even their prestige being so high, seen by God as lowly? Why is the way God sees people totally contrary to the views people have of others? Is God setting Himself against people on purpose? Absolutely not. It’s because God is truth, God is righteousness, whereas man is corrupt and has no truth or righteousness, and God measures man by His own standard, and His standard for measuring man is the truth. It may sound a little abstract to say that, so to say it another way, God’s standard of measurement is based on a person’s attitude toward God, their attitude toward truth, and their attitude toward positive things—this is no longer abstract” (The Word, Vol. 4. Exposing Antichrists. Item Seven: They Are Wicked, Insidious, and Deceitful (Part One)). Through God’s words, I learned that God does not measure people based upon their academic credentials or social status, but rather based on the attitude they have in their approach to the truth and God. God values those that truly believe in Him, pursue the truth and love positive things. By contrast, even if someone has high social status and is revered by others, if he doesn’t accept the truth, is disrespectful to God and pursues evil and corrupt things, God will view him as lowly. After coming to understand God’s intention and His standard for measuring people, I felt liberated and realized how ridiculous and inconsistent with the truth it was for me to measure people based upon their academic credentials. I also felt a sense of motivation and stopped wanting to single-mindedly pursue an advanced degree and good grades. I wanted to become someone who pursued the truth and was sure-footed and down to earth in their duties.

After that, I went to school to withdraw. My teacher continually berated me and even mocked me for not continuing graduate studies, saying I must be an idiot to not just spend two years to get my advanced degree. Faced with the teacher’s mockery, I felt a bit weak. I also thought about how at the beginning of the school year, students would be overboiling with enthusiasm and ambition, ready to begin their new life as graduate students, while I was withdrawing and going in the opposite direction. If people thought I was strange and didn’t understand me, would I still be able to stand firm in my position when questioned by others? I prayed to God, “Oh God, I haven’t been mocked like this before and feel quite weak. Oh God, please give me faith and allow me to be confident and brave through all of this, so that I can stand firm in my beliefs.” Later on, I looked for words of God related to my current state and happened upon a hymn of God’s word called “What the Young Must Pursue.” This hymn had a deep impact on me.

Young people should not be without aspirations, should not be without the resolve to exercise discernment in issues and to seek justice and the truth. …

1  Eyes that are full of deceit and prejudice toward others are not things that young people should have, and young people should not carry out destructive, abominable acts. They should not be without aspirations, drive, and an enthusiastic desire to better themselves; they should not be disheartened about their prospects, and nor should they lose hope in life or confidence in the future; they should have the perseverance to continue along the way of truth that they have now chosen—to realize their wish to expend their entire lives for Me.

2  They should not be without the truth, nor should they harbor hypocrisy and unrighteousness—they should stand firm in the proper stance. They should not just drift along, but should have the spirit to dare to make sacrifices and to struggle for justice and truth. Young people should have the bravery to not succumb to oppression by the forces of darkness and to transform the significance of their existence. Young people should not resign themselves to adversity, but should be open and frank, with a spirit of forgiveness for their brothers and sisters.

3  Young people should not be without the resolve to exercise discernment in issues and to seek justice and the truth. You should pursue all things beautiful and good, and you should obtain the reality of all positive things. You should be responsible toward your life, and you must not take it lightly.

—The Word, Vol. 1. The Appearance and Work of God. Words for the Young and the Old

Listening to God’s words, I felt like God was motivating me face to face: Do not drift along with the prevailing trends. You have recognized that following God is the right path of light, so you should resolutely follow this path. I also realized that it was with God’s amazing grace that I was able to accept God’s work and read the truth He expresses! Everything that comes from God is positive, while everything that people pursue in the secular world is negative. If I worried that others would not understand and support me and followed worldly trends to protect myself, wouldn’t I just be wallowing in the mire with those of the secular world? With the guidance of God’s words, I had the faith and bravery to hold strong to my convictions and withdrew from school.

Reflecting on my path, I recognized that it was the guidance of God’s words that allowed me to see Satan’s treacherous motives in using fame and gain to harm people. What’s more, His words helped me break free from the dark abyss of the pursuit of fame and gain. I experienced the joy and peace that God’s words brought me, and understood the good intentions with which God saves mankind. I had to cherish this rare opportunity, do my best to equip myself with truth, spread the gospel, and bear witness to God to repay His love! After that, I began doing a newcomer watering duty. Without the fetters of academic studies and the constraints of worries over future prospects, I was able to devote myself fully to my duty, and I had more time to read God’s words, equip myself with truth, and learned and gained much more from my duty. Thanks be to God for His guidance and salvation!