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Last Wednesday, I had an opportunity to take my kid to do a college visit. We attended a guided campus tour and then we sat through an information session. Both sessions were crowded due to Spring break for many high schoolers. The guide was a junior student and he talked a lot about how good the college is; and what kind of uncommon freedom or unique opportunities that they have above-and-beyond other colleges. It is always enlightening to listen to personal life experiences, though in this case, there is a slice of suspicion of “sales pitch” being mixed.

How to choose a right college that is suit for a high schooler is usually very challenging to both parents and students, I believe. It is a long and arduous process and it has to start early. In the end, however, its result may not be always what was desired. For my family, we went through the process for our first one and now it is our second one. Still, even with our prior experience, we are struggling in finding a match for our second one. Talking about parenthood, sigh…. 🙁

The difficulty in finding a “right match” is owing to its daunting nature – how to match desire from each individual with selection criteria from colleges. Sometimes the process is more or less like finding a spouse that is a match to you. Interesting thing is you can change school but less likely you would change your spouse 🙂

Is there such a thing called “universal solution”? For example, can a college satisfy everyone’s desire? Probably not! Otherwise, we don’t need to have so many colleges with so much diversity. How about a universal tool? Is there a tool that could fulfill everyone’s need? Again, I don’t think so either. At least I haven’t seen it, as of today. The trouble is this has been an idealistic goal for many companies in industry, including my company. At the end of the day, I think it is not the tool that is important, it is “employees’ knowledge and experience” that is more important. Since we are talking about people, let’s look at another aspect. Is there a universal solution to humankind’s problems, such as “the need to be loved”, “The need to feel significant or appreciative”, “how to live a meaningful life”, “how to relieve burdens of sins and guilt”, “how to relieve bitterness”, “how to free from fear of death”, etc.? Yes! This time I am positively sure that we have a universal solution to humankind’s problems – it is our Lord Jesus Christ!

My dear brothers and sisters, at this Easter Sunday, we are joyous but let us remember what our Lord has done for us – He gave us eternal life; He loved us and delivered us from the bondages of sins and guilt. As He is the universal solution to all our problems, can we love Him with all our soul, our mind and our strength?  He told us that “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.人子來，為要尋找、拯救失喪的人。(Luke 19:10)” Do we have compassion for “others” as our Lord did? Because “He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 愛惜自己生命的、就失喪生命．在這世上恨惡自己生命的、就要保守生命到永生”。(John 12:25)”