It's my final year, and I'm a bit gutted. Also - Antiques Roadshow.

There’s something deeply poetic about Antiques Roadshow. This person has been living with this clock, or whatever it is, right there next to them – maybe for their whole lives. Perhaps it was sitting in the living room, ticking away quietly. Perhaps it was up in the attic, out of sight and out of mind. It always seemed fairly unexceptional, slightly irrelevant. It was quaint, maybe, nothing more. And so every day they’ve wondered to and fro, getting on with their lives, never giving it much of a thought. It sits – quiet, unobtrusive, meek. But then a moment of thought – perhaps a friend who is interested in these things, perhaps something seen on the TV, perhaps just a flicker of curiosity – makes them ask, ‘I wonder, is it worth anything, that old thing?’ Perhaps it is – perhaps – perhaps it is worth far, far more than you had ever imagined...

I’m about half way through my final year of university. In a few months’ time I’ll be leaving Selwyn, leaving Cambridge, and leaving – if we’re being realistic – the majority of the people I’ve met and got to know and love over the last two and a half years. And to be honest, I’m quite gutted about that.

Not because I’m not looking forward to what happens next (and I certainly am looking forward to not being 4 and a half hours of train journey away from Rachael!) but because I feel like there are so many loose ends – so many people who I think are brilliant, and who I’ve started to care about, but I’ve just not been able to invest that much time in getting to know them better and talking with them about life, the universe and everything!

Paradoxically, one of the reasons that I haven’t had anywhere near as much time as I would have liked to just be with people in the last year is that I’ve been really involved with the Cambridge Christian Union – helping to support all the different little groups of Christians in colleges as they try to share the love of Jesus with the people around them, encouraging Christian freshers to get to know God better and let the joy of that overflow into their lives and relationships, and helping to organise and lead the whole group of us in Cambridge as together we try to introduce as many people as possible in this university to Jesus! I say this is paradoxical simply because I’ve been so busy with all the stuff we’re doing to support other people in sharing Jesus with those around them, that I’ve not been able to spend that much time doing it myself with the people around me, who I love!

I think it’s been worth it, and I’m so glad to have been part of the big family of the Christian Union this year, but now I’m feeling the cost of it. Next week is #nofilter week – where we are putting on events every day for the whole university to come, and consider life, and ourselves, and Jesus, without the filters of our preconceptions and assumptions. I’m really looking forward to it – I know both the people who we have got to come and speak and answer questions at the events, and they are brilliant, lovely, funny, and insightful and I think they will be really helpful for people to engage with. I’m even performing poetry and being interviewed on Wednesday and Friday evenings, so that’s especially exciting! But the build up to the week has made me think: how many people who I’ve met, and who I really care about, are also in final year, and might literally never have as good an opportunity as this again to consider Jesus without any of the political or ecclesiastical wrapping – just genuinely think about who this man was and what he really said? It’s made me ask myself, how many people know me, but we’ve not spent enough time together to have had a meaningful conversation about the reality that changes everything for me every day? How many people do I love who I’ve never even asked them what they think about this man who has set me freer than I thought was possible?

And the answer is, quite a lot. And I’m gutted about that, because honestly every day that goes past I realise more and more both how intellectually viable Christianity actually is, and how utterly beautiful it is. And over the last two and a bit years, I’ve also become more and more convinced that it’s not a kind of optional extra to life that’s nice for me, but might not be relevant for other people who are happy as they are – I really believe that Jesus is interested in every single person, and that all of us need him.

So I’m really praying that lots of third years will hear about this week of events, and that they’ll decide that actually, if it’s all a myth, then it’s just a free lunch, but if it turns out to actually be real, it would be the most important free lunch they’ve ever eaten! If you’re reading this and you’re a final year as well, I’m really serious – give it a hearing. In my experience I’ve met lots of people where it turns out the God they don’t believe in, isn’t very much like the God that I know.

All the details are on the website – nofiltercambridge.com – and I’ll be going to basically everything, so either I’ll just see you there, or you can drop me a message and I’d love to go with you - whether we’ve been mates since freshers week or I’ve only met you once or twice!

Maybe they shouldn’t go on the show – maybe it’s worthless, and they are very busy. But then again, you never quite know, do you? Perhaps…