Three years ago when I was asked by Forward in Christ to write about my Christian experience at Harvard College, I had just completed my first year there. Looking back at what I wrote, I see that I was generally optimistic about the openness of Harvard’s students to new ideas. When people—students or otherwise—genuinely believe that “anything goes,” then one’s beliefs may be received with respect but will never be valued as the truth.

The question of truth is central at Harvard, a fact echoed by the school’s motto: “Veritas,” the Latin word for truth. Yet here, in an academic institution with the largest academic library in the world, the longest institutional history in the United States, and the single wealthiest endowment of any university in the country, truth can be very hard to find.

Harvard is a place that echoes Pilate’s age-old question: “What is truth?” (John 18:38). To my ears, Pilate’s question is one of resignation in a world that had lost its way. In the same way that he washed his hands of Jesus’ fate, Pilate decided that defining truth was not for him. If one man standing before him claimed to have the answers, this did not change the fact that Pilate had heard similar claims from many men before Christ. Then as now, the world must have been full of people claiming that their way was the only way. Who was he to choose from among them?

Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Jesus spoke these words with a desire to comfort his disciples before his impending suffering and death. Just a few verses before this, he said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). As followers of Christ, we know that his words are true and that they bring comfort in this frightening, confusing, and often painful life. Without the certain knowledge of our salvation in Christ, imagine the anxiety we would feel!