Seed Spring 2026

Vol . 22, No . 1 // S p r ing 20 26

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Doing what I need

even when I don’t

need obedience

disciple tired alignment practice

d i sc i p l ine misunderstood patience endurance

sacrifice

consistency punishment

dedication

strong-minded

work

ouch

sweat

hustle-culture early-riser

For your own good This publication is published by New York University students and NYU is not responsible for its contents.

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want to

training character mercy

necessary rigidity

difficulty

structure suffering

daughterhood sonship

growth

Trying to be like Jesus

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR Sam Lee

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n honor of this semester’s theme, “Grace, Love, and Discipline,” we asked Seed members what the word Discipline evokes. Their responses revealed an internal tension.

To be pushed forward: Growth, Dedication, Endurance, and Practice.

To be pressed down: Rigidity, Punishment, Difficulty, and Sacrifice.

But as we discussed the theme over the semester, one thing became clear: Discipline provides a necessary structure for growth and consistency in our walks of faith. Spiritual discipline is not about earning love or forcing change but learning to live in a relationship with God. In this issue, we pondered the role of discipline in our lives and our constantly evolving attitudes toward it. We invite you to do the same. Enjoy.

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CONTENTS

GRACE Zoe Leung

DRIVE Rebekah Shin

12 A DISCIPLINE OF HUMILITY Yvette Shin

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A SOUL’S QUANDARY Anonymous Contributor A thoughtful narrative about the things that pull us to and from God.

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VERITAS FORUM SPRING 2026 Yvette Shin Concern over the rapid growth of AI has many of us asking, “Am I in control of my life?”

GELATO JESUS Daniel Choi

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A RELUCTANT GOODBYE Elaine Tsui, Yvette Shin

THRESHOLD Anonymous Contributor

Seed members bid farewell to its beloved co-founder and sister in Christ, Becky Song Lee.

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Grace Zoe Leung

creates the foundation on which you rest. tames your fiery temper. carries the breeze on a blazing afternoon, squeezes warmth through a granny-square blanket gifted by your grandmother.

Grace is the clap of relief when you glimpse the corner of a sheet of paper: don’t forget to bring snacks to johnsons on sat!

Grace speaks sometimes in the low whisper, sometimes in the great and strong wind that tears mountains apart, for grace is greater than those broken pieces of rock.

Grace gives 1) tranquil mornings, 2) mourning that soothes your sorrow, 3) hope for tomorrow, and 4) tomorrows in general.

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When you’re bundled up in a sweater that was 70% off and cinches and bunches in all the right places, grace found you that steal.

When rain bows and makes her proud exit to allow the rainbow to take the spotlight on the great sky-stage, well, that’s grace.

From grace, which is all-sufficient, stems life itself!

If grace held you any less closely, if it clutched you any less tightly … but it does not.

By grace you were molded into a masterpiece, and grace will lead you home.

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A Soul’s Quandary Anonymous Contributor

T

he first glimpse of light in a dark tunnel causes separation in the soul. There is a comfort in the familiar darkness, but the

light irresistibly offers something more.

Taking a leap of faith, the soul creeps towards the distant pinhole of unwavering white. It pursues the light, ignoring the echoes of its stygian past. As it nears, the light grows ever so slightly warm, and the soul grows ever so slightly more confident. Though its pursuit was founded on curiosity, the palpable warmth now gives it strength to approach closer. The creep grows into a crawl, the crawl grows into a stumble, and the stumble into a walk. With growing anticipation, the soul dances toward the light. It barrels down the tunnel with joyous laughter. Bathed in warmth, the soul blossoms in communion with the light, surrendering to a need long felt but never satisfied.

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Yet the now-distant darkness begins to call out to the soul, making promises it cannot keep. It tempts the soul with the cool glow from the stones that line the tunnel wall. Why not be your own light?

The soul forgets instantly the light’s embrace and remembers only what it lacks: the solitude and complacency of the darkness. A homeward bound soul is tempted away by what it never missed and turns back to the dark in arrogant defiance. Blinded by hubris, it trusts in the rough stone that lines the tunnel walls, retreading familiar paths until it is inevitably engulfed in darkness. It can no longer see Him who shines so intensely at the end of the tunnel, beckoning the soul to try again.

Even as the soul abandoned the light, the light patiently straightened and illuminated the path of return. How can you be so quick to forget all that we had? I asked the soul in desperate frustration. A soft reply, I trusted the stone.

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y Life?

Am I i

M

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ntrol of o C

Veritas Forum Spring 2026 Yvette Shin

W

hat were a philosopher, a data scientist, and a concert pianist talking about on a random Thursday night on the tenth floor of Kimmel? Why, AI of course! On April 9, Professors Meghan Sullivan (Notre Dame) and Pascal Wallisch (NYU) discussed the existential challenges that artificial intelligence poses. Mia Chung, Executive Director of the Octet Collaborative at MIT, moderated the panel.

Perhaps the biggest question of the night was, “Is AI good or bad?”

The answer, unsurprisingly, had less to do with the technology itself and more to do with its creators and users. We need to cultivate not just “good” AI but “good” human beings. The real concern is how flawed humanity can shepherd AI to act ethically.

Despite the bleak outlook, there is hope. While AI can accomplish many things, it cannot provide what human beings truly need, things such as love, empathy, and meaning. For these, we look to one another and to our Creator who is, ultimately, the One in control of our lives.

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D R I V E Rebekah Shin

Pace, they sing wandering with high spirits to go at your own pace, you must

Run, I say it must be easier

Drive, she says

to run

but I don’t want to

but what if I have to

drive but I don’t know how to

Navigate, as well hard to know, harder to

Steady myself

be lost

as the path takes me downhill

I would like to wander too

lower, lower but I don’t want to

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continued

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THRES Anonymous Contributor

Discipline, the shapings of the vessel.

Discipleship, the presence inhabiting it.

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n solemnity I swore three oaths of abstinence, from careless profanity, alcohol, and narcotics. With these commitments, I hoped to keep myself upright during my walk of faith. But when the evenings soften and ease gently into the din of my undisciplined inner voices, I can only watch as smoke curls around the glass, slowly circling the rim, knowing its bounds and keeping them better than I do.

There is no pride, no joy, no love in discipline alone. There is only shame rising from the awareness of the inadequacy of who I am. Pruning the excess was incomplete without also being filled with godly presence. I realized then that without love for God, there was no love in serving God. My oaths were a burden, and worst of all, I mistook the absence of sin for the presence of God.

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SHOLD “Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.

No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

A disciplined man asks, “Where does my freedom end?”

But a disciple asks, “Lord, where are you going?”* Discipleship is not just the wineskin but also the presence of wine.

It is not enough to say “No” to the World; we must also say “Yes” to Christ. *John 13:36 NIV

Matthew 9:17 NIV

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A DISCIPLINE of Humility Yvette Shin

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F

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Restart

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Delete

E

Enter

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recent addition to my morning routine—after prayer, coffee, and checking my phone—has been The New York Times online game Letter Boxed in which players must string together words from a matrix of letters surrounding a square. Though the game allows players to use all the letters in four, five, or six words, I insist on doing it in two.

When the coffee is working particularly well, I can solve it right away. Most of the time, however, it is a day-long pursuit, wracking my brain to remember obscure vocabulary words from years of SAT prep. It’s not unusual for me to be on my phone just before midnight, desperately stringing words together before the game is refreshed with the next day’s puzzle. But on those days when I do crack it in two compact words, I feel confident that with time, any quandary is solvable.

Faith, on the other hand, seems to offer more questions than answers. When I turn to Scripture, I seek neat, straightforward responses to my incessant interrogation of the human condition.

Instead, the Bible interrogates me back and sends me down rabbit holes that force me to rethink my questions and examine my motives for asking.

continued

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This is not to say that I haven’t gleaned any answers at all. Christianity has shaped my values and given me a clear identity as a child of God. But there still exist areas of uncertainty in my faith—areas I once downplayed out of embarrassment, believing that, with time, I would receive the answers I was seeking. But decades later, many questions remain unanswered, and new ones have come to join them. The latest headlines make me ask, “Why are schools in Iran getting bombed?” A celebrity’s passing leads me to wonder, “Where exactly do we go when we die?”

And in regard to my mom, who suffered a severe stroke that left her paralyzed, I can’t help but question God in my heart, “Why her?”

There is a humility in believing in a God who knows all things but leaves room for mystery and wonder. Many Christians like to talk about faith as a certainty, but this is antithetical to what the substance of faith really is. The Bible tells us that faith is “confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see” (Hebrews 11:1 NIV). Uncertainty occupies the negative spaces in faith, making us cling to our convictions, but not too tightly, reminding us that what we believe still lies beyond the comfortable confines of irrefutable fact.

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“There is a humility in believing in a God who knows all things but leaves room for mystery and wonder.”

Faith is a discipline of humility. It is like a puzzle that I can sometimes solve but more often cannot.

What matters is that I keep at it, because the chief end of discipline is growth. It is what helps me to mature and evolve, to embrace nuance, and to find peace in any circumstance.

Solutions aren’t everything, something I should remember at 11:59 p.m. when I’m on my phone frantically entering words that don’t exist, about to fail yet again at Letter Boxed.

A Reluctant Goodbye Elaine Tsui and Yvette Shin

Co-founder of Seed, Becky Song Lee, with “Bible Dude,” Seed’s answer man and advice columnist.

Seed’s first NYU Club Fest, January 2005.

From left to right: Yvette Shin, Becky Song Lee, Olga Jacques, and Elaine Tsui.

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Seed club founders Elaine Tsui, Becky Song Lee, and Yvette Shin at the Sutro Baths in San Francisco, CA, April 2019.

Dearest Becky, Mere words cannot express the totality of who you were to us, but we’ll try anyway. You were …

An NYU student who became the teacher that everyone wanted.

A welcoming host who acted as an unofficial tour guide of NYC to both friends and strangers.

A joyful presence that could be felt by everyone inside a room because of your unapologetic, open-mouthed laughter.

A precious sister in Christ who listened to us for hours over potato chips and seltzer and always encouraged us to trust in God completely.

A prayer warrior who, among other things, asked God for the husband of her dreams and got him.

The best mom to two of the cutest kids in the world.

We see you in their big smiles and infectious energy.

A generous friend who spoiled us with gifts and meals on birthdays, special occasions, or “just because.”

A lover of cheese and hot sauce and bagels—and of food, in general.

Boy, it was fun eating with you!

The craziest driver of all time, hands down.

Being in the passenger seat next to you made us cry out to Jesus.

A co-founder of Seed Publication Club at NYU. So many have been blessed by your legacy.

A star that burned out much too quickly. Forty-two short years was not enough to enjoy the light that you radiated upon us.

Until we meet again in eternity, for eternity.

Love, Elaine & Yvette Becky Song Lee passed from this world on November 28, 2025, and is survived by her husband and two children.

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Gelato Jesus Daniel Choi

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Gelato is delicious, But too much is not nutritious.

Get it in a cup or a cone, Just remember, gluttony is a sin of its own.

One scoop, two scoop, it can be endless, One can indulge until the stomach is senseless.

You just need enough to bring you delight, Discipline yourself by pruning the excess, alright?

We have been blessed, With the spiritual discipline of rest.

Add some sweetness to your Sunday, Why not fellowship with a gelato sundae?

So get some gelato, But if you’re lactose, get some sorbetto.

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Check out https://issuu.com/seedatnyu for recent Seed issues and follow us on Instagram

Editor in Chief Sam Lee Editing, Layout, & Design Alyson Ferro Phan Abby Jong Mark Lee Zoe Leung Rebekah Shin Yvette Shin Contributors Daniel Choi Sam Lee Zoe Leung Rebekah Shin Yvette Shin Elaine Tsui Various Seed Members

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Hebrews 12:11 NIV 24