If you had told me that one online class would unlock my mind, stretch my heart, deepen my faith, and permanently change the way I looked at the world, I probably would have smiled politely and checked the syllabus for how many discussion posts were due. But that is exactly what happened.

Hands down, the bestest online class I ever took was Christian Worldview while earning my B.A. in English Literature at Grand Canyon University. Yes, I know “bestest” is not exactly the polished word one expects from an English major. I also know that sometimes the technically incorrect word is the only one enthusiastic enough for the job.

Before that class, I understood that people held different beliefs. Of course I did. The world is full of religions, philosophies, traditions, customs, and ways of explaining why we are here. But knowing that as a fact is not the same as understanding it. Christian Worldview gave me the depth, and the mental room, to see those differences in a new light.

What struck me most was how much we share at the core. Across continents and centuries, people have asked the same enormous questions: Where did we come from? Why are we here? What makes a life good? What happens when we die? Is there a higher power watching over us? From small villages to the largest cities, human beings create stories, rituals, moral codes, and communities around those questions.

The names differ. The languages differ. Geography, foods, clothing, music, and customs differ. Yet again and again, there is a creation story, an understanding of the sacred, a sense that our choices matter, and a belief that life belongs to something larger than the self. Religions are not identical, and their differences deserve honest attention, but many carry familiar threads through the human story.

That realization made it harder for me to place people into neat little boxes labeled “us” and “them.” Too often, we speak about people in other countries as though they are alien, ignorant, or somehow empty of belief simply because their beliefs do not look like ours. We can move through the world as if our own worldview is the only one that exists, or the only one that matters. To me, that is not only sad; it is a terrible waste of an opportunity to understand one another.

I wish everyone could take a class like Christian Worldview… not so that everyone would arrive at the same conclusion, but so that more of us would learn to look beneath labels. Understanding another person’s worldview does not require abandoning your own. In my experience, it can do the opposite: it can make your faith more thoughtful, more grounded, and more compassionate.

That is what the class did for me. It deepened my faith because it challenged me to understand what I believed and why. It gave me a new level of respect for people whose answers differ from mine. It taught me that learning about the world is not a threat to belief; it is an invitation to see more clearly, listen more carefully, and love more fully.

So, Christian Worldview it was… and Christian Worldview it still is… the bestest online class I ever took. The class that unlocked my mind, my heart, and my soul. Not bad for a course I once opened from behind a laptop screen.