A loud eruption of cheers and clapping welcomed Scott Key to the stage at John Brown University’s homecoming chapel on Friday, Oct. 1. The speaker began his address with an anecdote about his disc golf career while attending JBU, a place he holds dearly. “The older I’ve gotten, the more special JBU has become.”
Key continued with a brief history of his education in construction management. He recalled his anxiety toward the end of his undergraduate career: “My head was full of ideas, convictions, experiences and knowledge, and I didn’t know what it all led to.”
He went onto graduate school, boasting a degree in architecture from one of the top schools in the country, Rice University. Key mentioned their acceptance rate was .5% the year he applied. While there, he learned there were over 50 million refugees in the world and felt called by his “kingdom imagination,” which he explains as, “where you can be fully consumed by something redemptive and good. God is speaking to you and igniting something within you that He wrote on your heart …” Key loved what he did, but he craved to use his skills to serve the Kingdom.
Key also recounted how a mission trip to Nigeria immediately following his senior year of high school impacted the course of his life. “Sometimes stepping out of what’s familiar for you gives you eyes to see the brokenness of creation in a new way.”
The utter desperation and absolute hurt the young Key experienced left him with confusion, anger and doubts toward the Church, which he recalled apologetically. He warned the audience of the likelihood of similar experiences, especially when confronted with such extreme sin and darkness. “I believe God is speaking to that sense of injustice He wrote into your heart in moments where you know — you just know — this isn’t how things were meant to be.”
After these experiences, he and a group of fellow graduate students became obsessed with finding a solution for these families, who were essentially camping for an average of 27 years. This led to the opportunity to work with IKEA and receive grant funding for their floor designs. In postgraduate school, Key and his colleagues continued chasing this dream, all the way to another grant — this one awarded only to one in every 3,700 applicants. Key shared what he felt as he received the grant. “In a moment that felt like divine multiplication, $500 turned into over 200,000.” This allowed them to produce and provide flooring to families in Lebanon throughout the next few years.
Despite many other ups and downs throughout the years, Key and his peers eventually funded an organization called Every Shelter. They work tirelessly to provide sustainable housing options and jobs for refugees all over the world. Their work has been vital in changing the lives of countless refugees.
But Key was willing to be completely transparent. Up until that point, the speaker admitted he had sported a very “egotistical attitude” in terms of his accomplishments, a sort of “you’re welcome, God” mindset. For this reason, the Lord caused him to find out that his past successes, including his admission to Rice and winning the initial grant, were based on chance circumstances rather than Key’s own skills and talents.
In the end, Key summed up his lesson and life story simply. “I listened, I followed, I did the work … but God made it clear that the outcomes were His.”
He shared the beginning of Psalm 127 as verses that he lives by, especially poignant in the life of an architect. “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.”
“I must admit I’m still coming to an understanding of it,” Key said of the verse, “that balance of this work that we have to do while we’re here on earth and the need to include God and for us to rely on and trust in Him.”