It began with a seemingly polite question from my longtime doctor during my annual physical in December, 2023: “So how are things at Pepperdine?” Immediately, in the context of that moment, I knew it was much more than small talk. Over almost 20 years as my GP, we’ve rarely discussed faith — he a Jew, and I a Christian. Just a year earlier, he had told me with great pride that his daughter had been admitted to a highly-regarded public university in the Midwest.