So maybe you grew up in the church and choosing the perfect college was a long process that was entirely dependent on finding the best college ministry. Maybe you didn't even know who Jesus was before you stepped foot on campus freshman year. Maybe you chose your college to play a sport and now that's the least important thing in your life or maybe God used you to show His light to that team. However you got where you are now, you are proud to say that you are discovering your faith more and more each day and are so glad that God brought you to this community.
If you're anything like me, you showed up to college for reasons completely unrelated to ministry. Yeah, God was cool, you believed in Him but you didn't know a ton and you certainly didn't act like a follower of Christ. Somehow when you got to college, you stumbled into the arms of your campus ministry-- maybe through one of the crazy Welcome Week events, maybe a friend dragged you along, maybe some upperclassman invited you, or maybe you just accidentally walked into the wrong building trying to find your way campus. For me, I saw something different and wanted to be a part of it. These people had something that I wanted and I knew that the only way to get it was to throw myself into their world. So that's exactly what I did.
The day I threw myself into the intimidating circle of people that had long-lived friendships, endless knowledge, and pure devotion to God and demanded that they let me be a part of it was the day that God grabbed ahold of me and ran. In just four short months, my thoughts about God transformed entirely, I learned and absorbed new knowledge with each and every day. For other friends, they had come from awesome, God-centered families but this was the place where God showed them who He was for the first time. Students found Christ, got to know Him, learned to understand Him, grew in their faith and made it their own.
My friends and I, we are what you would call the good, Christian college students. But let me tell you, I am discovering that this is a dangerous place to be. Being the good, Christian kids sets us apart in a way that can glorify God and lead other adults to wonder why we don't cave to the usual pressures on our age group or why we are seemingly happier than most. This is an awesome opportunity to share our love of Jesus and spread His truths among our campus.
However--
Being the good, Christian kids presents the danger of becoming content. We are doing well. We go to church every week and dig beyond the surface. We go to our ministry's worship nights and shout our praises to God. We read our bibles and go to life groups. We know all of the latest worship music and go to the concerts with our Christian friends. We don't run with the wrong crowd, we stay away from the parties. We pray before all of our meals and quote scripture to our friends in times of doubt. We wear Jesus shirts and talk about the awesome things God is doing in our lives. We are good, Christian college students--heck, we are GREAT Christian college students.
But my question to you folks-- is this enough?
In Ephesians chapter 3, there is a prayer that Paul writes to the church. He prays for them, that Christ may well in their hearts (v17). In studying this chapter, I was so convicted by realizing that I should continually be preparing my heart to welcome Christ. My faith goes beyond the concerts I go to and the bible studies I lead. There is a fellowship that Christ longs to have with me and if my heart is not in a state proper enough for Him to dwell, I am letting Him down and losing out on the opportunity to grow closer to Christ.
We should invite Christ to dwell in our hearts like it's a home. But in order for Him to stay there, there are rooms and closets and attics that have to be cleaned out. We have to relinquish control to Him and allow Him to remodel the rooms in our heart, take down the pictures on the walls, throw away the magazines that shouldn't be there. There may be things locked in the hall closet that we don't even go near because we don't want to deal with that. These are the pieces of ourselves that we must give to God so that He may purify our hearts and dwell within us.
The image of Christ sitting in a rocking chair next to the fireplace in the living room of my home, just waiting for me, waiting to with me and spend time with Him--it's a picture that I have no been able to get out of my head.
So to the good, Christian college students, I challenge you to continue doing what you're doing, spread the love of Jesus among your campus and sing word-for-word every Hillsong and for KING and COUNTRY song that blasts on your radio. But I implore you to fight the feeling of being content. Ask God to clean out the rooms in your heart that hold all of your junk. Ask Him to remodel and make Himself at home so that with each day you may find Him there and spend time growing closer in fellowship with Him.
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3:16-19
May your never be satisfied with your relationship with Jesus but continually ask that He bring you closer to Him.
