After years of being told exactly what to do and how to live you’re on your own. You can do whatever you want, you are surrounded by hundreds or thousands of people who are in your exact same shoes. You now have the luxury and responsibility to manage every minute of your day and where you focus all your time. Suddenly you’re enthralled by everything going on around you: the sports, the drinking, academics, parties, drugs, women/men, and have no one to tell you what you should or shouldn’t do.
College is a beautiful place, but it is also a dangerous place. I’ve always thought that it is in college that some people discover who they are and some people lose who they are. It’s where you can find the confidence that you are exactly who God created you to become or where you completely lose your identity and try anything to gain one back. College is beautiful because it gives you the setting and freedom to completely take control of your life and become the person you want it to be. If you discover your true identity, in my opinion college is beautiful. However, if you fail to have or be secure in your identity you’re looking at an extremely dangerous place. You’re looking at a place where you could potentially be surrounded by hundreds or thousands of people who are lost. People who have no idea who they truly are or what they really want, need, or desire in life. You’re looking at a group of people who are trying to fill a void in their life with anything but Jesus. As they desperately seek out happiness and love in all the wrong places more than likely they will try to get you to join; after all misery does love company. If we’re not careful it is very easy for us all to get wrapped up in the flow and follow everything we don’t need chasing down a happiness that doesn’t exist. It all rests in your identity; who you are and where you get your self-worth.
Throughout college you will learn a lot of things, you will ask many hard questions, and you will be asked many hard questions. None of them more vital for your life than this: Where do you stand with Jesus?
If you know where you stand with Jesus, I firmly believe that you can rise above the adversity that is brought to you in college and stay secure in who you are without getting lost. If you don’t know where you stand with Jesus, I also believe that there is an extremely high chance college will be extremely difficult. It will be full of mirages of happiness and comfort that will only lead to regret later on in life.
So where do we stand with Jesus?
How do we respond to Him? Do we accept Him for who He is or are we hesitant to accept His love and His blood? Do we welcome and seek Him or do we neglect Him? Is our confidence in His Spirit or is it in ourselves? Do we understand the sacrifice that He laid down His life for us and more so than that do we even care? Are we trying to fix ourselves or are we allowing Him who heals all to heal our wounds as well? Do we understand that despite our mistakes, short-comings, and flaws that we are loved? Can we fathom the fact that no matter what we do that we will always be loved? Are we grateful for this grace or do we use it as a reason to continue to sin against the One who freed us? Where do we stand with Jesus?
It’s a tough question to answer. Like most questions the answers may seem easy and simple to skim over and recite the Sunday school answers from our youth, but I beg you think deeper. Reflect on this question and wrestle with it, it could be the question that saves your life. Not merely saving in terms of heaven or hell, but on earth too. Being secure in your identity in Christ can save you a world of heartache and let-down. It can mold the story of your life into a story that beautiful to tell instead of one masked with hurt and pain.
As you seek the Lord, He will provide. His love for us is undeserved, unfailing, and never-ending. While He is a loving God, He will also do whatever it takes for us to see Him for who He is though. If that means we get some scars to later remind us of His healing that’s what it takes. Everyone is painting a different picture of their life.
If I could redo my freshmen year of school and seek out this question I would. The scars inside me from the hurt of that year will forever be vivid in my life. I love who I am in Christ and seeing how God used the hurt in my life to bring me where I am is a gift in itself. However, I pray that you don’t have to feel that same hurt, loneliness, and self-hatred that I experienced. I pray that you can seek the answers to this question sooner, cause if this question goes unanswered college can be a dangerous ride. With it though, it can help you fully secure who you are in life with Christ, it can free you not enslave you.
The question remains then: Where do you stand with Jesus?
gsehlers 