I want to talk about an issue that a majority of college students face. This is the issue of “believing in God”. One thing I have learned in my four years as student is that the cool thing to do, the thing that most students want to be “guilty” of is believing in God. In general if you don’t believe in God, you are seen by society as a unacceptable. But, if you choose to believe in God and live your life for him, you are looked at completely different by the majority of those “believers”.
First, what are some of the ways that people show they believe in Christ? I bet if you look at your Facebook about 90-95% of your friends will have that they are christians as their religious views, but only about 50% of them will actually know what this means and only about a quarter of them actually live their lives as true christians. Another way people show that they are believers is by tattoos. I can’t tell you how many people I have seen that have a cross or a bible verse tattooed on their body. When most of these people don’t even know the true meaning of the cross. Now, I,m not saying tattoos of either of these are bad. Im just asking what is your purpose for putting this on your body if you don’t even know the true meaning of the cross. I must confess that this is exactly how I was. When I got my first tattoo I didn’t want to get a cross because I knew I wasn’t the most “religious” person out there, and I didn’t want to be seen as a hypocrite. Instead, I went with a celtic trinity symbol that was less popular and much more complex with meaning. Looking back on my decision I can’t help but to laugh,not only was I a hypocrite but the fact that I got something on my body that symbolically is far more complex than that of the cross makes me a perfect example of a “christian”. The trinity for those of you that do not know is a symbol of God the father, God the son, and God the holy spirit and will never be completely understood by ANY christian. Now I don’t necessarily think that it’s bad that so many people have a tattoo that relates to Jesus because even though people may not be true believers it still raises the awareness and discussion of him. Unfortunately, many of the times that these symbols are seen on people, they are seen doing things that a true believer shouldn’t. For example I can’t tell you how many times i’ve seen a cross or a verse on someone who is out at sterling pool (a pool located at one of UNI’s apartment complexes) getting completely wasted. Once again, I know this because I used to be that person. I thought that having a God related tattoo on my body showed everyone that I was a christian, but my actions showed everyone that all I wanted to do was be social and see if I could out drink the person next to me. I also understand that nobody is perfect and that even believers still go out and make bad decisions. The process of growing in your faith and making steps to become Christ like is a long and extremely challenging process. I still have desires at times to go out with my friends like I used to. If people weren’t faced with desires that they know aren’t the best for them or others then there would be no point for the cross.
Now that I have discussed the exploitation of God, I want to talk about the challenges that I and many other young believers face. One challenge that I have been struggling with is transitioning from my “old life” of blindness to a life of salvation, while maintaining old friendships. I have been an extrovert my entire life which in return means I have made lots of friends along the way. Many of my friends have been there for me through thick and thin, they would do anything for me as would I. Unfortunately most of my friends aren’t believers and I rarely get to see them because of my hectic life of basketball and classes. The few times I get a chance to be with them, they are only doing one thing, drinking. If I or any of them have free time it usually comes on the weekends, and what else do college students do on the weekend other than drink and go out, right? Because of these circumstances I have had to sacrifice time spent with them and in return I have lost a lot of the bonds with them. It has come to the point where I wonder, what happens when I get married, will any of my friends want to be my groomsmen? Will all these years of turning down invites to hang out make my friends make them think that I’m doing it because I believe I’m too good for them? I don’t despise or look at any of them in a negative way, but because of my beliefs I don’t feel right putting myself in those situations all the time. For a long time I struggled with this and I felt like I was alone. My girlfriend had grown up a believer and therefore she was able to filter through people and find ones that influenced her faith in a positive way. What was I supposed to do? Who could I vent this too? My girlfriend is one of the most influential people in my life and provides a great voice of reason to help me sort all of my problems, but like I said she grew up differently and has been an introvert her whole life so she doesn’t have the same need for friends in her life that I do. I was feeling so lost and alone, I kept praying that God would help me discover where to go from here. Then my prayers were answered. I was in church one Sunday and pastor Fuller was giving a sermon on aloneness. He began by telling us the story of how he was saved. How in college he played football and struggled with drinking and many of the same habits that I have struggled with. He had this empty void in his soul that he knew he needed filling, and finally he was saved. From that point on he began to lose the friends that were close to him. His roommate noticed this change and began to feel uncomfortable around him. So, here he is put in a position where he fills an empty space in his soul, but now he is losing all his friends, all of his support. This continued until one day he was walking back from the library and just cried out to God and said “You never told me that when I surrendered myself to you that I would lose all my friends and be all alone.” He then heard clear as he can hear you or me God tell him “I Am Enough”. This hit me like a brick wall. If I surrender myself to Christ and trust in him with all the decisions I make, then I will have the strength to know I can make the hard step of faith and he will guide me and protect me in the process. Hearing pastor Fuller tell me that he had made the same decisions that I had and was just as alone as me at one point in his life gave me a huge sense of relief. I knew this was a sign from God that I was on the right path. I know now that it wont be an easy process, and that I will still fail but I am able to face these problems with a new sense of direction. I know that if my friends are truly my friends they will see that the changes I’m making are the best decisions for me and they will be there for me in the end.
For those of you that are struggling with many of the same problems that I am or have a tough time dealing with stereotype that it is unacceptable to be a follower of Christ in college, you are not in the wrong. God is on your side and is placing these challenges in your life for a reason. Each time you are faced with a situation where temptation or the feeling of being unaccepted is in front of you and you make the decision to do it God’s way, he sees this step in faith and will bless your obedience. GOD IS ENOUGH!
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