June 8, 2014 Thought

Staying Christian in College

CHAPTER 1

     A Christian is on his way to college, but what is he to expect? What kind of distractions, temptations, and trials will he face? For me, the biggest thing will be the aloneness that Budziszewski talks about in his book, How to Stay Christian in College. He makes it clear that you can feel the effects of being alone even if you have a friend at college already there or going with you because college changes people's interests and social groups. For me, there will be some people I know already there, but most are simply acquaintances, and the other is a friend who has been in my life most of my years on this Earth, but I've recently learned he doesn't plan on staying much longer than two semesters. 

     So what am I to do when the people I already have relationships with leave and I find myself surrounded by people I don't know so well? His answer is simple: find my brothers in Christ! If most of you don't know, I'm planning on becoming a youth minister of sorts, so finding fellowship with my brothers and sisters in Christ is inevitable. I've had a secret fear that I've kept from many people, and find embarrassing to reveal: I am afraid of being alone. Not the alone like that of solitary confinement. I mean the alone where you feel like you're invisible, unwanted, unaccepted, or abandoned, regardless of how many people are actually around you. The first lesson that Budziszewski introduces to us is that God made us social beings. His reasoning is because of how drastically we react to the social idea of peer pressure. Not all peer pressure is bad, though, he says. It depends on the type of pressure and type of peer that it comes from. All during high school, I tended to lean too close toward the peer pressure given by those who didn't have the right ideas. Not the wrong ideas, just not the right ones. 

     It is self-evident that a large percentage of Christians who enter college are pushed to worldly views and start to ignore God, their religion, and any faith they had ever had prior to higher education. But the Apostle Paul said, "Because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse." How can we doubt God exists if we see the proof around us every day--when we take a breath of air, or when we cover our eyes from the blinding light of the sun that, like clockwork, comes up and down every day at the same time depending on what season it is? In Romans 2:15, it says, "In that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them." God created in us the knowledge of a higher power, Himself. It is against our nature not to know that He is and has created this world. 

     My parents fear that I am going to act with the same amount of immaturity in college as I demonstrated in high school with the lack of a parent figure around to constantly nag me to get my work done or go to bed on time. I see college life as the beginning of my future because it is. If I ever hope to complete what I want to do in the future by opening up Narrow Way Coffee, I need to do what must be done to succeed in college and to live the life God wants of me so that my future will be as bright as I imagine it. I've gone through "culture shock" before when I went from home school to public school. This is no different, and I believe and think if I can find the group of people who will benefit my future the most in college, then I have little to nothing to fear of this new life. 

     Any thoughts? What are your views on this? If you're a Christian, how did you handle your first, second, and following years of college life? If you're a non-Christian, how'd you handle yours? Answer below, and I'll look at them and maybe discuss the ideas in my next post. Thank you.