With my conception of college horribly twisted by the media, I prepared my convictions like a soldier preparing for war. My innocent mind thought, This is what the armor of God in Ephesians 6 is for! Somehow the apostle Paul knew that believers would take part in the mixing bowl of beliefs we call higher learning. All you’ve got to do is walk like the Bible is your flashlight in a dark room.
But what I stepped into at James Madison University was far from darkness. In fact, it was a Christian goldmine. My college is home to numerous ministries, including one of the largest InterVarsity chapters in the nation. And my time spent being a part of InterVarsity there helped me see faith for what it truly is: transformative.
In fact, a year-and-a-half after I first stepped fearfully onto campus I found myself on a stage facing the body of Christ. My heart was banging against my rib cage, and I was trying to pace my lungs with slow breaths in and out. There I was, leading a movement of believers in a campus-wide worship event. By the grace of God, I was helping change my campus. But how did I muster up enough courage to get to that point? What happened to the timid freshman I had been not long before that?
What Faith Can Do
There is a pervasive mindset in our culture that seems to have been passed down from older generations. It’s the idea that the college setting is the greatest adversary to our faith. In believing this, we enter into college drawing lines and boundaries. We define our faith and ourselves by what we won’t do. This was me as a freshman: the guy who won’t drink, party, smoke, etc., etc.
But what I came to find in my four years of college is that a Christianity that sees itself by what it won’t do doesn’t usually move beyond that to see what it is capable of doing.
It’s so easy for us to enter college with a list of don’ts. What takes true courage is entering college with vision, and then acting on that vision. If you’re anything like me, though, college had to cultivate that vision in my heart. It took being part of a giant InterVarsity chapter to open my eyes to the body of Christ. It took a willing church, a committed small group, and a group of friends to change my heart to see that Christianity is more about what you do rather than what you don’t do.
As you prepare to head off to college, you might still be stuck in the passive faith I was so susceptible to as a freshman. A passive faith forces us into the box of “If I do X and Y, then maybe I’ll get by being a Christian in college.” But an active faith opens us to the big picture: that a loving God desires for us to be his agents of change in a broken, sinful world. Our time at college should be a glimpse of the change we want to impress upon the world.
Faith That’s for Your College
So let me ask you this: What would happen if you entered college with the idea of faith being for your college culture rather than against it? After all, our faith isn’t only about changing us. It’s also about changing the world around us.
You see, Christianity in college isn’t just some mold you fit into. It isn’t a set of calculations which, if done correctly, allows you to walk out on the other side unscathed. Rather, it is a movement you are swept up into. It is an irresistible current constantly grasping at every awe-inspiring breath of your lungs.
Of course, sometimes, when you do live out your faith this way, you will walk out with bruises. But they are bruises that give evidence to a faith willing to make bold moves in the name of the Lord.
So for all of you preparing to enter college (and even those of you non-freshmen): let your college experience impress upon your heart a faith that is able to transform culture. Because that is what it takes to change the world: a generation of people willing to fervently act on a truth bigger than themselves. Let college be your first step in changing the world.
Neal Samudre is a writer and future pastor. He is pursuing his Masters in Divinity degree at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary as well as working on his debut book, which will be published in April 2014. Follow him on Twitter to see more of his writings.
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