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When I started college, I couldn’t have named a single Black gospel singer. I was a classical music major with a narrow range of taste, and thought I already knew everything about what “good music” was.

God’s wrath is troubling. God seems to choose some people … and not others. He gracefully invites and intensely disciplines. The God of the Bible—our Father—is accessible … and terrifying. Ten years ago this month, I became a father. 

Remember your commitment to keep growing in faith over the summer? InterVarsity Press happens to have some great new resources to help you do just that: the LifeGuide in Depth Series.

If your life is like mine was, summer means leaving the support of your InterVarsity fellowship and church and living in the spiritual desert of your home environment. Without even a strong church tie at home, I spent my first two summers caught in a harmful cycle of sin, guilt, and little spiritual growth.

At the end of every spring semester, college students across the nation gather for weeklong InterVarsity training conferences called Chapter Focus Weeks.  And this year at my area’s chapter camp, I had the honor of team-teaching the second half of the book of Mark. For thirty hours during the week, thirty-two students and my coleader and I joined Jesus and his disciples in the struggle to understand the nature of discipleship and follow Jesus to his cross.

I’ve enjoyed life in college. A lot. I don’t think I’m alone in that. So when I got to the Blue Ridge Region’s chapter camp recently and entered a track called “Life After College,” I knew God was about to make me pretty uncomfortable.

If you are a student in an InterVarsity chapter, there’s a very good chance that the transition from freshman to sophomore year will be hard for you.

In one year, I married off seven friends, left the neighborhood I’d inhabited since my first year of college, moved into a new house with two people who were never home, and lost my mentor when his wife took a job 500 miles away.

How do I get a job? That’s what you want to know, right? And not just any job, but a “real” job! (If you’re like me, you never want to work retail another day of your life.)