Why I love college

God is seriously doing something amazing in the lives of college students. He is using powerful ministries, sororities, fraternities, coaches and teachers to bring the Gospel to students who are hurting...searching...and asking if God has a place for them at His table. I am convinced that college students are the most important group of individuals in our society. Why? Because they possess the power to literally change this world. That may sound radical... but it's true. In college you finally have the chance to make your own decisions, away from mom and dad, free to explore, search and question. In college you develop the skills and education needed to prepare you for the "real world" but more specifically to prepare you for how you will impact the world in which you live. Jesus calls us to the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). Simply, this is the task of telling others what God has done in our lives. These students are gaining knowledge both personally and professionally, and with knowledge comes the power to influence and reconcile the broken world we live in to a Holy and Righteous God.

This is the heart of why I love college so much. The more I spend time around them the more I gain a perspective back into my own college life (Don't worry, it was only 6 months ago) and how much I already miss it! Never again will I run across campus at 2 am or sit outside the library with sorority sisters eating fast food and laughing simply because we've been up too long. College was fun, but it was also challenging. The kind of challenge that pushes you forward, makes you the person you were supposed to be, even when you never thought you could ever get there. Looking back to my freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years I have nothing but gratitude for the people God allowed to influence my life. None of those relationships were a mistake. He placed me where I was so that He could call me closer to Him, lavishing His grace upon my broken and hurting heart at just the right time so that I too could be that agent of reconciliation in someone's life. College students are open to almost anything, open to questioning and engaging in conversations about big things. Deep things. Truths of this world that even the smartest of philosophers I'm sure could never figure out.

This is a video that I recently saw posted on Facebook by a fellow consultant. He posed the statement: "Think of how we could make a difference in their lives." Some of the stories of these students and the ones I've met through my travels have only confirmed why my heart burns so passionately for college students that I cannot imagine my life being spent any other way than investing in them. Questions like: What if students like these were given the hope that they have been searching for? How would their lives change if they were given hope of the abundant life that can only be found in Christ? What if they were then equipped with the tools to share their faith with others around the world? In their work place -- an accounting firm, music industry, church, with their family, or even overseas? How would these students influence the world in which they live? They would be agents of reconciliation. They would bring the love and hope that Christ gave them to others who are broken and hurting. Like I told my friend once last semester when he asked me why I felt so passionate about ministry with college students: It's about telling that one person, who may move to Indiana, who tells one more person, who then may move to Italy, where they share Christ with a lost student in Rome, who then goes on to bring the Gospel to the whole city. It's about leaving something that far outlasts your time in college, something that will still be talked about long after you're gone. I believe college is where it all starts. Where young people are figuring out just who they really are, and then being thrust out into the world with a purpose to make a difference in whatever way they can. My prayer is that their purpose would be to follow the will of God in whichever direction His Spirit leads, and to follow His will during their time in college, and for a lifetime.