I do not want you to experience what too many church kids have experienced. Many adults will have their deepest regrets in regard to the choices they make from age 18 to 26. These years are the crossroads of life. You decide many things during these years – will I continue to worship God outside my parents’ influence? Will I still gather with God’s people in worship on the Lord’s day? Am I going to work hard to earn a living? Am I going to be generous with what I have? With whom will I choose to spend my life?
Sadly, many have walked away from the faith during these critical years, never to return. My desire and prayer is that this will not be your story.
Whether you go to school in the bubble of a Christian college or a secular university; whether you are headed into the workplace or taking a gap year – the danger remains the same.
I want to give you three words that will help you handle your newfound freedom and maximize it for your spiritual growth.
PURPOSE
Purpose is word number one. Too many students transitioning from high school to college lack purpose. They don’t know the why behind what they’re doing. They don’t even know why they’re going to school except that it’s expected. Most don’t know why they’re here on the planet.If you waste your days, you waste your life
It is sad to see these college years lived with such a lack of purpose. If you don’t understand your purpose in these pivotal years, you will waste an extraordinary portion of your life that could have been maximized for your future self and for the glory of God.
If you wrote yourself a letter 20 years from now, I’m confident that you would tell yourself to live these years with purpose, to be mindful of the tremendous opportunities and freedoms at your fingertips, and to use these in a way that would bring God the most glory and your soul the deepest growth.
Paul, in
Ephesians 5:15-16, writes, Be careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.
This verse first tells you to be mindful of how you walk.
This is one of the most abundant metaphors in the New Testament – walking. It’s just one foot in front of the other. The Christian life is about getting up each day in order to be obedient to Jesus.
The Christian life is not ordinarily filled with the exhilarating sweeps and swoops of a rollercoaster, nor daily do we experience the majestic peaks and dark valleys of the Himalayas. Instead, the majority of the Christian life is spent walking – one foot in front of the other. It requires consistency, balance, and care as you find your footing."
Then the author defines the Christian walk as it relates to time. "In these transitional years, you have the opportunity to harness the time to benefit your soul. Time is ticking; the clock is turning. Another day has passed, and with it, a myriad of opportunities that, when judgment day comes, you will wish you would have seized.
The author tells you to redeem the time. But you likely do not think of an hour as something to redeem. The word redeem comes from slavery. Slavery was far different in the ancient world than the evils with which we relate the term. Slavery was a condition that people could be bought out of – or redeemed from.
Redemption is an intriguing word to use in reference to time. It’s as if to say you could buy back time. The word for time used is one that refers to periods of time – epochs, ages, stages, or moments. It refers to longer sections of time; not so much measurable units as periods of life.
However, do not make too much of the distinction between stages of time and minutes of time, because stages are made of minutes. Seconds become minutes and minutes become hours and hours become weeks and weeks months and months years and years decades and decades lifetimes. If you waste your days, you waste your life.
This does not mean that you must nail down every detail of your future life. The Bible warns against this kind of thinking. But a wise man plans. In Proverbs, the wise man plans how he will sow seed and harvest it to yield a profit. Planning is deeply biblical.
This can be done in simple ways – like not changing your major 700 times; like finishing the classes you start; like learning to be responsible with the small amounts of money you have. All these habits you train yourself in today will later pay dividends.
None of this is flashy. But before you can be the next Hudson Taylor, you must understand that Hudson Taylor had his act together. And that’s what I’m pleading with you to do.
I’m telling you the truth. I’m telling you what I believe you would tell yourself decades from now: to use these years better than you would have.
PROGRESS
Too many young Christians don’t make enough of the word progress.
