Greetings from Sarah!
I have a new book project that I’m working on – and frankly, I’m quite excited about it! It’s for high school seniors getting ready to head off to college. What a great time of life! Exciting. And maybe a little terrifying, too.
So because of the project, I have graduation on the brain. It’s still a few months off, but I bet a lot of you seniors already have a raging case of senioritis. (Yes, I’m pretty sure it’s a real disease.) The thing is, life is full of major changes, and high school graduation is a pretty big one. Now since it’s February, I imagine some of you already know where you’re going to school. Maybe some are waiting to head off to college. Maybe some of you aren’t going – either by choice, or because of finances. Going to college was a directive in my house – not going was never an option. I’m thankful that I was able to go away to school. Of course, when I left home in August and moved into a dorm room with two total strangers, I didn’t know then how drastically my life was going to change.
I was not a Christian when I graduated high school, in fact, I was a practicing witch. Yes, you read that right:-) I had no intention of looking for God at college and yet God burst into my life and changed everything.
But while I found Jesus in college, I watched others fall away. People who I looked up to my freshmen year had grown distant and cold about God by the time they were seniors. I couldn’t figure it out. Why would they abandon their faith? The Apostle Paul describes walking with God as a “race” – read Hebrews 12:-) Well, I’ve never run in a real race, but I know it’s not something you accidentally fall into. Joining the faith journey is a choice we make, but once we’re in the race, we become a “runner”. Runners train, and plan and enter the races in front of them. And then once they’re there, they don’t decide to window shop or go get a coffee while they’re running. No. They stay the course.
So just like a runner chooses a race, and then trains and plans for it – you can do the same thing with college. How will you keep your faith walk while you’re there? Whole books have been written on this subject – and there’s a reason for it. You can’t go in unaware. The walk with God – well, it’s just too precious, too valuable, to take lightly.
The first question is this. What do you really believe? Not what your parents or your friends or your family or anyone else – but you – what do you really believe? What does your faith look like when you are all alone?
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We’ll continue the “your faith plan” series each Thursday.
