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The 5 Things A Christian College Student Should Never Do (Part 4)

Part 4 of 5: The Two Extremes

A life lived within the tension of what is called the both/and is…well, tense. In the Bible, Mark 12 gives us a great example of this played out when the Pharisees ask Jesus if they should pay taxes to Caesar or not (either/or). Jesus responds with, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” (Mark 12:17) Jesus was presented with an either/or question and responded with a both/and answer. Surprise, surprise, Jesus’ response was perfect.

I share this because it helps us see that people are often comfortable with distinct and definable absolutes. Yes or no. Take it or leave it. Good or bad. And when the moral pendulum is applied to this line of thinking, we can start to see why people choose to behave the way they do when it comes to living their lives. The reason being is that it’s simply easier to push toward the moral extremes of two ends because the rules make more sense on the edges.

I’ve seen this quite often in my years of campus ministry and working with college students. That being said, part 4 of The 5 Things a Christian College Student Should Never Do takes us to a place that is often uncomfortable for believers because finding the middle ground can be complex and challenging when we are pulled toward the edges. So here it is:

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The 5 Things A Christian College Student Should Never Do (Part 3)

Part 3 of 5: American Idols

We’ve all seen it before, I’m sure. Guy gets girlfriend, guy disappears to hang out with only his girlfriend, friends of guy get mad because guy disappeared, guy gets broken up with, guy wonders where all his friends are to help him through his rough time after the breakup, friends say, “You were the one who left, not us.” Or maybe his friends are nicer than that and they welcome him back into the fold. But you get my point.

There are far too many Christians who fall into the trap of believing that the boyfriend or girlfriend they have been blessed with is now the god they worship. Now, you might read that and think I’m being a bit dramatic, but I’ve seen this scenario played out over and over again with college students. That’s why part 3 of my blog series on The 5 Things a Christian College Student Should Never Do is simply this:

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The 5 Things A Christian College Student Should Never Do (Part 2)

Part 2 of 5: The Christian Bubble

Before we get started here with part two of five under what I’m calling The 5 Things a Christian College Student Should Never Do, don’t misunderstand me after simply reading the topic of this specific blogpost. Here it is:

2. Spend All of Your Free Time With Christians

Let me be clear—I’m not knocking Christians. I love Christians. I do. Christians have been responsible for nearly all of the wonderful things in my life, including my personal growth/development, my job, my best friends, and the community in which I serve through my church. Heck, I even married a Christian…that’s how much I like them. But loving Christians isn’t really what I’m talking about here.

What I am talking about is the common problem Christians in college often have of spending all of their time with other believers and neglecting any sort of relationship with anyone who believes differently than they do. It can happen so easily if we’re not careful.

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The 5 Things A Christian College Student Should Never Do (Part 1)

Part One of Five: Dating Choices

In the coming days, I’m going to deliver a five-part blog series I’ve entitled The 5 Things a Christian College Student Should Never Do. Now, I’m not referring specifically to college students who attend Christian universities (although, I’m not excluding them from this series), but college students in general who follow Christ, regardless of where they are enrolled.

I spent four years getting my degree from Virginia Tech, and this is really a series of blog posts written to myself…or maybe more accurately, what I wish someone would’ve succinctly communicated to me after I became a Christian during the second semester of my freshman year. No, I didn’t make all of the mistakes I mention in this series when I was a student, but if I didn’t, I saw a lot of my friends make them while they were in college, and it would have been nice to know how to give some quality advice to those friends while we all traveled the bumpy decision-making road that is college life together.

All-in-all, my hope is that these five posts will not condemn, but gently correct. I’ve been in college ministry now for over seventeen years, and the fallout a believer can experience as a university student because of bad choices can create shockwaves for years to come. If you will allow me to be your older guide, you’ll see that I’ve journeyed this road before you and I can point out some potentially damaging hazards to avoid. So as we dive into our first point, know that I care about your well-being as I potentially shake up the scenery of your life. Here we go…

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Comfort In Self-Prescribed High Doses

A Life In Sweatpants

Have you ever had one of those days when you just wore sweatpants? It’s kind of chilly outside; maybe it’s raining. You wake up and go straight for the hot beverage instead of the shower. Minutes in those sweatpants quickly form into hours and all of a sudden, it’s 4:30 p.m. and you feel like a complete waste of space.

Sweatpants automatically create an interesting dilemma in my line of thinking. On the one hand, I love the kind of comfort they provide me in the cold winter months when I choose not to brave society and stay in my home. There’s no way that I’ll be putting on jeans if I know I won’t be exiting my abode any time soon. 

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How Faith Can Conquer Fear In the Midst of Vulnerability

The Rhino and the Little Girl

Let me tell you about my all-time favorite TV commercial. It was for the St. Paul Insurance Company and the images in it were powerful enough to burn the message it was communicating into my brain before the company logo was even displayed.

It opens on a shot of a little 5 year-old white girl with curly blond hair, wearing a blue dress and standing in the middle of the African savannah. She’s all by herself, holding a long blade of grass and looking completely out of place because she seems to be dressed for Sunday School as opposed to a safari.

Next the camera flashes to something else in that same field, a distance away. It’s not a little girl this time, but a full-grown rhinoceros.

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What a Magician Taught Me About Evangelism

My Article For Campus Ministry Today

Not too long ago, I wrote an article for Campus Ministry Today on the topic of evangelism. Now, I realize it’s tough to bring up that word (evangelism), and keep people from running away screaming, but hear me out.

I love attempting to couple sharing the gospel with the practicality of life. Evangelism doesn’t have to be a super scary word or concept in the heart of a believer, and it doesn’t need fear or guilt to be its driving motivators in order for believers in Jesus to open their mouths and talk about the gospel. So with that in mind, I wrote this very practical piece to help readers understand there’s a tremendous amount of common sense in the call to evangelism. Give it a read and you’ll see what I mean. Enjoy!

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Trying To Be a Better Christian Leads to Frustration, Anger, and Defeat

Is Your Home Experiencing a Power Outage?

In my early Christian years, I understood in theory what someone meant when they said that Jesus was the solution to the various problems I had, but I didn’t really get how that played out in my day-to-day life. “Okay,” I would think, “I understand that I shouldn’t just buckle down and try harder to be better. I need the gospel to transform me from within in order to see real life change. So…what do I do now?”

That’s a fair question that I think a lot of people are asking when we tell them to allow the gospel to change their lives. People want to experience the change that comes with letting Jesus work in their hearts, but they probably need a little more to go on than just, “Pray and read your Bible.”

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The American Dream Is a Lie

Are You Drinking Real Ginger Ale?

A buddy of mine used to be a waiter at a chain restaurant back when he was in college. Needless to say, he has quite a few entertaining stories about his various experiences with rude and crazy customers. Some people are just weird.

But in addition to that, he can recount with ease some of the “behind-the-scenes” exploits of the wait/cooking staff that would probably make you shiver with disgust at what exactly goes on with food prep when no one is looking. I won’t get into any of the specifics to make you think twice about taking a loved one out to dinner on a Friday night, but I will mention one thing he told me that caught my attention and kind of made me smile.

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The Contrast Between Genuine Love and the Sugar Substitute

What We Can Learn From a Female Freshman Poet

Through a series of events a few years ago, I ran across a poem that was written and published in a mid-western college campus newspaper, and what I observed struck me. I was surprised when I read it because the author was very honest about…well, everything she seemed to be going through at the time she penned it.

Written by a freshman woman and printed anonymously in her school paper, the poem is a very raw representation of what a lot of college females go through the first year they are away from home at school. More than that, though, I believe this is an interesting window into the hearts of everyone who longs to be loved, and who will claw for that love in any way they can.