Dear Freshmen who attend a Christian college,

I am writing this in order to help you prevent the mistakes that I made my first semester of freshman year. My thoughts will be even more applicable if you come from a public school background. Regardless, it is good to be aware of the situation you may find yourself in, because I did.

I became a lukewarm Christian while attending Christian college.

Sounds funny, doesn’t it? You would think that my love and knowledge of God would have greatly increased while attending Cairn, but it did not.

Now, don’t go dropping out or anything for the fear of your spiritual life. Just hang in there.

It is just that, well, Christian college can be tricky. You see, your schedule is full of chapel services and Bible classes. You learn to talk in fluent Christianese. By this I mean:

“I’ll definitely be praying for you.”
“It’s such a blessing.”
“God is good, all the time.”

All of these things are great. What a wonderful feeling, to be surrounded with such spiritual positivity. I am not here to doubt their truth or to even say that we should refrain from these activities and phrases.

What I am saying is, do not let this create a stagnant heart.

I did not see it coming. My relationship with God was always on the incline. In public school, my ears were finely tuned to pick up any reference to God and morality. These phrases would hit me in the throat, compelling me to dive into conversation. These interactions on bus rides or across cafeteria tables forced me to question what I believed, creating stronger arguments. In high school, I needed to put God first, because if I did not no one else would.

Things changed when I came to Cairn.

Prior to my first day of classes, I did not even know what “chapel” was. I marveled over the wonderfully flashy faith that the school was built upon. I was no longer the minority, but held the same faith of all of my peers. What an amazing feeling! We all believed the same things and the feeling of God’s presence was abundant. We even had a Christian MATH class. How could I NOT grow in my relationship with God when He was literally everywhere?

I would never say this is a bad thing. What was bad was my heart’s attitude towards it.

I was content.

All my striving throughout school had seem to meet its end. I was at Christian college, and my life was essentially fulfilled. Christian friends, Christian classes, Christian chapel.

However, my spiritual life was blindsided.

I replaced my personal devotion with cooperate meeting. Without even noticing, I subconsciously switched one for the other. I had no idea that this could happen or that it even would until I found myself emotionally low on energy.

My spiritual gas tank was on E with the blinking yellow light. I was crying over the silliest of things and then it hit me.

The last time I had shared a personal devotion with God was BEFORE the semester had even started. What a horribly humble realization. I could not neglect my personal time with God because of the force-fed Christianity that the school offered. Both are good, but both are needed to be exercised.

We are a spiritually thirsty people and we needed to dive deeper in our relationships with God. Our relationships with God have to be more than the pre-packaged bottles of living water we receive in the Christian education system.

I also came to a should-be obvious, and embarrassing to even write, realization my first semester.

Christian boys do not replace Jesus.

Shark week, A.K.A the first week of school, is where all the freshmen are on the prowl looking for a future spouse. The whole game of “What guy looks like he’s most into the worship? The eye closer or the fist pumper?”

Don’t lie, you’ll all do it.

The opposite sex is everywhere. Opposite sex and without a mate. CHRISTIAN, opposite sex and single. You catchin’ my drift? It’s safe to say you have options. So did I.

And once again, I switched God out of His primary place in my heart.

There must have been some type of “spiritual reasoning” going on in my heart. I obviously assumed a good, Christian boy would suffice for my own spiritual life.

What a terrible mistake that was.

Remember how valuable your relationship is with God. Any relationship with any guy (regardless of his appearance or the sports team he is on) is not worth a compromise of the relationship between you and God. Don’t be so quick to just find someone. That person is out there, don’t worry. For now just focus on Jesus.

And for the rest of your life, in everything you do, just focus on Jesus.