Don’t Waste Your College Years

College has a way of clarifying what matters most to you. During those years, your ambitions become more focused, your values become more visible, and your pursuits begin shaping the direction of your life. Whatever you are really after will eventually rise to the surface.

For some students, that pursuit is success. For others, it is freedom, relationships, popularity, money, influence, or pleasure. Everyone has an “it.” Everyone is chasing something they believe will satisfy them, define them, or make their life matter.

The danger is not merely chasing the wrong thing for four years. The danger is building your entire life around something that was never worthy of your life in the first place.

College will offer you endless opportunities to pursue almost anything you want.

• If you want complete independence from your parents, you can find it.
• If you want a nonstop social scene, there will always be another party, another weekend, or another excuse.
• If your ambition is academic success, you can spend your years buried in libraries, caffeine, and exhaustion, trying to build the perfect résumé.
• If your goal is popularity, there are plenty of ways to gain attention and visibility on a college campus.

Whatever your “it” is, college will help you chase it.

When I entered college, I honestly wasn’t fully sure what my “it” would be. I wanted to succeed academically. I wanted leadership opportunities. I wanted meaningful relationships. I wanted to enjoy the college experience. At the same time, I also entered college as someone who genuinely wanted to follow Jesus. That is when I began to realize something that would shape the rest of my life: if Jesus truly became my one thing, then every other area of my life would have to submit to Him.

That changes the equation entirely.

In 2 Corinthians 5:9, Paul writes, “We make it our aim to please him.” That verse runs counter to almost every cultural message students hear on a college campus. Most people build their lives around pleasing themselves, impressing others, or chasing temporary satisfaction. Paul says that a believer’s ambition should be to please Christ.

Not merely include Him. Please Him.

Many students try to compartmentalize their spiritual life. Jesus gets a section of the schedule alongside classes, relationships, entertainment, sports, work, and future plans. He becomes part of life without ever becoming Lord over life. The problem with that approach is that Jesus never intended to be a small addition to an already crowded existence. Colossians 3:4 says that Christ “is your life.”

That means following Jesus in college affects everything. It affects the people you surround yourself with. It affects the boundaries you establish. It affects your dating relationships, priorities, habits, entertainment, integrity, and ambitions for the future. You cannot separate spiritual life from the rest of life because Jesus refuses to be confined to a single compartment.

I have watched many students spend years trying to enjoy the benefits of Christianity without surrendering to Christ Himself. They want the comfort of faith without the obedience of discipleship. They want Jesus nearby in moments of crisis but distant in moments of decision. Yet the Christian life was never meant to be a casual attachment. It is a wholehearted surrender.

The irony is that surrendering to Christ is not the loss of life but the discovery of it. Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came so we may have life abundantly. Most college students spend years searching for that abundant life in achievements, experiences, relationships, or pleasure, only to find that those things cannot carry the weight they were asked to bear.

Before another semester begins, it is worth asking an honest question: What is actually driving your life right now? What are you organizing your decisions around? What are you ultimately pursuing?

Because whatever your “it” is will eventually shape who you become. And if you are going to spend your life chasing something, it had better be worth it.