*Posted on The Gospel Coalition on August 22. This post was written by a former Cru staff member and now pastor in Illinois. Jeff Brewer shares 15 ways incoming freshmen (or upperclassmen for that matter) can seek to glorify God as they head off to college this month. We appreciate his wisdom. We pray that the college students stepping on campus this fall work to model these things in their lives. Join us in this prayer. 

1. There is no greater way you can spend your time, energy, and effort than pursuing Christ with all your heart. Education matters. That’s why you’re going to college. But pursuing Christ matters more. Remember, you can make only one thing your central aim in life. Make it the right thing. Ask God for much grace to keep him at the center.

2. Join a church. Find one that preaches the Word, loves worshiping God as a body, and seeks to make Christ known. Once you find it, join it and start building relationships.

3. Make a plan for your first semester about how you are going to be in the Word. If you use a Bible reading plan, put it in your schedule now. If you don’t currently have a plan for reading the Word, make one before you leave.

4. As now so then. Don’t spend your college career talking about how you will follow Christ in the future. Follow him now the way you want to follow him then.

5. Take advantage of the unique opportunity to get to know a wide variety of people from different backgrounds who have all been sovereignly put in the same dorm. Ask people to tell you their story.  Sit, listen, and ask follow-up questions. Tell them you like to pray for people you’ve met and ask how you can pray for them.

6. Seek to radically love others as Christ did. Avoid gossips and gossiping. It’s gross. Loving like Christ isn’t.

7. Remember, following passionately after Christ is not going to be the norm (yes, sadly even at Christian colleges this is true). Look to God’s Word for the standard of what an authentic follower of Christ looks like and seek others who seek him in the same way.

8. Look for opportunities to serve. Serve broadly, serve lovingly, serve faithfully, and serve diligently. Look for where there is a need and dive in.

9. Remember that others are going through the same changes and new experiences. Look for opportunities to speak truth about the gospel to people who want a fresh start in college. Show them the hope in the gospel and forgiveness available to them.

10. Attend every opportunity for biblical teaching that you can. Go to a campus ministry’s weekly meeting and invite someone from your dorm to go with you.

11. Work hard. Remember the privilege that you are afforded and respond appropriately. Fight against laziness by remembering you are seeking to please Christ, not your professor (or mom or dad).

12. When you find someone you are interested in dating, make sure that their one aim in life is the same as yours (see #1 above.)

13. Take advantage of the variety of classes and opportunities that will be available to you only in college. Look for at least one class to take for the sheer love of learning about a subject you have never studied before (or may never have the time to study again).

14. Make a prayer list and pray for the people on it. Start with your roommate and the guys down the hall who don’t give a rip about Christ.

15. Pursue God joyfully. Is there anything greater than knowing Christ? Make the joy of pursuing Christ a hallmark of your life.

Campus Crusade for Christ has a Web site called CruPress Green. It is home to all of the resources the Campus Ministry uses to disciple, lead, and train students. It’s pretty organized, easy to navigate, and free to download. 🙂 Thought we’d share it with you. Enjoy!

Anyway, while perusing through the Blog section of the site today, I came across a post that grabbed my attention and shook me up. I’ll be processing and chewing on the thought for a few days — probably longer.

Thought I’d bring you guys along for the ride.

Your Religion is What You Do With Your Solitude
By Tim Casteel 

Usually I’m really good at skimming over great spiritual truths. But for some reason when I read that sentence from Tim Keller’s Counterfeit Gods, it stopped me in my tracks.

MY IMMEDIATE THOUGHT: MY RELIGION IS MINISTRY AND THE INTERNET.

That’s what I do and think about it in my spare quiet moments. If I have a gap in my day, I check email then Twitter.

At night, while I ‘relax’ I’m reading ministry blogs and thinking through our ministry.

Tim Keller unpacks the idea a little more in Counterfeit Gods (read an excerpt of the book here):

There’s a quote by Archbishop William Temple: 
“Your religion is what you do with your solitude.” 
I had to think about that for about three years before I figured it out. 
What does he mean? He says, “When you don’t have to think of anything, when your mind isn’t being taken to think by the environment…” (in other words you’re not at work, there’s nothing that’s taking hold of your mind… when you’re standing on a street corner waiting for someone or you’re in a place where you don’t have anything to think about) 
“…where does your mind go? What does your mind habitually go to? What do you most like to think about? What do you most enjoy daydreaming about? What gives you the most comfort to fantasize about?” 
And he says, “That’s your God. Your religion is what you do with your solitude.” It’s a profound statement.

I haven’t quite diagnosed what this means practically for me.

Am I replacing the common male idol of “career” with “ministry”? Seeking to find life and recognition in ministry success?

And what am I looking for on email and Twitter? Not sure what this thirst for “the new” means. Obviously it shows a discontent with the eternal.

How about you?

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR SOLITUDE?