Especially for freshmen. Today, it is official. You are gaining independence. Sure, Mom and Dad dropped you off sometime in the last week, stocked up your mini-fridge, cast a wary eye toward your roommate, and made sure you had all your supplies- then headed home to redecorate your room. And you had a week of real freedom. Today, you have class. And no one is there to wake you up, make your breakfast and get you there.
Today is the first day of many choices you'll face. Go to class, or sleep in. Buy the books, or fake it and hope the tests are lecture based (if you choose to go to class, of course). Stay out late, or get plenty of rest. Can I beat that bus on my bike, or does a semester in traction sound good?
But there are more serious questions. Questions like: Who will I become now that I am gaining independence? What are my limits? Is this really the field of study I want to spend my life in? What is my spiritual journey going to look like?
Joshua 24:14-15 is about choices. In this speech, Joshua, the leader of Israel after Moses, gives a sort of commencement address, and concludes with this:
“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
Joshua gives the call: Choose to give God all of your faithfulness, or give it up. No room for wafflers, no room for indecision. You can worship these old-time gods, or defeated gods, or you can serve the Lord. Either way they chose, Joshua made it clear where he was going.
Now, I don't want to get all moralistic on you, but I want you to understand this basic ideal:
Just because it looks good, doesn't mean it is.
Case in point, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade features the perfect example. Choose the right Holy Grail, get eternal life. Choose the wrong and you die. Fast. The Nazi picks a bejeweled golden chalice because "Jesus was the King of Kings." Well, Nazis are bad guys, so you know how this ends:
So, Indy goes. He picks a simple cup, not ornate, kinda ugly. Because he reasoned, "Jesus was a carpenter." So that result was better:
You will face countless choices that look good, say all the right things, give you lavish gifts, and have all the right moves. But drinking from them leave will leave you hollow, empty, and potentially the spiritual equivalent of a dry, dusty old Nazi skeleton. This is true of the day to day choices you'll face, as well as the moral, spiritual, and ethical choices.
It is also true of the church and/or religious organization you choose.
Before I start- I am not bashing churches. OK, well I am kinda bashing spiritually dead/misleading churches. But what I'm about to say applies to good churches as well- and in BCS, there are hundreds of those. The point is this: Don't get caught up in all the flashy, free-gift-giving, put-on-a-production stuff you'll see over the next month or so from a lot of churches. Look past all that to the heart of the church. Don't just listen to the things the church says, watch what it does.
And just because a church is feeding you tons of free food and has boatloads of money to spend on awesome programs doesn't mean they are a bad church. Nor does it mean they are a good church. Just because a church is small like you're used to, and comfortable with, doesn't mean it's the right church for you.
Choose Wisely.
The key to living this way is in Joshua's words- "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness." To find the right place to belong, to worship and to server, you have to trust God totally. Honestly, to keep with Him throughout your life, you must trust Him fully. Every choice you make needs to be made in light of Christ- what would He desire of you? That's what 'serving with all faithfulness' is about. It's not about sheltering yourself from the world, or denying yourself the experience of college, or choosing the hippest church. It is about seeking God's wisdom first in all you do, and then following His words through to the end.
And when it comes to churches- seek the church that God is moving and working in, no matter what it looks like on the outside. And if you belong to a church, then you need to make it your goal to aid in anyway to be the church God is moving and working in. After all, this is not all there is to the church:
This is the church:
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