What does it mean to die to yourself and take up your cross to follow Christ as a college student? I was asked to consider this question the other day with some close friends. As I considered the concept, I broke the question down and just started thinking about what it means to die to yourself as a college student. In some situations it means leaving the iPod in your pocket and keeping the headphones out of your ears. Other times it means taking the initiative to start a conversation with the person beside you when you would rather just take a second and breathe. Sometimes it means making arrangements to schedule something that you don't care too much about in order to let another person know that you care about them. Obviously, this means different things in different situations, but the core of this means to worry less about what you want and what you think is important and more about what is important to someone other than yourself. For a Christian this means, being concerned with what is important to God. This is where the second part of the question comes in. I think that to be concerned about what is important to God, you have to take up your cross and follow Christ. This also looks different in every situation, but it is all tied together through a deep seated understanding of what is important to Jesus and how we are supposed to act in order to accomplish His purposes. To understand what is important to Christ, we have to spend time with Him, in His Word, and in prayer. For a college student, this means taking advantage of the flexible schedule and freedom that we have to make the things that are important to God important to us. If you have any other ideas about this question (I hope you do, because I don't have a lock on the answer, I just have an idea), please comment and let me know what you think about what it means to die to yourself and take up your cross to follow Christ as a college student.
Posts
Hey, Josh, great ideas within all of that. I definitely agree. People see Christ through us and if we just do whatever we want (listen to our ipod and ignore the person in class beside us), it may be easy, but in the end leaves us wanting something more, but we're totally confused on how to get that "more"--whether it be a closer relationship with Christ or leading a lost friend to Him. But if we go up to people, "do life with them" (I remember!), we'll want more, but it will be search that we know something positive will happen! And our friendship with others will leave them wanting "more"--more knowledge about Him and how He gives us the power to step out :)
ReplyDeleteHey Josh! Good stuff. I also think it means...giving up Facebook when someone might need an answer to a biblical concer. Or...giving up our plans if we feel God nudge at us to help someone who needs us. It's important to be selfless--but also important to remember ourselves in certain situations
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, Josh. And that is saying the least. I guess my thought to add is something that I read the other day in Luke. Jesus asks his followers about their gain in loving someone who returns that love. Even sinners do that. Loving those that are unloveable is totally radical; loving those who despise and those we know we ought not agree with is something that is far too new. Maybe that's why people believed Jesus to be a radical; in a way, He was. He was doing the uncoventional. To me, that is what it is to die to self. C.S. Lewis once said that loving others meant not thinking them good when they certainly are not. It meant wishing for their good and happiness. This is so hard for college students, I believe; let's face it: there are some people we would rather not love, but because Jesus asks us to, we ought to. If Jesus can give up His life for people who barely remember to say thank you, why can we not love those that are just like us?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I took your advice...
Good stuff. We just need to throw conformity out the window indeed
ReplyDelete