Inter-Varsity Press

Contents

WEEK 1: FAITH
Day 1. choice
Day 2. commitment
Day 3. cost
Day 4. confidence
Day 5. core
Day 6. convinced?
Day 7. challenge

WEEK 2: RELATIONSHIPS
Day 1. God
Day 2. friends
Day 3. parents
Day 4. boy/girlfriend
Day 5. church
Day 6. Christian Union
Day 7. university

WEEK 3: EVANGELISM
Day 1. why?
Day 2. what?
Day 3. who?
Day 4. how?
Day 5. when?
Day 6. where?
Day 7. what next?

WEEK 4: STUDY
Day 1. clever and wise
Day 2. call to worship
Day 3. crack the whip
Day 4. conflict of worldviews
Day 5. clock watching
Day 6. cramming and writing
Day 7. countdown to wages

WEEK 5: HOLINESS
Day 1. God
Day 2. us
Day 3. money
Day 4. sex
Day 5. power
Day 6. decisions
Day 7. fresh

CHOICE
I had an identity makeover before I left for university. I binned the knitted tanktops and invested in new jeans and trainers. I upgraded my music system and updated my CD collection. I got a haircut, a kettle and a brand new duvet cover.

Anyone visiting me in my room that first week would have discovered I was a big fan of U2 (large poster on wall), majoring in chemistry (massive tome on shelf) and planning to live on curry (array of spices in cupboard). But was my Bible going to be kept in the drawer or on the shelf? This was more than a practical dilemma. It was a faith crisis. Was I going to be a secret Christian or a serious Christian?

The decision-making process of whether or not to commit to God was similar to the way I chose my university in the first place. It involved mind, heart and will.

MIND
Open days. Prospectuses. Interviews. Once we have decided which subject we want to pursue from the thousands on offer, we then try to fi nd a university that actually off ers the course. We research what the course involves, and what grades are needed.

When we commit to following Jesus, we need to do some research to be sure that he really existed, that he was who he claimed to be, that he actually died on the cross and that he really came back from the dead. We need to find out what he offers and what following him costs.

HEART
I looked round one university in a storm and another on a beautiful summer’s day. Guess which one I preferred? We can’t base our choice solely on a sudden rush of emotion, but feelings are certainly involved. There are certain things we will feel if we are Christians. If we have never felt guilty about our sin and rebellion against God, if we never feel grateful for what Christ has done for us, if there is no sense of joy or wonder at God’s grace, then we should consider whether our relationship with God is real or not.

WILL
Finally it’s make-our-mind-up time and we have to sign the UCAS form. We are not signing whether we believe the universities of choice feel right or actually exist, but that we have every intention of going to study there. It is a decision of the will that affects our approach to A levels, our first years away from home, and probably our career and life journey.

The decision to commit to Jesus Christ is not only about what we know or what we believe – it is about what we do. It is a decision that will affect every aspect of our lives forever. Jesus wanted to make sure we didn’t miss the point when he told the parable of two builders:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the steams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. (Matthew 7:24–27)

Imagine two people sitting in the same church building on the same Sunday morning. They both hear the same sermon. They both wear WWJD wrist bands and display a fish sticker on their car. They both shake the pastor’s hand on the way out. For all the world knows there is no external difference between them. But one lets the words drift in one ear and out the other. The other puts a plan into action.

These two listeners are like the two men that build apparently identical houses. It is not until the storms come that the structural integrity of the houses is tested. The house which has a foundation dug into hard bed ock withstands the pressure; the one built on sandy soil suffers severe subsidence!

Jesus is asking us to check beyond the external observation of religious rituals. He wants us to check if we are connecting head knowledge and heartfelt emotion to action.

Coming to university can reveal what our faith is really made of. Is it based on a real foundation connected to the bedrock of a personal relationship with Jesus? Or is it simply a house of cards that will fall down with the wind of change or the whiff of persecution?

Before my first chemistry lab session, I was shown a safety film. I saw contact lenses melting onto somebody’s eyeballs. I saw girls whose long hair caught fire. I saw acids eating some poor student’s hands. It was shocking. It was also quite different from the film they showed me when I applied for the course: students strolling around campus, laughing as they turned on Bunsen burners, and celebrating as they were handed first-class honours degrees!

The lecturers needed to ram home the message that we were being treated as adults and trusted with toxins, powerful acids and highly dangerous machinery. I had thought that the only way to die at university was out of boredom, but the film showed that the life of a chemistry undergraduate was hazardous.

Christianity is not a hobby we do for fun in our spare time. Our response to the Christian faith has life-or-death consequences. If we choose to check our foundations and put Jesus’ words into practice, we choose a life that will weather the storms of university and beyond. If we just go with the flow, and allow God’s word to impact only our ears and not our lives, then Jesus warns us that we can lose everything.

Some people decide to leave their faith at home when they go to university. Others decide to go with the flow, and over time drift away. Some decide to be secret Christians, others social Christians. Some people decide that their fresh start away from home will be made with Jesus clearly leading the way.

Which will you choose? The following chapters will help as you decide which course to take: not which academic course, but which faith course – hearing Jesus’ words and living your own life, or hearing Jesus words and letting him lead the way.