Tag: netflix

Christianity in the Face of College Culture

What does it take to live as a follower of Christ in college? I’ve been living this reality for almost 3 years now, and at times, it’s a very lonely road. My journey has changed so much from when I first started at my university to now. I can happily say that my relationship with Christ has come out stronger, amidst the challenges college has thrown at me- but it is NOT as simple as that. There have been a crazy amount of highs and lows, and this journey is far from over. Research is showing that an alarming 70% of young adults leave the church as college students (Christianity Today, 2019). Finding this statistic really grabbed my curiosity. Why are so many college students leaving?

Obviously, moving to a new town for college plays a huge roll in church attendance. Speaking from my own experience, it’s pretty intimidating trying to find a new church, especially when you’re by yourself. Finding Christian friends has been difficult in college, and so I ended up going to several church services by myself. However, a growing reason being cited in surveys for leaving the church is political and spiritual concerns (Christianity Today, 2019). I’m sad to say that this was not shocking information to me. All you have to do is jump on social media and look at the tweets from college students. “Spirituality” is a HUGE topic, but not spirituality in any sort of biblical sense.

Have you ever heard the term “manifestation?” I see it everywhere, and it actually makes me sick to my stomach now. Manifestation is the idea that you can speak something into existence. I hope that believers can see right through that idea, but unfortunately, it seems many people who profess to be Christians fall right into the trap. Astrology is another thing that I have witnessed too many people get caught up in. Astrology appears to say that the alignment of the stars, many times on the day you were born, influences your life and who you are. I’m sure you’ve seen a post about Virgos, Cancers, Geminis, etc. I confess that even caught my attention at some level, and I found myself looking for my “sign.” Thankfully, I didn’t dive deeper into that. The deeper down the rabbit hole you look, the eviler it gets.

Those ideas only scratch the surface level of what is pulling on college students. Being surrounded by those and many other unbiblical ideas, it seems very difficult to stand up for what you believe in. But I believe, that is getting to the root of the problem. Why are these things able to pull Christians away from the church and/or away from their values and what they believe? Why is going into your new college town to look for a church “too hard?” Here I ask you to look within. As we all need to do, these students need to examine their hearts. Do they actually believe in Jesus Christ and the resurrection? Do they believe in the gospel that the Bible teaches? I think the answer is no.

I recently had the opportunity to watch a documentary called American Gospel. It is extremely informative and I think everyone should watch it. It discusses how the gospel message has been twisted and turned to meet what we want, as humans, effectively producing something coined the “prosperity” gospel. Unfortunately, I believe that is the gospel many people believe, not to mention adding in all the other “gospels” being preached from college campuses. Of course, they don’t call themselves such, but they claim to be the truth. And that is where the problem begins…

College Rule #1: Take Care of Yourself

This was the week that the professor’s hit us with tests, papers, and lots and lots of homework. Which hits us college students with lots and lots of mental breakdowns.

Honestly, reflecting on my week helps me to actually realize that it goes much better than I think during the rough situations. It’s weird how the bad always pushes out the good. You could be having the best week of your life, one thing goes wrong and it becomes the worst week. Odd.

But now that I think about it….

Last week was busy. Very busy. That is probably why this past weekend, my body felt like it’d had enough. The cool thing about our bodies is that if we don’t stop to take the the time to properly care for ourselves in every sense, physically and emotionally, our bodies force us too.  Sunday evening I began to get migraine symptoms. I don’t use the term ‘migraine’ lightly because it bothers me when people refer to a headache as a migraine. In my opinion, they are not the same at all.

Migraines don’t hit me very often, maybe once a year or every two. The last one that was pretty bad hit my freshman year of high school, so it’s been awhile. First, I’ll wrap up my week so you can follow and compare the events that led up to this. Feel free to skip my weekly wrap and head to my main point at the bottom.

Monday: Early morning position sessions for volleyball, practice, cafeteria, and a soccer game. I really should have been starting a paper, but that’s beside the point. Not a bad day all in all.

Tuesday: The volleyball team had an away game, and I didn’t travel so I got the evening off. After class that day, I started reading the chapter for next theology class. And I woke up and hour and a half later. Looking back, that was the first sign that I was tired and needed to pay a little extra attention to myself. I proceeded to stay up late that night to finish several homework assignments.

Wednesday: quiz over chapter that I fell asleep reading (don’t worry, I did finish it!) and then practice. Then bible study, then more homework, another late night.

Thursday: I looked at my planner and stressed about all the things I needed to do and wouldn’t be able to because of our home volleyball game. Those who know me know that I stress out pretty fast and it consumes me. Don’t be like that. I am currently working on it.

Friday: 6:30 am morning practice at which we ran SO MUCH. Literally, probably the most I’ve ever run in any practice of any sport for discipline reasons. That afternoon, my management class was cancelled and my day was made. We had a test (which I of course was stressing about) and because class was cancelled, it got moved to Monday! I was so happy that it was finally the weekend and I could just relax. I sat down that afternoon, wrote a paper, felt super productive, and allowed myself to stay up into the early morning hours watching a Netflix show. (I highly reccommend The 100!)

Saturday: I got up and and drove back home with my boyfriend to watch the Husker game and stop by my house to pick up a few things. We got back around 4:15 and I had to leave to work the Brett Eldredge concert at 4:50. The team works concerts for fundraisers and it’s not a bad gig, except you end up standing in place literally the entire night. And believe me, it’s different to work the concert instead of just being there. We aren’t allowed to sing or dance, we have to be very professional, and be mean to people who try to finess their way into the wrong section.  Yet again, another late night.

Sunday: I get up, my roommate and I go get tickets for the Royals game, and then we leave shortly after. It was a super hot day. When we left, after what felt like the longest game ever, we got some free chocolate so that was cool. Towards the end of the game, I began to feel weird. It was that feeling that something was off, I just couldn’t figure out what. I dismissed it as being tired. That night, I had some homework to catch up on and a test to study for. The weird feeling never went away, but I still couldn’t figure it out.

Monday I woke up with extreme pressure in my head. Not the sort of pressure you get from being sick or having allergies, just pressure. It was behind my temples and back farther, and then behind my forehead. It wasn’t exactly painful, just uncomfortable. As the day went on, it got worse, and it got more intense whenever I chewed or pressed my teeth together. I called my mom (aka my doctor, basically) to see what she thought. She warned me of a migraine and I took a concoction of meds that have proven to work against migraines in the past.

This morning I woke up to slightly less pressure, but a little bit of a headache. I took some pain meds, went to my morning position session. When I came back, I noticed my vision was a little blurry. My eyeballs felt really hot and felt like they were too big for their sockets. It has continued all day and I know that is one of my migraine symptoms.

Moral of the story: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF IN COLLEGE. Stay hydrated. I know for a fact that I have been dehydrated several times while I’ve been here, and I ONLY DRINK WATER. Imagine how much easier it is for kids who drink pop on a daily basis, too. Take vitamins. They actually help so much and you don’t realize it until you stop taking them. Take your allergy medicine. It will help prevent sickness caused by allergies. SLEEP. I can’t stress this one enough. Yes, you need to get your work done and study for your tests but you need sleep to do any of that well.

Last week, I was a mess and I was stressed. I had late nights and early mornings. As a result, I am now fighting off a migraine. This was my body’s way of telling me that I need to slow down. So put the effort into yourself. You might not get a migraine. It could be a cold, or you could get injured in practice simply because your body is so stressed. (It does actually happen.)

Listen to your body. It’s the only one you’ve got.

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