When it comes to avoiding exercise, I have many excuses. One classic defense is that my running shoes hurt my feet. The fact is that when I got those shoes, they were cheaper than the ones that really worked for me. I soon discovered that the best deal is not always the best fit. As you contemplate and pray about your college selection, remember that just because one college is a better deal doesn’t mean that it is God’s will or the best fit for you.
The best deal may have a lower price, be closer to home, and have fewer or more rules. Maybe the best deal has more students or better food or even more guys or girls to offer as a future spouse. Maybe it seems like the best deal because all your friends will be going there. Just as with my shoes, the best deal may not be the best fit. Which is really more important?
The best fit is the college that is most compatible with your personal goals for the future. If your goal is to become equipped for ministry and learn what it means to live a life of abandonment for God’s glory, the best fit will mix sound academics (taught by passionate, knowledgeable professors with a biblical worldview pervading every subject) with a pursuit of God that is encouraged and practiced in the lives of those who surround you. The best fit offers you balanced structure that enhances the biblical principles that you have learned at home, church, or Christian school—or provides structure in a way that you might not have had the opportunity to experience. The best fit is where you will feel loved as an individual and will be personally discipled by a faculty and staff you trust. Remember that the best fit probably won’t seem like the best deal because real spiritual growth and learning are never easy. They require a willingness to die to self and to follow Christ. Don’t miss out on the opportunity for the best spiritual growth and education for your future by choosing—like me and my cheaper shoes—the best deal over the best fit.
Continue to pray about what college is the best fit for you. Visit the colleges you are interested in, take a good look, and ask a lot of questions. We hope Northland is a college you are strongly considering. We would love the opportunity to challenge you academically, give you the tools you need for your future ministry, and walk alongside as you discover what God can do through you as you yield yourself to Him. In the end, when you consider the investment and its potential returns, the best fit is the best deal.
What is most important to you when considering your college choices?
Tags: College, college admissions, college choice, direction, Financial aid, Finding God's will, future, God's will, high school transitions, planning
Saying goodbye to people you love is never easy. Don’t be worried if you are feeling uneasy about it. Often God calls us to leave our comfort zones and step out away from family and friends. He asks us to leave those who have provided love, care, and companionship in order to teach us a simple and crucial although difficult lesson. He wants us to learn that He is enough.
Sure with new places, there will be new relationships and there should be. God works through people and relationships, however, in the long run, nothing is better than the mighty waves of separation from human support which wash us up upon the Rock of our all sufficient God.
I remember a particular time of loneliness and feeling discouraged. I was praying and asking God to send some friend to encourage me, maybe a call or email from home – even a Facebook message or text. Instead what I found was (Psalms 62:5-8) which says:
My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.
The Lord applied that to me and reminded me that He is enough. Sure he often uses others, but I needed to run to Him first, talk to Him, read His words to me and allow His Spirit to speak to me. Instead I had become too dependent on human relationships instead.
This was a great lesson for me to learn those years ago. There have been many situations in life since where no human relationship could answer the questions or meet the need. Sometimes they weren’t even available but I remembered that God is enough and my expectation must be from Him alone
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It was a great life lesson that it took a little separation anxiety to learn. Remember, as someone once said, Happy is the man who feels that all he has, all he wants, and all he expects are to be found in his God.
Tags: career advice, high school transitions, Leaving home, Relationships
Teens and Their Mobile Phones / Flowtown @flowtown.
Part of the transition during your late teens into your early twenties has to do with communication. Take a look at this info-graphic I came across and compare yourself with the national trends on cell phone usage. Click here to be redirected
How do you compare? Do you see any advantages to these trends? Concerns?
Tags: high school transitions, Stats on young adults, Trends
Many young people feel they are on a road to independence. They have come from the years when parents or someone had to help them all the time. At first every need from eating to well – you know – had to be taken care of by someone else. That was the dependant stage. Over the years more independence occurs and it should. However, total independence is not the end goal. In fact total independence is a myth and would be very lonely and unrewarding. The real end game is something called interdependence. Interdependence involves an appropriate amount of independence mixed with a good healthy amount of dependence too.
God never intended for man to be alone. In fact He said that it wasn’t good. From the start He gave man a woman. Later they became a family and eventually friendships occurred as well. All of these represent dependency. As you transition into less dependence on family and friends, don’t make the mistake of trying to become too independent, self reliant and proud or resistant to advice. Remember you’ll need parents for advice and wisdom, you’ll need family for support and enjoyment, and you’ll need teachers, friends, pastors and others too. In addition, remember they need you as well. Support them, encourage them, talk to them, thank them, listen to them, and love them.
Finally, I’d be wrong if I didn’t remind you of a truth I am sure you know. Ultimately, our complete dependence is on God, our faithful loving friend. Strive for interdependence. Enjoy needing others and be someone people need.
Tags: direction, future, high school transitions
Today I came across a college comparison calculator. It allows you to enter 3 colleges that you are interested in and then score each college according to your opinion in areas like: setting (rural, urban, suburban),proximity to home, faculty accessibility, computer facilities, size, residence hall conditions,social life, athletic facilities/programs, reputation of school and so on. Once you are done scoring each school, you’ll see a total score. The highest score wins and you get free tuition at that school. I am just kidding about the free tuition part of course, but this seriously is a cool way to help you compare various schools.
Please note that this is not a Christian site and therefore doesn’t take into account the things that any Christian should when considering college options. You’ll have to evaluate those things on your own, but you could use a similar scale to theirs to continue the comparison from a Chrisitan perspective.
Let me know what other things you thing a Christian should consider when looking for a college. This will help others who read this post.
You can find the calculator by pointing your browser to www.educationquest.org or clicking here.
Tags: college choice, Finding God's will, God's will college, high school transitions
Go For the “Fun” or Go For the Money? That question was, in some way, what the late Scrully Blotnick, Ph.D., decided to find out. He studied the career choices and consequent financial success of about 1500 people. Group A of the study (83% of the people) picked a career where they assumed they could make a lot of cash. Group B in the study (only 17%) picked a career because they had a desire for or enjoyed that type of work. We will call them the “fun” crowd. Now you and I both know that life is not always fun, but Group B did enjoy their work a lot more than Group A enjoyed theirs, so we’ll say they had fun. What do you think the results of the study were? Who made the most money in the long run? Well, after 20 years the results were in. Out of all the people in the study, there were 101 millionaires. All but 1 of them was in Group B, the group that went for the fun and not the money. Dr. Boltnick concluded, “…the overwhelming majority of people who have become wealthy have become so thanks to work they found profoundly absorbing. The long term study of people who eventually became wealthy clearly reveals that their “luck” arose from accidental dedication they had to an arena they enjoyed.”
Now the point is not that success equals a wallet full of cash and a BMW or two out in front of the house, but that God gives us each gifts and abilities and we are best suited to be successful when we are following our God given design and our God given desires.
Take a Spiritual Gifts analysis by clicking here. Get started today seeing how God designed you.
Mark Twain wrote in – A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court “…the higher the pay in enjoyment the worker gets out of it, the higher shall be his pay in cash…”
Tags: college choice, direction, future, God's will, high school transitions
If I said you could do something today that would have eternal impact, would you do it? I have been thinking a lot lately about what teens can do that could have eternal significance. Sometimes I think that teens feel like their time to impact eternity won’t come until they are older and can get more education or have more influence. Maybe some even excuse themselves from serving God because, well, that’s for older folks. I hope that’s not the thinking very often. Most Christian teens I meet want to serve God and make a difference.
Here is a list of ideas that I’ve come up with of ways to serve God right now. Some of these take more time and energy than others, but all of them have the potential to make a difference for God.
Help a kid with their homework and pray with them before you leave
Read a story to a younger kid that teaches a Bible principle and then explain it to them
Ask if you and some friends can put on a short skit in youth group on a character trait
If you like to write, take a stab at writing a Gospel track for teens or a Facebook note about what God’s doing in your life
Invite a new kid in your youth group over to play Xbox or Wii. Pray with them before they leave or if they aren’t a Christian, start to build that relationship so you can talk to them about God.
Pray with a friend.
Send a teacher an email or Facebook message letting them know you appreciate them
Email a missionary from your church, ask if they have kids you can stay in touch with
Make a YouTube video to advertise your next youth activity or your youth group in general
Make a Fan page on Facebook for your youth group
Ask to help with the children’s ministry at your church
Get some younger neighborhood kids together and teach them some sports skills you’ve learned. Have prayer with them all before they go home.
Help coach a kid’s sports team
Ask to sing or play an instrument at church or at a local nursing home
Text a Bible Verse to a friend and let them know you are praying for them
I am sure there are many many more ways for teens to serve God and impact eternity. What are some creative ones you can think of? Leave a comment and tell others. Maybe you have an encouraging story of how God used something you’ve done recently to make a difference. That would be a great comment to leave as well.
Moving forward in life toward our eternal destination requires focus on what is important. When moving ahead, we need to see the big perspective. Grab God’s map, the Bible, and understand the main destination is eternity with Him. All else on the journey is contingent on those two things. Once our future destination is established and we understand where we are going and who we will give account to for our life’s activities, then we have to be careful not to lose focus on what’s most important at any given time. We can’t look too closely on the small temporal things. These are things that can distract us from eternal reward or end up as “wood, hay and stubble at the Judgment seat of Christ. In the grand scheme of things, video games, television, Facebook, and other potential time traps, although not wrong, can still hinder us from seeing the reality of eternal matters and opportunities right in front of us. The same is true if we focus on our past mistakes or accomplishments. Even worrying too much about the distant future will tend to cause danger because of a loss of focus.
One example of this idea is taken from looking through the windshield when driving. Sometimes I tend to focus on a bug that didn’t seem to make it up and over my car. You know, the “bet he doesn’t have the guts to do that again scenario.” Sometimes I focus on some interesting building or animal way off in the distance. Every so often I’ll even get distracted with what is in my rear view mirror. Whenever any of this happens for long, I put myself in danger because I lose focus and perspective on what is most important, the 100 feet or so right in front of the car.
Focus on the 100 feet in front of you with your eternal destination always in mind. Don’t look too closely at the little insignificant windshield spots, the temporal things, and don’t look in the rear view mirror at past mistakes or accomplishments and finally, don’t focus too far ahead either. Focus instead on the things you know God wants you to accomplish today or this week. Set your priorities for today, make your list, be disciplined and drive ahead one day at a time undistracted by a loss of focus. Accomplish the tasks and build relationships that have the most impact on your real destination – eternity with God. Drive ahead safely with focus.
Can you think of verses in the Bible that would agree with this post? What type of things tend to cause you to lose focus? Leave a comment.
Your destination five, ten, or even twenty years from now is often determined by the decisions you make today. Certainly decisions about college have long term effects, but I am also talking about what may seem like smaller decisions. Some of these might be decisions about who your friends are, whether or not you should play on the summer soccer league, what job you should take over the break, or whether or not you should go to camp this summer with your youth group. I am sure many of you are facing decisions right now; that’s why I wanted post this article that I hope will help you as you consider the decisions before you. The following questions are mostly common sense, but I thought maybe God could use them if they were right in front of you. So print them out, stick them in your Bible, and the next time you are faced with a decision, I hope they will help. Let me know if I can pray for you or help you in any way.
12 Questions to ask yourself when making a decision
1. Are you right with God, or are there issues of sin you need to deal with before making this decision?
2. Are you willing to do whatever God wants you to do and not just what you want to do?
3. What Biblical principles apply to the choices you have to make?
4. What are your possible choices and their results? Be sure to anticipate the long term effects of this decision as best you can and how each available choice coincides with God’s overall will for your life. Include positive and negative consequences as well as problems, questions, or other thoughts about each potential choice. It is best to grab a sheet of paper and map it all out.
5. Is the decision you have to make the result of another bad decision in the past that you simply need to correct so you can avoid it completely? Usually sin comes in steps – a series of bad decisions and the refusal to correct them. Maybe the decision you are facing could be avoided if you would just deal with some of the issues in your past.
6. Do you have any direct leading from the Holy Spirit? If so, be able to share this with individuals from whom you seek counsel. Consider your thoughts and leadings when you have prayed about this. Remember that the Spirit of God and the Word of God are always in harmony.
7. What decision do providential circumstances point toward? This is not always a sure sign, but it is certainly a factor to consider. God is in control of all things.
8. What do your parents, godly counselors, friends, and authorities think you should do? A definite trend of thoughts and advice from these people should begin to lead to a clear choice.
9. What have you observed about others who have faced this kind of decision and the way they made their choices? What were the results of those choices? Can you make any applications or learn from their failures or successes?
10. Are you using godly wisdom or the wisdom of human reasoning and selfishness?
11. How will your decision affect the lives of others?
12. Are you running from a problem, fear, or unfulfilled obligation; are you quitting something you need to finish?
Ps 32:8 I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.
Tags: Decision making, God's will
I remember well the struggle I went through trying to surrender to and determine God’s will for my life concerning college. I distinctly remember the night the Lord won the victory. I basically knew what God wanted, but it was not what I wanted. It was about 2AM and I was sitting in the dark beside my bed praying about what I should do. I rehearsed the lines to an old song in my prayer. “Lord send me anywhere only go with me. Lay any burden on me only sustain me, sever any tie save the tie that binds me to thy heart…” When I got to that last line, I stopped. I could not ask the Lord to cut any tie. My friends were not going to Christian college and I did not want to leave them. After a long while I surrendered everything that night and told the Lord I would do what He wanted. It was not an easy choice, but neither was dying on the cross an easy choice for Him.
I went where God wanted me to go. God gave me new friends and soon my friends back home, touched by my surrender, came to the same bible college as well. I had new friends and the old ones too. One of those friends now serves with me in the same ministry and I see him all the time. I never would have dreamed back then, God had all this in store. We can never out give God. There were great times in college and few regrets. Days were not always easy, but I always had the confidence that I was in the center of God’s perfect will. There is no better place to be.
What do you think are the toughest areas of the self-life we have to fight when determining God’s will? Does it always have to be a struggle? Post a comment.
Tags: college choice, Finding God's will, God's will, God's will college