More Than College
Why did you decide to come to JMU?
Maybe you liked the feel of the campus. Maybe you got a scholarship. Maybe your parents went, and you’ve always wanted to go. Maybe you like one of the majors. Maybe your boyfriend is here.
When I went to college at Virginia Tech (in 2007…I’ll let you do the math) I went because I liked Tech football. I visited in high school and loved the campus. I did Engineering because I was good at math and it was a prestigious and challenging decree.
Those may not be the best reasons to spend four years somewhere. But I’m not here to tell you all the right or wrong reasons for attending a college. I’m here to tell you that in many ways, it doesn’t really matter why you decided to come to JMU. The fact is - you did. What matters now is what happens while you’re here.
Consider this famous verse from Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
This verse is often used to help us feel better when things go wrong. Flat tire? God’s got me. Girlfriend left? There’s a bigger plan. Academic struggles? It’s going to work out.
Now, God does work things out. This is called “redemption” and it’s what God is in the business of doing. He takes our ashes and makes beauty out of them. And He even does this when we don’t pay him any attention. Jesus put it this way: “[Your Father] causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:45) He is pulling us to himself, wanting all people to know Him.
But while this is true, it is NOT what Romans 8 says. For whom is God working things out? It’s for those who love him and who are set on his purpose.
When I went to college, I had a certain plan. I would be wealthy, marry my college girlfriend and be a respectable engineer. You know how many of those things happened? Zero! Instead, things fell apart and God got my attention. In doing so, he set two paths before me:
True my leading and let me make the way
Trust yourself and make your own way
I was broken enough to choose #1. I started leaning into Jesus, finding that He was really the only one I could trust. I started to truly love Him and do what he asked me to do.
And by the time I left college, I wasn’t where I am today, but I was aimed in a far different direction than when I arrived on campus. And the direction God was pointing me was towards goodness and joy that I couldn’t have to ask for.
One day you will leave JMU. At the BCM, this day shapes everything we do. Because when you leave, when we send you off, we do so with purpose. We lay hands on people as they did in the book of Acts, sending them off as missionaries. You are and will be God’s representatives wherever you go. With this in mind, our aim is to set before you two choices every day:
1. Trust God’s leading and let him make the way
2. Trust yourself and make your own way
Choose #1. Choose the path of faith over fear. Choose the path of generosity and joy over anxiety. Choose sacrifice over self-serving behavior. Choose freedom instead of addiction. Choose to grow close to God and let Him shape you into the kind of person He made you to be.
So yes, enjoy the campus. Props on the scholarship. We hope you are the valedictorian of that major. But build your life on Jesus, the only sure foundation. Will this change things? Probably. But does He have a plan so wonderful so you that you couldn’t have dreamed it? Absolutely.