Make The Most Of University

So you’re at university…

You’re here at university to study and think, and to be equipped. A special welcome if you are new! It’s an exciting time. Accounting and architecture, biology and biochemisty, computer science and community planning, data analysis and drama, ethics and English, financial management and fashion design, geography and geology, history and health science, and… I’m not sure I can get us all the way to Z for Zoology! (but maybe you can)

My point is: there are so many different subjects and areas that you and the people around you will be delving into this year. What a wonderful privilege - and hopefully you realise that it is one!

Learning, and learners of Jesus

Followers of Jesus often love learning and knowledge – and so we frequently have a fondness for universities. I wish I had the stats for South Africa, but in the USA, out of the first 108 university colleges that began, guess how many had Christian origins? Don’t worry, I’ll tell you shortly – but suffice to say at this point that it’s a high number. But why? Well, I’d suspect that for many Christians, learning and thought, and being a follower of Jesus went hand in hand.

That might not necessarily be your first reflection of Christians, perhaps of those around you – but it is or should be true. And not in a dull and boring and uncaring way – no, Christians have also been well known as those willing to get their hands dirty in the care of others. But in terms of learning, Christians are frequently naturally curious people. We’re often people of The Book - and books. We try to live with open eyes to the world and people around us. We desire to serve and impact societies and families around us in positive ways.

And our faith not only drives some of our learning, but also enables it. Think of how Christianity enables something like science to thrive. God has created an ordered world, and so science has often been championed by Christians in the past and to the present, as a structured study of God’s structured world. Christianity and the university are not naturally opposed to one another – again, most times (yes, with some terrible exceptions) the opposite has been true: Christian beliefs allowed thinking to flourish.

And the answer above, I’m told, is 106 out of 108.

Think… BIGGER

While you’re here at university you will be presented with many ideas, some of them old, some of them new to you. University is a great time to think and to reflect, to ponder and to question. And we want to add: to do all of that bigger!

Ponder the things that are not only true for this life. To use the phrasing of a business leadership writer named Simon Sinek, get involved in ‘the Infinite Game’ - be prepared to step beyond the finite and momentary. Think about matters that involve what we can’t always see, but that we actually know are more important. Ruminate on things that can fundamentally change and shape us. Consider what can hold us at the deepest level when it seems like all is lost. Think about what spurs you on to living a truly human life, as we were created for (and no, success and power and money are not the epitome of the truly human life - consider how many Hollywood stars are still so empty. Don’t swallow the spiraling ‘univeristy dream’!).

And as part of thinking bigger, we want you to make sure that while at university you consider the claims of Christianity and the Bible and Jesus.

Christ’s big claims

Jesus makes some big claims – massive. He claims to make sense of life itself – to offer life to the full, even when there is suffering. Certain hope, because of His resurrection from the dead.

But the Bible isn’t politically correct in the way it sets forth the message of Jesus. It won’t flatter us – in fact it’ll tells us that we’re the reason the world is the way it is. It won’t say we are the most important person in the universe – like some people (or books) might tell you. It’ll say God is. He, the overflowingly good God who we have turned our backs on, or tried to control through the confines of religion. It’ll make claims that Jesus (and not anyone else) is the only way to come to know God. His life and death (and not any ritual or sacrifice we can do) can take us from enemies to being family with the God who wants us to know him as Father. And then to grow in learning what it is to walk in the ways of life as we were created and then needed to be recreated into.

And, regardless of what you might hear from some pulpits – on the TV or not - it won’t make cheap promises about Jesus making our lives easier. It’s not about making life easier, but about making life better – fuller, even when there are great hardships and difficulties. It offers real and lasting joy even in those. And a coming reality with the coming of Jesus when everything will then finally be set right, forever and perfectly!

Big claims – massive. Are they true?

Make the most of university!

You’re at university now. It’s time to think like adults. To work out what you believe (or don’t believe) and why. And our encouragement is for you to step into that. In general of course (enjoy your many subject this year) – but also, and this would be our encouragement: in terms of wrestling with the identity and work and claims of Jesus.

Go on, make the most of university!

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Are you a student at UKZN Howard College, Westville, or Edgewood; or at MUT or UniZulu?

Contact us (here is one way) if you would like to find out when we have our meetings – we’d be very happy to meet you.

And if you’re at another university or campus in KZN not listed above, still feel free to reach out to us!