College is awesome. What other time in your life will you be almost fully independent and have little to no responsibilities? You can stay up until 2 am and wake up at 10 am every day and no one would bat an eye. Go to 2 or 3 classes during the course of the day (or even a week), and spend the rest of your time playing video games and watching movies with your friends. There truly are no rules to follow. You can fill your weekends with parties and bars. Having fun getting drunk with all your classmates. Just like every college movie ever. Or if you came to college for other reasons, like getting a degree, you could spend your nights tucked in at the library studying for your ever-revolving tests. College is just awesome. So why would you follow Christ in college? If college is truly this perfect dream life, why would you follow anyone? And if having the college experience truly fulfills you, honestly you would not need Christ.

However, that’s not the end of this story. Because that comes with a huge caveat, if having the college experience truly fulfills you… The problem with the “perfect life” of the college dream is that it does not (and can not) provide ultimate fulfillment.

Maybe you love the instant gratification you get when you level up in your video game, but at what level will you actually feel accomplished? Maybe you get drunk and feel amazing for a night, but in the morning is your appetite for fun ever satisfied? Could this be the one-night stand that will give you the love and affection that you have been wanting or will it leave you feeling worthless? And in the tireless pursuit of good grades, will the next A+ be enough, or will you have to continue to perform to make your parents or yourself proud? Are all the things the college experience promises not just ways we try to find fulfillment? And in each we end up feeling worse.

We all find ourselves in this exact loop, trying to apply meaning to our lives but coming up empty. This is because we try are trying to find meaning in things that God never designed us to find satisfaction in. We aren’t meant to find true fulfillment in achievements on earth, getting drunk, having sex outside of marriage, or countless other things. That is why pursing those things always leaves us empty.

But God has already given us a purpose, he has given us meaning, and he has given us an identity. However, in our search for belonging, each one of us turns our backs on God’s perfect design for us. Separating ourselves from God, destining us for death. But God sent his Son Jesus to live the perfect life and die the death for our trespasses. Ephesians 2:4-5 says, “4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love that he had for us,] 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!” Even though we continually turn our backs on God, because of God’s mercy and love, He gives us life through His grace. Then from that new life that he promises he gives us a complete sense of fulfillment. This newfound happiness is exemplified in Psalms 1:1-3,

If we delight in the Lord’s instruction we will be like the beautiful image of a tree planted by a river, continually being fulfilled with all that we need in Christ, bearing fruit. We will no longer need to strive to find fulfillment in the world, because all we truly need is provided in the river of Christ. 

That is why following Christ is important in college. Because following Christ gives life. No matter what the college experience promises, a life full of happiness rooted in the unconditional love of God is better.

By: Aaron Hershberger