If you could write a letter to yourself as you started uni, what would you say?
Dear Tom,
Well done. You’re here. All the hard work and the studying has paid off and you’ve made it. You’ve made it to uni, you’ve made it to independence and you’ve made it to freedom. Freedom is a wonderful thing. Be careful how you use it.
Just because you’re free to do something doesn’t mean you should do it. All the excessive drinking, all of the late nights and the partying, they’re fun at the time, but the morning after? It’s not worth it. The weeks of regret? It’s not worth it. Getting a bit of a reputation for being ‘that drunk guy’? It’s not worth it.
If you have to look back and say ‘I’m not proud of this, I want to block it out’, then you know it’s not going to be worth it. But you have a choice. You have a freedom to choose. It’s not a choice between them and God. It’s not a compromise you have to make. You can bring God to them.
The friends you make will be the friends you have with you for the rest of your life. They don’t care about how much you drink. They don’t care about how many times a week you go out. They don’t care if you smoke or not. They just want to hang out and spend time with you. And that time is so important. That time is the time you can open up and be honest with them, be vulnerable and invest in them.
And when you are honest and vulnerable, that is the best way that you can be a light to your friends, and to share Jesus with them. There’s no fakery or disguising. When you are simply you, it’s the best version of you that there can ever be.
Get plugged into a church that will help build you up, and strengthen and encourage you in your faith. Go deeper with God, and surround yourself with friends who want to see you strive to see God at work in your life and in the lives of your friends who don’t know Jesus.
Be confident. Talk to people about your faith. Invite people to events at church. Step out of the boat and meet them where they’re at. Ask, don’t push, but ask. Don’t be afraid of failure. They won’t hate you for asking, and hearing no is ok. The main thing is that you ask. They have the freedom to say no, as you have the freedom to ask. Freedom is a wonderful thing.
Don’t worry about the pressure of the uni lifestyle. Instead know that in freedom, the freedom found in Christ, uni can be a place for you discover more of who you are, and more of God, and you can use that to reach those closest to you, who don’t know him. Choose to invest time in your friends. Choose to be a light to them. Choose freedom.
Tom.
