Fat, drunk, bankrupt, friendless, and stupid is no way to end up living life. As I recall, none of these characteristics are in the Ten Commandments, Sermon on the Mount, or even in the American Dream. But if you’re entering college with a party mentality, or if you simply fail to guard against the influence of such people, you’re headed down that path. But you say, “I will never end up being that way! I’m just having fun during college. These are my years to have fun until I enter the real world.”
Planning To Fail?
Who has ever set out to be fat, drunk, bankrupt, friendless, and stupid? Okay, I will grant you that many have set out to be drunk. But fat, bankrupt, friendless, and stupid? Do you and your college friends sit around talking about how to be a skill-less, incompetent, poor, lonely drain on society? Of course not! But I’m sure that you can think of individuals who ended up at that place. And those individuals have wondered, “How did I end up like this?”
No College Degree Required!
Welcome to the “real world.” Right now every choice you make about the way you handle your courses, your money, your indulging, your friends, and your time steers you along a certain path. And come on, you don’t need a college degree to figure out that every path leads to a particular destination.
If you want to end up in Indianapolis from West Lafayette, you get on I-65 South. Taking I-65 North will never ever get you to Indy. If you want to end up healthy, sober, financially solvent, with an abundance of friends, and skilled, then you must make the choices now that put you on the road that has these attributes as their destination. Proverbs calls this wisdom. Proverbs is oriented around the concept of “paths and ends.” Check out these verses: Prov 1:15-19; Prov 2:8-9; Prov 2:12-15; Prov 3:5-6; Prov 4:14-19; Prov 4:26; Prov 5:6-8; Prov 5:21; Prov 9:5-6.
You Haven’t Traveled This Road Before
College students, let me be direct—you have not traveled the college road before. You don’t know the bumps, the potholes, the detours, and the end of every path. That is why we need a Divine GPS, God, who designed this world and causes it to always function in certain discernable ways. That is also why God planned for the youth (that’s you) to be guided by older, wiser individuals who have traveled the path before. Check out the common theme in these verses: Prov 1:9; Prov 2:1; Prov 3:1; Prov 4:1; Prov 5:1; etc.
What Path Are You on Today?
Cool! I played four hours of video games today! I spent three hours on Facebook today! It doesn’t matter if I use the college loan money to buy new clothes, beer, pizza, or a new car. I’ll work after college. Hey, I can hook up tonight with somebody for a little sexual fun. It doesn’t matter if I miss class again. I don’t want to be involved in anybody’s life. I don’t need to spend time in God’s Word. You know, many believers are lame; I don’t need them as friends. My parents, professors, and pastors don’t know anything anyway!
If that’s your path, please fasten your seatbelts and return your trays and seatbacks to their upright and locked positions. We are arriving at your final destination—fat, drunk, bankrupt, friendless, and stupid.
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This post relies on some content from the book Make College Count and The Principle of the Path — and some original creativity from me :).
