As a college student who desires to live missionally, living an unhurried life seems foolish and, at times, impossible.
College students may be conflicted on how they can make time and be equipped to be part of the Great Commission. So, how does a college student trust that God can equip them to share the gospel in the midst of their busyness and youth?
We Surrender Our Schedules to God
These aren’t our plans, schedules, or even desires. God’s sovereignty allows us to relinquish control of our desired pace. Our devotion and trust in the Lord causes us to surrender our lives and schedules to him—no matter how busy they may be.
Prepared for a “normal fall semester,” the schedule I had planned for myself was far from treacherous. But as my studies came to an end, my local church sent me to spend a month sharing the gospel alongside long-term missionaries among the unreached in the Himalayan mountains
After having to trust the Lord every step of the way as he guided me in Nepal, the comfort I once gleaned from my carefully planned schedule now seemed constricting. I had learned what it meant to surrender everything to him. The desire to live even marginally in my will had vanished entirely.
We Trust that God Equips Us
God doesn’t need us. Until we can admit that, stillness will always find a way to escape us. Maybe we’re so concerned with our role in his ministry that we’ve missed the mark entirely. If his will in heaven is to be done on earth, then we should trust that his will is for our brokenness to speak louder to the lost than anything a “productive” schedule could manufacture (Matthew 6:10). We don’t have to have a certain level of theological training or have the ability to recite whole books of the Bible to share the gospel. The Holy Spirit equips us to share our testimony and how through Christ alone, we were given new life.
God doesn’t need us. Until we can admit that, stillness will always find a way to escape us.
One day, as I drowned out the world with my headphones walking down my dorm hallway to the communal laundry room, the last thing that was on my mind was sharing the gospel. What I had already perceived to be a twenty-second laundry drop-off turned into an hour-long conversation with a neighbor I had never met who happened to be putting in his laundry at the same time. Having just met the Lord myself not even three months prior—with little biblical knowledge and virtually no scriptural memorization—I was as unequipped as they come for an evangelistic endeavor. But God used me in that laundry room, and I was just along for the ride.
Gripped by a desire to fit in and confronted with the reality of what the college party scene really entailed, the freshman neighbor whom I had just met poured everything out to me as if we had been friends for years. When the conversation began to lull, having nothing to draw on for biblical advice, all that remained was the radical love that had encountered my life in the form of Jesus and a pressing need to share it with my new friend. He was thirsting for a love deeper than anything that temporary, substance-based satisfaction could provide him, and thankfully, I knew the One who offered living water.
In the absence of my knowledge, the Lord stepped in. In the absence of my international experience, he brought those who needed him to my front door. As I stood years later praising the Lord at a worship night with my new friend–now a Christian–by my side, I knew that God was good. Whether serving the nations abroad or confined to a college campus the Lord will introduce the lost to those who know him.
We Recognize that the Nations are in Our Neighborhoods
As college students, we are in a unique life stage that for some, encourages global mobility, and for others, cements them where their feet are. If we are to be the feet that carry his message to the nations but are prevented from global travel due to our obligations, how can we still live missionally?
Traveling from every corner of the globe to attend American universities, students from highly under-evangelized or unreached nations are now within our reach. Our college years should not be seen as a season of waiting before the “real mission” begins, but as an active mission field that the Lord has placed us in intentionally. As college students struggle to find time or the finances for mission trips, we can remember that the nations are in our own neighborhoods. We have the privilege to build relationships and enter into gospel conversations with our peers every day at college.
By God’s grace, you will realize you already have everything you need to live a mission-oriented life on your college campus. The same Spirit that raised the dead lives inside of you, and he intends to use it to do the same inside the hearts of those who haven’t heard.
Sean Palmer is an undergraduate student at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville pursuing a degree in Geography with a concentration in World Cities and Economics. Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, he is passionate about how the Lord uses the uniqueness of built environments to call people to himself. He is a College Ministry & Growth Intern at Shoreline Church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
