Growing up playing sports, I got used to hearing the word “focus.” I think for many people it’s very easy to focus on the physical things in life that are in the “here and now.” How do we focus on the spiritual things though? How do we stay focused on the eternal things in life? I know in this summer season it can be very difficult to stay focused on Jesus. Between summer jobs, internships, summer classes, (even family!) it can feel like we don’t have any time to do anything else. We have to focus on making Jesus a priority in our lives this summer. 

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of the word “focus” is “mentality.” My mind is what helps control my focus. Colossians 3:2 says:

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” 

Let’s think about the first word in that verse; “set.” The connotation of that word brings precedence to this verse that we are to purposefully make it a priority to set or “focus” our minds on Jesus.  It’s not something that just automatically happens. Sometimes you might have to set your alarm clock to wake up 15 minutes earlier, so you can spend 15 extra minutes with Him before you go to work. Sometimes you might just start praying in the middle of class or wherever you’re at. To stay focused, we’re going to have to start doing things intentionally! 

I think a lot of times our problem with staying focused lies with where our heart is. I’ve struggled with the thought of this many times, but too many times we get caught up with the treasures of this world (Luke 12:34). I mean, that’s the whole reason we go to college right? To get a job, make money, buy a car, and get a dog? Please don’t misunderstand me, those are not bad things. I just believe that God has so much more for our lives than living a materialistic lifestyle. Why would we want to live up to the status quo/standards of a society that rebukes and denies the very existence of our savior? At this point you’re probably wondering, “What does this have to do with staying focused on Jesus this summer?” I’m glad you asked. Matthew 6:33 says:

“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

In all the chaos, and in all the hoopla of summer, we have to seek first the things that God has for us, and everything else will fall into place as God would have it (which might not always be necessarily how we want it). This includes summer jobs, summer classes, internships, etc. Again when he uses the word “seek”; that’s something we have to do intentionally. I’ve never met someone who accidentally searched for something. Then he uses the word “first.” This implies that it should be the number one item on our priority list. Think about it. He could have just said “Seek me and all these things will be added to you,” but he said “Seek first.” By purposefully adding the word first, it implies that this should be our numero uno priority. The two main things to think about when it comes to staying focused this summer is “intentionality” and “priority.” Are we intentionally making time for Jesus because he’s our number one priority?  I know for me personally this question hits like a skillet to the face because it’s a serious reality check. Keep in mind; your priorities typically lie where your heart does. 

Being an engineering student, physics is my favorite subject. One of my favorite topics in physics is momentum. I love riding roller coasters, and momentum plays a key role in the process of how roller coasters work.  Typically you see the biggest hill on a coaster at the beginning of the ride. That’s because once the cart gets over that first hill, the momentum that you gain as gravity pulls you down the hill will carry you the rest of the ride. Think of this summer as a spiritual hill. It’s not always easy getting up the hill, and sometimes you need help from some chains to pull you up. Once we’re over the hill, it can give us the momentum to carry us into and through the fall semester. 

Let me leave you with this. Sharks have to constantly move forward in order to breathe and stay alive. Even while they sleep, they are moving forward. If they stop moving, or even move backwards, they will stop breathing and die. We have to keep moving forward like the sharks, and not be still in our faith or even look back (Proverbs 4:25). This requires us to stay focused!

Be Blessed!

John Sidwell, Student Leader for Impact Christian Fellowship at IUPUI

How easy is it for us to want to plan our lives? Whether you are a person who neatly organizes every part of their life (like me), or someone who wakes up every morning with no clue what they are doing that day, there is some part of all of us that has an idea of how things should be. Even though we are college students and you could say that you have no idea what you’re doing with your life, I would argue that you probably have a lot more planned than you realize. There is no shame in it. It’s part of being human to want life to go a certain way.

But what happens when the plan falls away? What happens when your entire focus becomes switched? I’m not talking about your lunch plans changing at the last second, or the cashier accidentally giving you the wrong amount of change at the checkout. I’m talking about when your world gets so shaken up that each step into the future is blurry and misguided; when you have no sense of direction.

Maybe your car gets totaled and you now have no way to get yourself to school or work. Maybe after paying for a year or two of school, you realize that you have no idea what you want to do anymore, and every major feels like the wrong one. Maybe that two year relationship just ended, throwing us into a tailspin when our future plans of happiness crash and burn. Maybe there’s a sickness or death of a loved one, and now you’re wrestling with a burden that you weren’t ready to carry. From the lowest to the highest end of the spectrum, it’s happened to all of us. However, what we choose to do and who we choose to be in this chaos and fallout defines who we are in Christ.

When the world seems blurry, Jesus remains as clear as ever if you choose to search for him. Lately, God has been consistently reminding me of this fact through a passage that I heard over and over again when I went to Zambia on a mission trip last summer:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. - Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

I think this passage relates so well to where we are right now as college students, and more specifically, where we are in this summer. Many of us are working full time, volunteering, participating in internships and research, studying abroad, traveling, and so much more. Even more of us have just come out of a crazy spring semester that we didn’t think we would get out of alive, either for academic reasons, personal reasons, or a mix of both. The summer that we thought was going to be a relaxing break is becoming more hectic than we realized. The passage above begs us to look for Jesus in the chaos. It doesn’t tell us to find a solution all by ourselves. It doesn’t say to work ourselves to death trying to figure it all out. It tells us to be patient and be faithful in our unstoppable God.

When life becomes too crazy and hectic to handle, we can do one of three things. We can find more strength to carry it, we can find someone to help us carry it, or we can let it crush us. If we need more strength, God asks us to pray and read his word (consistently). If we need help with what life has thrown at us, God gives us fellowship in the form of Bible studies, life groups, and churches. We aren’t alone, and we never were.

Something that I strive for, and that I hope all of you strive for this summer is to bring Jesus back into focus, in whatever form that may take. This summer is the time to either reclaim your faith or to make it stronger than it ever was. For me, I have a long road back to where I was at the start of this school year. Luckily, I have a church and friends that love me, and I have God’s Word that continues to teach me every day. All we have to do is set our hearts on things above. In a blurry world, Jesus can make things clearer than we ever thought possible.

Brad Loeffler, Member of Impact Christian Fellowship at IUPUI

“What is your biggest fear?” I’ve been asked that question countless times, and I never know how to answer it. “Do they want the honest answer or the lighthearted one? I don’t want to give them a cheap answer, if they’re asking seriously. But I also don’t want to kill the mood with something way deeper than they were intending.”

(For the record, here’s my shallow answer: spiders. They’re gross… Especially hairy ones. To all those who pretend to like them, stop lying to yourself.)

Here’s my serious answer: letting people down. I care about people thinking well of me… A lot. I’m a people-pleaser, and too often I set relational goals with others, while stopping short of, or even at the expense of, my relationship with the God of the universe, to whom I’ve been graciously granted access. It’s messed up. That aside, my people-pleasing nature makes being a leader scary. I think it’s scary for everyone at times. However, there’s a much higher risk of letting people down when we allow ourselves to take positions of leadership, because we’re responsible for people; people are counting on us. It’s much safer to simply avoid those positions. But God never called us to live safely. In fact, He’s asked us to live boldly, to step outside of our comfort zones (because how else will we grow?), and to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit through the comfort and discomfort alike.

But what does being a leader mean? What defines a leader?

Before I try to answer that, here’s a disclaimer: My leadership experience is limited, I have much to learn in the leadership positions I hold, and I’m only just about to leave my teens. That being said, I have read a book that provides an excellent, even perfect, example of a leader. That book is the Bible, and that example is Jesus. He’s a pretty trustworthy guy to follow.

I believe being a leader, at its core, is being a servant. As Christ-followers, we cannot separate the two. Removing service from leadership would be denying Christ’s example, contradicting His instruction, and living for personal gain, not divine glory.

One of the most whole-hearted servants I know is the cleaning lady at my church, Ms. Doreen. She faithfully sweeps our sanctuary [gym] floor several times a week, takes out the trash when no one is looking, mops the hallway when she won’t be in anyone’s way, sometimes leaves candy in the church office, and is barely known by the majority of our congregation… She is a leader. She sacrifices much of her life to provide a functional space of refuge to worship, to rejoice, to learn, and to grow. Guys, Ms. Doreen rocks. People probably don’t tell her that.

But why do we need to be “servant leaders”? Why can’t we just avoid both, and get our participation ribbons after crossing the finish line?

I believe we can; but if we do, we’re missing out. We have the privilege of participating in the living God’s work while on this earth. That is grace. That is our means for worship. That is service. That is leadership. That is sacrifice with a greater, more majestic, more weighty, more beautiful reward than we could ever imagine, and certainly than we deserve.

Our perfect example, Jesus, had an established reputation of being a friend to sinners. He hung out with the people who knew they needed Him, and endured ridicule, questioning, and eventually death from those who didn’t recognize their need. “…When the teachers of the religious law, who were Pharisees, saw him eating with tax collectors and other sinners, they asked his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with such scum?’ When Jesus heard this, he told them, ‘Healthy people don’t need a doctor – sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.’” (Mark 2:16-17) He loved the unlovable and gave his time to those who wanted to learn. He invited Himself over to a short (not that being short is inherently bad – it better not be, because I’m 5’1’’), bitter, hated thief’s house, simply because Jesus thought that thief was worth His time, when no one else was giving theirs (Luke 19:1-10). If Thief Zacchaeus was worth Jesus’ time, isn’t your awkward, lonely, or “sinful” classmate worth your time?

Jesus’ example is worth following, regardless of the confusion or mockery it may solicit from others. We can rest in the knowledge that God recognizes our sacrifice, our service, and our leadership even when people do not. When the rubber meets the road, God’s recognition is better than people’s. He deserves so much more than we could give, but HE WANTS US, yes, literally died so he could have relationship with us. He walked to the Cross knowing we would fail him. Through his death, he gets a disobedient child; an unfaithful servant. We get a perfect Father; a gracious Master; a loving Friend; a redeemed soul; a new life.

Now, all that may be true, but this whole servant leader thing is easier said than done. I’m still scared of being a servant leader, because it sounds kind of miserable. I’m scared of being a servant leader, because it feels like a lot of pressure. I’m scared of being a servant leader because that means humility - not the kind of humility that prompts people to say, “OMG, they are just so humble!” but the kind where people don’t say anything at all, because they don’t notice. A dear friend once said, “Humility is scary, because humility is close to invisibility.” However, God’s promises remove the fear in servant leadership. “Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will lift you up in honor.” (James 4:10) “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.” (1 Peter 5:6)

May we, the Church, join together in servant leadership to each other and the world around us, in the peace-giving knowledge that we are not alone (Deuteronomy 31:6), our God is worthy (Revelation 4:11), and our reward is great (2 Corinthians 9:6; Matthew 5:12).

“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:3-11)

Eliza Kosobucki, VP of Worship, Impact Christian Fellowship

Slow music... Dimmed lights... Just the right amount of fog…

If we’re honest, these are a few things that come to mind when we think of worship today.

But what if I told you worship was created to be SO much more? Not just a place to be, but a state of being?

“All places are a place of worship to a Christian.  Wherever he is, he ought to be in a worshipping frame of mind.” [Charles Spurgeon]

Music or no music, worship is a way of life. It’s an act and an attitude.

So why is worship important for a college student? Well, the importance is found in the very essence of its meaning.

Worship is…

Beautiful.

According to Webster, Worship is “excessive admiration for someone; the act of expressing such reverence/respect.”

There are multiple ways to express such admiration for God. It could be through song, as it commonly is, or it could simply be by giving God praise, honor, and glory for every good thing in your life through your daily words and actions.

Worship has always been important to me, but it was at the age of 17 that I discovered what true worship was. It was during a Sunday morning service, at a time in worship when the instruments began playing a little harder, the congregation began to sing a little louder, and the presence of God was evident. As the music began to build, with a microphone in hand, I looked down at the front row from the stage. All of a sudden, I couldn’t get a single word to come out of my mouth. I was speechless at what I saw.

There in the front row was a man standing with his arms stretched high, as if He were trying to touch Heaven. He was singing the words to the song with such passion in his face… and he couldn’t hear a single note being sung or a chord being played because he was deaf. 

It was then that God dealt with me about true worship.  To this man, the music didn’t matter; all that mattered was God, and giving Him the admiration He deserves. In that moment of worship, he simply offered himself. And that’s what worship should be; an act of surrendering yourself out of trust in who God is and His will for your life.

It’s the art of knowing that in every situation life throws your way, God’s got you. 

It’s living beautifully abandoned, in awe of the One who sacrificed His only Son to save you, because He loves you that much.

Being able to lift God up out of revelation of who He is… that’s beautiful. And that’s worship.

A matter of the heart.

John 4:23-24 – “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

The man I talked about in the previous point, to me, is a visual representation of the worshipper God is referring to in this passage. Worshipping God “in spirit and truth” has to do with the heart.

It has to be more than a song; it has to be an internal attitude before it can be an external act, and that begins with time in prayer and in God’s word.

“I believe worship is an expression of honesty between our hearts and God’s. It’s an exchange of pure love. We receive and experience His love for us and cannot help but give it back to Him.” [Kari Jobe]

Worship is rooted in the knowledge of God and His love. When you begin to realize who He is and reflect on all that He has done for you, it’s hard NOT to be in awe and express love towards Him through worship.

Vital.

How easy is it to worry about things in college? REALLY EASY!

But fact: You can’t worry and worship at the same time.

Worry is failing to trust who God is and what He has promised.

Worship is acting out of an attitude of knowing and believing in who God is and what He has promised.

Between exams, papers, clubs, and group projects, college can take a toll. That’s not including work and everything else life entails. It can be really easy to worry about these things and allow them to take hold of your thoughts.

As a senior, this is something I struggle with daily. I mean, if I had a dime for every time someone’s asked me if I’ve got my future figured out yet, I would’ve had my student loans paid off three months ago (not really, but pretty close).

It’s easy to allow the unknown of tomorrow to weigh on your mind, but you have to rest in God and take Him at His word. You have to take the time to meditate on His promises and remind yourself of them daily; especially when you start to worry.

Matthew 6:34 -- “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

This is why worship is important for a college student. It is the act of surrendering your heart, mind, troubles, and future plans to God; acknowledging that He knows best. Worship welcomes the presence of God into our lives, and there is no peace like being in His presence. All the cares of this world don’t seem like such a big deal when you live your life in the presence of the One who created it.

So my challenge to you…

Dedicate time to spend in worship. Talk to God and allow Him to talk back. It may seem hard to find time in your busy schedule, but trust me; you don’t have time to NOT spend time with God.

He’s worthy of the admiration.

Taylor Sidwell, Student in Impact at IUPUI/Worship Team Member

Every time I think about why I’m a Christian, the fundamental answer at the bottom of all the other ones is that I’m a Christian because of stories. Because when the world whispers “chaos”Christianity speaks of a narrative, both for all of history and for my day. Because God gets my English-major storyteller’s heart, because he made it and made it to look like his own. So when I look at the world through God-changed eyes, I see a story, with a plot arc and conflict and characters, and it’s a story about God and it’s a story of love and victory.  

This story comes in two forms: the textual and the actual. The textual is the arc laid out for us in Scripture, of Creation, Fall, Redemption and Consummation. The actual is the history that we live, and track by calendars and clocks, and watch unfolding through news reports. One way we know we can trust God’s story is that these two forms of the story match. They affirm each other. This principle is the subject of libraries’ worth of discussion, and miles too deep to cover here, but we can look in a selective, close-up way at a few reasons to trust God’s story.

As Christians, we trust the Bible because we trust the character of God. However, as responsible students, we trust the Bible for the same reasons we would trust other history books. For example, we have far more original manuscripts or manuscript parts of the New Testament than of any other piece of literature from around the same period. This is important mainly because it shows us that what our New Testament says today is the same as what the copies hand-written almost 2000 years ago said. The story hasn’t changed. From this step, the next question is whether the people writing the original manuscripts were telling the truth about what happened. We can tell this through at least three trains of thought: the internal logic of the people writing the accounts, how soon after the events the accounts were written, and whether non-Christian historians of the time tell the same stories.

By the internal logic of the writers, I mean reasons we can believe they are trustworthy by the same kind of standards we would use to trust the people around us. For example, we tend to trust people humble enough to admit embarrassing things about themselves, and acknowledge when they make mistakes. The apostles who wrote the gospels admit that they did not always understand Jesus, that they fell asleep on him in his greatest crisis after he had asked them to stay awake and pray, and that they doubted his resurrection. Hardly a glowing recommendation for their own agenda. So maybe they weren’t trying to give a glowing recommendation. Maybe they were just telling things as they happened. In addition, we trust people who invest themselves. Who are in it through the hardest times and for the longest haul. The boss who puts in the latest hours and does the dirtiest work earns our loyalty. The apostles spread accounts of Jesus across hundreds of miles without cars or airplanes or even high-tech hiking boots , and then stuck with their stories through criticism, persecution, prison, and death. That kind of commitment earns my trust.

For the dates of the books in comparison with the time of the events, we can argue backward from the book of Acts. We conclude that Acts was written, at the latest, around the early 60s AD, mostly because of what it does not mention. Luke, the writer of Acts talks about both Jerusalem and Rome, but does not mention the war between them or the world-changing fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. Similarly, he talks about the activity of Paul, Peter, and James, but stops before their deaths (which are all recorded by other historians to be in the 60s). We can conclude then that Acts was written about AD 60, and that the gospels (specifically Luke, since Luke starts Acts by referring to the previous account) were written before then, putting them well within the lifespan of eyewitnesses who would have influenced and corroborated their accounts. 

Other historians of the time also encourage us to trust the accounts in the New Testament. At least twelve ancient historians (including Jewish writers, Roman historians, government record-keepers, etc.), mention the death of Jesus, happening as the Bible records it. Others mention how he fulfilled the prophecies about the Messiah, his resurrection, how his followers suddenly began preaching, and additional details about his life. Writers who made a living and a reputation by telling history tell us about Jesus, the same as the apostles who lost their lives to tell the same story. Individually, there is reason to trust either of those categories of people. But together? They leave me with nothing to say.

Compared with the Bible, no other religious text meets these criteria. The Qur’an, for example (because it’s the only one I’m sufficiently familiar with) gets its credibility from the claim to be the literal words of God; it never pretends to be a historical record. It tells stories, like about Abraham and Moses and others, but mainly ones that were already ancient, not ones that happened a few decades prior. Never do the accounts include placement details, like the New Testament’s way of saying “when so and so was governor of this province, these events happened in this city,” and so affirmation from writers of the same time is irrelevant. The Hadith, or the accounts of the life of the prophet Mohammed, do little better in terms of corroboration, and have little narrative logic. In other words, there is little relationship between spiritual story and textbook story, and thus little reason to believe that my story fits into God’s.

But when I look at the Bible, I can see God’s story. And it’s the best story I know. 

Obviously, these notes are just a beginning. You could write books on these subjects, and many people have. In writing this, I looked at an essay by Gary Habermas titled “Why I Believe the New Testament is Historically Reliable” in an anthology called Why I Am A Christian and a chapter called “The Top Ten Reasons We Know the New Testament Writers Told the Truth” in Norman Geisler and Frank Turek’s I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist (a great and very readable intro to apologetics), in addition to the Qur’an and the Bible. Have a look at all of the above. Compare them with one another. I hope you find the same story I do, and I hope it’s a story that transforms the way you see all of history and the way you see your right-now life.

Because our God is the best storyteller there is. Pull up a chair and listen in.  

Krysitiana Kosobucki, Student in Impact Christian Fellowship at IUPUI