Well it is finally that time of year every college student looks forward to: the few months that we get a mental break from the constant grind of classes. I have a feeling that I am not alone in saying that making the transition into the summer is a blessing and struggle at the same time. I think the underrated part of college is the consistency of your schedule. Each day you know where you need to be almost down to the minute. You know exactly how much time you have to grab lunch and you know how far back you can push studying to leave just enough time to cram before a test.

With summer it can be different. The summer job schedule may vary. We don’t always know what to expect from work. When we aren’t working, we want to hangout with friends and family. And then on the rare days we don’t have anything on our plates we just want to chill and be with ourselves, not to mention throwing in a summer vacation.

I would like to share that I went through several weeks where I really struggled with my quiet times with God. Specifically, the week I was on vacation and my first week of work. I kept telling myself, “I’m on vacation, it doesn’t matter if I miss a couple days” or “I’m adjusting to my new work place, I’ll figure it out later.” Next thing I knew I was over a week behind connecting with God. What I hadn’t noticed was how it had affected my interactions with others. I had started to become impatient and I realized my thoughts were becoming more cynical.

Far too often I put too much pressure on myself to spend time in God’s word each day that I lose sight of the true reason behind spending time with God. Before it was a way to draw closer to the Creator of the Universe, but now it transpired into something I did just to check it off the list.

Psalms 119:105 “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

In a world that can be so grey and clouded, we, as believers, have a tool that can illuminate the direction we need to follow in our lives.

Hebrews 4:15 “This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.”

Jesus lived on this earth as a human for over 30 years. He understands the difficulties of life. So why isn’t he our first place to turn when life throws challenges our way?

Here are 3 practical steps to take when spending your quiet time with the Lord each day:

1.     Start by praying. I do a super poor job at this and I often don’t have the right heart when I do pray but it just starts things off on the right foot. I believe that it is important to create the right mindset. It’s like telling God, “Here I am Lord, show me what you want me to learn about you and your character.”

2.     Try to see what the passage of scripture says about God and his character. Even if it isn’t obvious, more than likely something can be learned about who God is. I think the more we focus on God and His character the more the focus turns to loving God for who He is rather than just becoming head knowledge.

3.     End your quiet time with time of silence. It is important to be able to reflect on what you just read and to listen to what God is telling you that day. Far too often, I am guilty of quickly exiting the Bible app and going straight to Instagram or Snapchat. When I do that, I quickly forget everything I just read. Don’t be afraid to start a journal of what you have learned. Sometimes it can super helpful to quickly jot down some thoughts.

These steps will not lead to the perfect quiet time, but what will lead to is solid quiet time with your heart. If your heart isn’t in it, you can’t expect to draw closer to Jesus.

Matthew 22:37 Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all heart, all your soul, and with all your mind.”

Let’s seek to draw closer to Jesus this summer. Let’s be filled with the desire to seek Him before all else and to seek to bring Him glory.

Troy Dover, Impact at IUPUI, VP of Student Life

I vividly remember it; waking up to the first day without school. I had just finished my sophomore year of high school and I had big goals for my summer. A stack of books beside my bed represented my academic aspirations, the jump rope and chin-up bar showed my desire to earn the starting power forward spot and the phone was my key to endless hours of fun with friends. It was going to be an AMAZING summer.

95 days later I woke up to a blaring alarm which loudly proclaimed summer was over and school had started again. My stack of great literature and poetry lay by my bed relatively untouched. The jump rope and chin-up bar had seen small amounts of use. The plans with friends had failed to take into account the fact that I had no car or license. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great summer. I got to sleep in, eat great food, play lots of games, enjoy vacations, got the starting position and spent some time with friends. Yet, it was not as epic as it could have been.

Now why am I telling you this story of my sophomore summer? Because far too often I find myself daily replaying this story in my spiritual walk. It has great moments where God reveals His character to me. Times when I step out in faith and those early morning prayer times where His presence is so real. And yet, it also has a lot of unread moments, chin-up bars which didn’t seem worth the effort and wasted opportunities for connection.

For years 2 Corinthians 5 has been a central passage in my life and recently it has become a vision and a prayer for how I want to live my life. Verse 14 starts out, “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.”

How cool is that?! Imagine living in such a way that the love of Christ literally CONTROLS me to no longer live for myself but for others? I can imagine the true freedom, hope, and security which comes with a life so radically and daily transformed by Christ.

Paul continues in verse 17, “ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[b] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling[c] the world to himself.”

Paul is telling the church that Christ’s love should control them to live for others so that in God and through God they might become a new creation. This is God’s vision for everyone who proclaims the name of Christ! It is a beautiful picture of growth.

I am a firm believer that mere humans do not have the power to mess up God’s plan of our lives. However, the decisions and actions we make every day certainly have the ability to hinder us from experiencing the full beauty of the story God is weaving through our lives.

In reading this passage I began to realize that I had been spiritually treading water. Or as Paul describes it, finding nourishment in milk when I should be moving on to the meat.

But this is where it got difficult. It is one thing to have a vision and a totally different thing to do something about it. I have a very real vision of dunking on all my friends and yet the reality of jump rope is a very different story. This is where motivation comes into play.

Motivation is the word of my summer. It has the idea of drive or purpose. It is the propeller which pushes someone forward.

So, what is the motivation to follow after God’s story with reckless abandon?

LOVE.

Take a look back at the 2 Corinthians passage, “For the love of Christ controls us.” Now substitute the word 'control' with 'motivates', “for the love of Christ motivates us.” Christians should be so in love with Christ and God that the mere thought of missing out on one iota of the beauty of God’s amazing story and settle for a good story motivates them to continue transforming into a new creation.

I gain this kind of love by gazing in wonder at a sunset, conversing deeper with people about life, choosing to smile instead of grumble at the early mornings, hearing the deep laughter of friendship, worshipping in church, reading the Word, and most of all, when considering Christ ultimate sacrifice, to redeem my worthless brokenness.

It’s not easy and I can’t say I do it perfectly or even well. However, it is my prayer that Christ’s love would motivate me to pursue transformation in such a way that people would describe me like King David was once described, “Behold David the son of Jesses is a man of valor, a man of (strength), prudent in speech and a man of good presence, and the Lord is (clearly) with him.” - 1 Samuel 16:18

Ryan Fraser, Impact at IUPUI VP of Fellowship

Busy, lazy, and Netflix.

Though we may all have had plans to dedicate more of our lives to Jesus this summer, I have recently found this not to be the case in my life. Due to the many distractions that summer brings, we need a plan to stay focused and dedicated to Jesus. I have found it is way too easy to blow God off, saying, “I’ll read my Bible in the morning for sure. I’m just too tired tonight.” John 15:4 says, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.”

So, how do we discipline ourselves to run toward Jesus and to remain in Him, and not these other distractions?

01 ;; Prayer. I can’t stress how important prayer is. When I say prayer, I don’t mean just saying a quick prayer in your head throughout the day (which is not a bad thing at all) nor do I mean on your face in your prayer closet (which we also need to be doing!). Rather, I mean getting away from the things of this world and just hanging out with Jesus. This could be putting all your devices away and turning on worship music and spending time in His presence. Just spending some quiet time with Him is crucial because we always need to be drawing closer to God. As Christians we’re supposed to follow Jesus, but how do we follow someone we don’t know. Prayer enables us to know the heart of God and effectively follow Him. 

02 :: Reading the Word. Too many Christians today think going to church on Sunday mornings is enough. Let me ask you this, is only eating food on Sundays enough to get you through the week? The word is like our food source. Going without it, we will starve, spiritually. Mathew 4:4 says, “It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” We’ve got to stay in the word! I’m not saying read all of Genesis in one day (which is probably impossible) but we have to be reading our Bibles daily. Even a few chapters a day is beneficial! It’s us refueling. You can only go so far before running out of gas.

The hard part is sticking with it. So while you’re trying to get a million things done at once, just pray that the Lord put a new fire in you. That you'll be hungrier for Him than ever before. If you make time when you have little of it, I believe whole-heartedly that the Lord will bless your time. Jesus even promised this Himself, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33) No matter what season you’re in, be sure to always be seeking God.

Kayla Morris, Student in Impact at IUPUI