One of the things I’ve loved in this new season I’m in is getting the chance to meet one on one with college students that are looking to take that next step in whichever direction God is leading. Most of the time, they have no idea where God is leading and stress is pretty high on the agenda as they’re looking to make the right decision. I know decisions can be tough, especially when family and futures are involved, but when we’re living our lives for something bigger than ourselves, it’s hard to make selfish choices. This is one of the reasons I enjoyed meeting with Ben this week.
Ben is finishing up his sophomore year of college, but he truly believes that God is calling him to a little break. Just two years ago, Ben came down to Tuscaloosa from New Jersey, riding the coattails of a girl he believed he could have a future with. During his first year of college, his girlfriend told him that she couldn’t date someone that had such opposite beliefs as her. Ben didn’t grow up in church and was much closer to agnosticism than Christianity, so that landed him as a single guy in a city where he barely knew anyone. He tried Christianity to win her back, but when that didn’t work as planned, he had to reevaluate his motives.
What started out as a ploy to win a girl back, became something he couldn’t get out of his head. He joined a freshman college Bible study on the basics of Christianity and left out the fact that he wasn’t a Christian. As a scholar and a writer, Ben took a very analytical view on what was being taught, but still found himself in the study week after week. He thought he could poke holes in the arguments for Christianity, but before he knew it, God was softening his heart and preparing him to turn a complete 180. Before his first semester was over, he had given his life to Christ and there was no turning back.
Ben dove into the Word and theology and became a student of the Bible. As I talked with him, I felt like he had already completed seminary based on the way he was talking, but this guy had barely been a Christian for two years. One of the first guys Ben stumbled upon was David Platt, the author of Radical (if you haven’t read it, read it) and the senior pastor of a church about 45 minutes from here. While reading that book along with the Bible, Ben knew he had a total life change ahead of him. His first step, was to tell his parents about this transformation.
Neither of his parents are Christian, but I think they were okay with Ben’s decision at first. It was his next decision that made his parents a little weary. Ben decided that he couldn’t just go to school for two more years and allow himself to grow numb to the decision he just made. So after a Google search, he landed on the World Race and immediately applied. Within a few weeks, he was accepted, he began the steps to fund raising, and had the talk with his parents. It wasn’t an easy one, and it will continue to difficult as the year goes on. But in two months, Ben will leave for a year long commitment on the World Race and there’s no way he’ll come back the same.
As Christians, we often have to make decisions that seem pretty radical to the people around us. Those decisions are often life changing, even if no one else around us notices. God has been doing an incredible work in Ben’s life and he knew he needed to put some things on hold in order to seal in this work. So he’s going. I loved hearing his story and hearing him talk about where God is leading him and thinking about the fact that this guy is still a “baby Christian”. I know people that have been Christians their whole lives and still can’t take that big step for Jesus. But, we’re all wired differently and God works in each of our lives differently. BUT, we’re all called to lay down our own lives, pick up our cross, and follow Him. There’s no interpretation really needed for that one.
Side note, Ben is a brilliant writer that works for the college newspaper at The University of Alabama, so his blog is a huge ministry platform he will be using. So go read it, sign up for a subscription, and follow his journey. Just click on his name anywhere…
