written by Brian Geihsler

As Ballard is moving from four to five services, it’d be interesting to find out who’s most excited about the change. Would it be the morning people? After all, they get to keep their Sunday routines intact. Could it be the 5 or 7 o’clockers? Who knows, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess which group is more excited than the rest: the college students.

Think about it. With a fifth service at 8:30 PM, they now have a time where they don’t have to wake up early to get to church! 7:00 PM is usually breakfast time, so with that extra hour and a half, they’ll get a much-needed opportunity to sleep in. For all of the college students that currently attend the 7:00, this is an official congratulations for sacrificing your sleep schedule to make it to Ballard on Sundays.

All joking aside, if you’re a college student (especially a Christian college student), you may wonder how you fit into God’s redemptive plan. Jesus is moving all over the world, and closer to home, He’s transforming lives all over the least churched region in America. By His grace, Mars Hill is growing and carrying the gospel all over the Puget Sound area. How do you fit into all that?

We’re not going to answer that question directly here, but let’s take a look at a passage in Jeremiah and get some insight into God’s calling on our lives. We won’t necessarily answer how He will call us, but hopefully we’ll see how to respond when He does.

In chapter 1, God’s calling Jeremiah as a prophet to the nations. Jeremiah is narrating and God is the one speaking to Jeremiah:

“Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations’”
Jeremiah 1:4-5

Before Jeremiah even existed, God knew Jeremiah and appointed him as a prophet to the nations! In time, God’s going to call you to your role in His mission. He’s been planning it since way before you were born. The question is how do we respond when He does call us? Let’s look at how Jeremiah responds:

“Then I said, ‘Ah Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.’”
Jeremiah 1:6

If you were around a few weeks ago for Pastor James’ message about Moses, you can probably see some similarities here with Jeremiah. As we see here, Jeremiah doesn’t get it. God’s called him to be a prophet and even told him that He’s planned it since before he was born, but Jeremiah gives God an excuse that he’s too young.

Now we could sit here and say, “Don’t give God excuses when He calls you. Just trust Him”, and we’d be right on by saying that. But, specifically to college students, you’re going to find that through college and after you graduate, God’s going to call you to things that don’t make sense for someone your age to be doing. Others around you might tell you that you’re too young to even try. Like Jeremiah here, it’s going to be tempting to use youth as an excuse to avoid and doubt God’s call.

Let’s read God’s response:

“But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord’”
Jeremiah 1:7-8

As we would expect, God rebukes Jeremiah for using youth as an excuse. He gives the main reason for why excuses don’t count in His Kingdom when he says, “for I am with you to deliver you”. What Jeremiah misses (and what we miss when we avoid His call) is that God is with us when He calls us to His work. Youth doesn’t matter in God’s work because God is with us doing the work!

So, as you go through college and beyond, don’t doubt God’s call just because you are young. As you continue in His mission to make Jesus famous, remember Jesus’ words when He sends you out, “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age”. Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. He is with you and that’s all you need!