By Steve Shadrach                                                                   

• 54% of college freshmen guys expect to be millionaires before age 40. Males 18 and over average 4 hours, 44 minutes of TV watching daily. 95% of Christian college men think viewing pornography is a sin, but 48% admit viewing it regularly. I’m not sure who Carson Daly is, but when you punch his name into the Altavista search engine 1,643,717 pages pop up.

• Maybe these bits of trivia don’t mean anything─or maybe they mean the earth is about to spin off it’s axis and we’ll be dust before you finish this article! Either way, this list is for you. I’m sure you feel like your life is swirling around you like a Kansas tornado, but unless you want to be picked up and swept away like Dorothy and Todo read and heed the “Ten Things Every Christian College Guy Should Know”.

• 1. Choose a Life Purpose

It is a choice and you get to make it. You have a free will, but an all powerful, all knowing, all loving God gave it to you. So, why not revolve your life purpose around the One that gave you life in the first place? Don’t let one more Survivors episode go by before you’ve nailed this down. Lock your door, get your Bible out, and search. As a sophomore I came up with: “To glorify God through knowing Him and making Him known to others.” Not original, but it was mine. Having a God centered life purpose gets you up in the morning, helps you make good decisions, and looks cool on your bathroom mirror!  

• 2. Develop a Biblical Worldview

I’m reading an intriguing book by Chuck Colson called How Now Shall We Live? that’s giving me a major paradigm shift. After taking two Tylenol, I admitted that I had a puny, self centered worldview and forced myself to ask, “Self, am I looking at life from my perspective or from God’s?” When we saturate our thinking with the Word, we develop a God shaped grid to run every song, movie and idea through. Try Colson’s daily worldview update at www.breakpoint.org. Lastly, don’t allow even a trace of internet pornography to pollute your mind. Download a filter and ask the cafeteria lady to type in the password!  

• 3. Seek Out the Right Friends

My Pastor says, “If you’re trying to follow Christ, don’t choose as your best friend someone who is running from Him.” Studies show at least 50% of students have cheated and don’t think it’s wrong, one in five have over $10,000 in credit card debt, and almost one fourth are frequent binge drinkers. Be careful, getting tight with one of these folks could be more painful than watching an Oakland Raiders ootball game! I’m not saying don’t befriend non-Christians ─ that’s the key to drawing them to Christ. But bind your heart to someone who is really seeking God: “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another”. Touche!  

• 4. Join a Good Church

Away from home? No one to tell you to get up and go find one of those premium back row seats at the fam’s church? Now you can prove what you’re really made of! Micro scooter yourself over to the late service of that local fellowship that has a rep for: 1) Good Bible teaching, 2) Great worship, and 3) Lots of students. Don’t just sit, soak, and sour. Give your time, talent, and treasure to those folks. It will pay great dividends.   

• 5. Form Consistent Study Habits

I’m a total hypocrite even mentioning this one. After all, I did graduate in the upper 75% of my high school class. No brag, just fact! Yea, you can buy tests and papers via the internet, but why cheat yourself? As I “matured” in college, I started going to every class, sitting on the front row, and finding the top student to study with. My grades flatlined ─ at a 45 degree angle straight up! Stay focused and you can be part of the 24% of U.S. citizens who possess a college degree. Be all you can be!  

• 6. Initiate Personal Ministry

To balance out #5, I must say: Don’t let your studies get in the way of your education! The biggest lesson you will learn at college is what God wants to do in your life─and through your life. Find a group that’s trying to witness and disciple others. Pray about living on campus, starting a small group Bible study, and leave a legacy behind by influencing some lives for Christ. If you really want to get radical, join the thousands of students who do short term summer mission trips. Look ‘em up at www.ShortTermMissions.com  

• 7. Set up Dating Standards

57% of collegians claim they’re “sexually active”. Think this is just locker room braggadocios? Think again! Many are looking for sex without strings and relationships without rings. Over 16 million people are downloading their love life via online dating services. That’s more people than have ever even heard of Roy Orbison’s song Only the Lonely. Here is a profundity: You will marry someone that you date! Commit yourself to only date girls who have the kind of goals, faith and character you want in a mate someday. Think I’m being picky? Exactly!  

• 8. Maintain a Proper Balance

Harry Potters’ Professor Dumbledore sheds this light: “It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” College is all about choices. With suicide now the third leading cause of death among college age young people, it’s time to adopt the four square life that Jesus sought in Luke 2:52: “He increased in wisdom and stature, in favor with God and man.” WWJD? He chose not to sweat the small stuff, but instead to develop Himself mentally, physically, spiritually, and socially. Go for it!  

• 9. Appreciate Your Parents

O.K., so my wife put me up to this one. It is amazing, though, how much smarter your parents get once you leave for college. You begin remembering all their laborious lectures and suspect that maybe they did have a sliver of wisdom in those thick brains! And if you catch fire for Christ, don’t make the mistake I did and go home and tell your parents they’re going to hell. People most often become Christians through the witness of a family member. So call them, visit them, tell them you love and appreciate them; and if they oppose you getting branded with a “tribal art” tattoo ─ Don’t do it!  

• 10. Keep Graduation in Mind

Nearly one third of freshmen drop out of college their first year. Congrats if you are part of the remaining two thirds! Also, know that those with college degrees earn nearly twice as much as those without. But more important than a diploma or an extra zero on your paycheck is what kind of person you plan on being when you graduate. My definition of college? A window of time God gives us to make critical decisions and prepare ourselves to live them out. Set goals, seek the Lord, build a deep foundation and understand that the end of your college career says so much more about you than the beginning. Oh, and have some fun too!                                                                                                                                                                                                 

• Steve Shadrach founded Student Mobilization, a non-denominational college ministry, and lives across the street from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR. He and his family have a live-in discipleship training program in their home for students. Steve is the Director of Mobilization for the U.S. Center for World Mission and also President of The BodyBuilders, a ministry committed to building up and mobilizing the Body of Christ to fulfill the Great Commission. For more info: www.stumo.org and www.thebodybuilders.net