So you learned some great stuff at Encounter. You might have even shared your faith for the first time. Right now you feel bulletproof. After all, you’ve realized that all of the folks back on campus aren’t living for the Lord, like you are.
You have figured out the key to life! Jesus is the answer!
Just don’t do what I did. See, I was a textbook Campus Crusader all the way through college. I shared my faith for the first time my freshman year, and by my senior year I was the president of Cru, was leading Bible studies, had been on two summer projects, and more staff recruiting dinners than anyone I knew. I had it all figured out, too. I knew the best apologetic arguments, could answer any objections, and play all the chords in at least two Shane and Shane songs.
What happened over time (and almost completely without my noticing) was that I became an insider. And I started to actually think that being an insider was what mattered. I still shared my faith, sure. But I saw the gospel as something that the outsiders needed, and that I had already figured out. What that created was a near-total lack of freedom in my life, and I began alienating friends. They didn’t know how to confront me in my arrogance, and I probably wouldn’t have listened anyway, but I look back on that period in my life with much regret. I’m still mending the relationships that I jacked up now almost 10 years ago.
If you walked away from Encounter with anything other than a deeper love for Christ and a deeper sense of your need for him, and especially if you walked away thinking that you’ve got it all figured out now, please repent. Martin Luther said that the whole life of a Christian is a life of repentance. The only thing I’ve figured out in the past 10 years is that I don’t have it figured out, and that Jesus does.
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amen