Vol.1 No.5

Q. Recently, I accepted Jesus in my life, but I spent a lot of years before that using drugs and I am afraid my mind has been affected. Though I finished high school my performances were poor. I have a desire to serve the Lord and witness but I am not sure whether I should try college to better prepare for God’s work. Please give me some counsel.

A. A college probably will not be easy for you, but I want to urge you to choose carefully a college that will prepare you more effectively for God’s service.

From your story there are quite a number of things that could have been responsible for your poor academic performance in nigh school. These could include:

1. A greater-than-average difficulty in academic performance;
2. A reduced ability (due to drug use, to perform effectively in an academic environment;
3. A drug-induced lack of exertion needed for successful academic performance;
4. No spiritual commitment, hence, no empowering for adequate performance.

I have found that young people who turn to the Lord, an are on fire to honor Him in everything that they do, will sometimes show miraculous improvement in their scholastic performance. That could very well be your situation. The importance of education needs to be stressed but the choice of a college is all-important. Even among Christian colleges today there are many who have succumbed to the pressure of secular goals and purposes. Find a college, preferably a smaller one, that is totally committed to the service of training and educating you for service for God and man; one that will not only give you an academic base but also a training in witnessing for God. When you find such a college you will discover that, though you can do a work for God without the education, you will do an even greater work providing you retain the same high dedication. Remember the words of Paul: “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).