Over the past week, I have received four messages from university students, each of whom has made a recent commitment to become a more devoted follower of Jesus on campus. Although they are attending different schools and perhaps do not even know one another, they expressed (in different ways) the very same sentiment: “Pastor Greg, this is not easy. I’m not being imprisoned or killed for my faith, but I still feel rejected… Mostly, I feel out of sync with everything around me. My friends think I’ve lost my mind. My faith convictions seem to clash with everything being taught in my classes. I don’t get invited to the things everyone else is doing… My campus is a warm, friendly place, and I love my friends, but my beliefs are creating distance between everyone else and me. Do you have any advice? Will you pray for me?”
One of the things I have told them is that their feelings reflect perfectly what the Christians in Asia were feeling when the Apostle Peter wrote his first letter to them. Peter wrote this letter before Christians were actually being put to death for their faith in Jesus—but their faith had put them “out of sync” with those around them. The Christians valued what others in their communities did not value. These new Christians said that they felt like “aliens and strangers in the world.”
Does that sound like the way we sometimes experience life when we’ve sought to make a deeper commitment to Jesus? If so, the series of issues we will address from May–August may be geared directly toward you. We are entitling it “When Times Get Tough.” When Peter wrote the letter, he spent very little time telling them the philosophical reasons for suffering. And, he did not say that they should just “grin and bear” the trials because Jesus will be coming soon. Instead, Peter told them the resources God gives us in the midst of tough times. Very practically, he gave specific directives for how we should live. I believe that we will find the lessons as timely as they were when they were first given.
To His glory,
Dr. Greg Waybright
Senior Pastor