Last week a university friend asked me, two years on, how I found those precious university years because, he said, ‘you sort of did your own thing’. Accurately put. You could even say that I followed my own grade based obsession.

I wonder if you can relate to my experience. With increasing numbers of people getting degrees, less graduate-level jobs about and more competition from abroad, not to mention that you’re now most likely facing double my level of student debt, it can be easy to become obsessed with getting the best possible degree time and money can buy you.

However, there’s a danger that this can lead us to become blinkered. We can get so caught up in our studies, not to mention various other activities we hope will boost our CVs, that we all too easily miss the wider part that God is calling us to play in His mission to reach out to our university campuses and transform our cities. I know I did.

Now two years on I’m haunted by a picture of the Kingdom impact I could have had if I’d only had Kingdom priorities at heart.

What if I’d got properly stuck into and invested in my church rather than turning up once or twice a month? What if I’d spent more time investing in relationships there, taking the time to speak to new people and widening my support network? What if I’d got involved in outreach and mission to the local community rather than seeing it as a non-essential activity eating into study time? What if I’d taken that opportunity to step out into and grow in Christian leadership – led that small group, preached that sermon, joined that serving team? What if I went on and used that church weekend away to invest in my relationship with God and my fellow students? What if I’d been discipled and made disciples?

Most of all, what if I had allowed those relationships, that support, that leadership training to be a springboard into a life lived on campus for Jesus and then invested in friendships, prayed for and loved people on campus, so that I engaged in university culture more broadly than just a library booth and a pile of books?

How many more people would have come to know Him then? What impact could I have had on my campus? What kind of person would I be now? How much fun could I have had? I’ll never know but I’ll bet you the impact would’ve been huge! Certainly far greater and longer lasting than that number that I’ve never really needed at the bottom of an A4 certificate.

Don’t get me wrong our studies are important, we are called to study and to worship God through our work. In fact we honour God when we work hard as if it were directly for Him. So there are ditches both sides of the road, wholly neglecting our studies is not a Godly response but similarly wholly obsessing over them is a narrow response that wastes a wealth of opportunities. It’s a difficult path to tread but I hope that learning from my experience helps you to not waste but make the most of the greatest opportunity university life can offer you; to really be part of the local church and to use that as the springboard into a life lived on campus for Jesus.

Disclaimer - taking time to relax and socialise is also important – this blog is not designed to guilt you into cramming yet more activity into your already packed schedule but to help us to think more deeply about where we prioritise our time and energy.