rMag

Practically Speaking School in the Balance

Andrew Randazzo

It’s that time of year again when most of us are back off to school. The excitement, the drama, the pressures of homework and projects. The school year has its ups and downs, but I’ll be honest, there’s one thing that always concerns me. It’s one of the biggest prayer requests that I have at the start of my semester and all the way through it. My prayer is that I would be balanced in three areas, which I’m going to share with you today.

Area 1: God

I attend a Christian college that has a program set up for freshmen and sophomores to meet in a certain room each morning to have their quiet time. The purpose of this is to help us build a habit of daily seeking God and spending time with Him.

If you go to a public school or a state college that doesn’t offer any spiritual guidance or a Christian school without a similar program, the fact still remains that it is vital for you to have a set time to spend with your God. This sets the tone for the rest of the day and influences the decisions you make. It helps bring you back to why you do what you do and what your life should be centered around.

Whether it be an actual time such as 7 a.m. or a reference point like every day after dinner; it’s important to stay consistent. I don’t advise having quiet time in the middle of the day because trying to stop everything can be difficult, and your concentration may suffer. I also wouldn’t advocate that your main quiet time should be spent in the morning, but I do believe that you should spend a few minutes in reflection and prayer each day before everything starts up.

Prayer must also be included in this category of our relationship to God. Not only must prayer be implemented in our quiet time, it should also be something that is regular throughout the day. Take time during your lunch break to spend ten minutes with God in prayer, asking Him for alertness in the following classes or whatever else may be on your heart. Take breaks to pray while doing your homework. Prayer must become as natural to you as eating is when you’re hungry.

In E.M. Bounds’ book on prayer,¹ he talks about the relationship of prayer to God’s Word. According to him, we don’t know what to pray for as we ought if we’re not in God’s Word, and God’s Word cannot come alive except through the fervency of our prayer over the Scriptures.

The first area that we need to focus on then, is our relationship with God. The second, academics, is an area in which we are often unbalanced.

Area 2: Academics

A major problem among our generation is the tendency to over-commit and over-work ourselves. The result is a chaotic life filled with mediocrity. As Christians, we are to live a life of excellence, but when we’re so wrapped up in our busy schedule and just trying to knock things out, we lose the quality in what we do.

Yes, it’s important to get good grades in your classes. Yes, you want to be well-rounded and involve yourself in extra-curricular activities. However, don’t let these things consume your life so that friendships and God are neglected. Don’t do so much that you find yourself struggling to keep your head above water. Otherwise, instead of doing well in everything, you will find yourself just trying to get through it all and pass.

The chancellor of my school has been known to say, “Academics take away from a good college [school] education.” There’s truth to that saying. Most subjects learned in school can be found in books on your own (many of you may do that already if you’re homeschooled). Your future employer won’t care about your grades as much as he will about your character and personality.

If you really want to be committed to a balanced schedule, you need to have some sort of organizer that lays out your academic responsibilities and allows time for God, getting out and doing things with or ministering to others, and any other non-academic activities.

The real benefits of a school institution are the social skills that you learn, the ministry opportunities that are available, and the many experiences that can only be found in a school setting. Consequentially, it is important not to forget ministry opportunities at school.

Area 3: Ministry

Whether you go to a secular or a Christian school, there are many opportunities for ministry. These opportunities require time; you can’t be ministering to someone with your head in a book. Ministry isn’t an optional activity; it’s something that God expects of us. He tells us in Matthew that we are to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. In 1 Peter he says we are to be a blessing to everyone. Ministry is what we’re here to do as Christians.

When you schedule out your time, make sure to leave space for making yourself available to others. Maybe there are ministries already set up for you to get involved in, or maybe you could be creative and start your own ministry with a particular burden that you have or a need that you see.

If you’re like me, you see all the possibilities and needs for ministry and want to do them all; but then you run into the same problem as with academics. You spread yourself out too thin so that your ministries lack excellence, and they are not as profitable as they could be. So, pick one, maybe two things that you’d like to get involved in, and do them to the best of your abilities.

In addition, part of what falls under ministry is discipleship. Discipleship is how the body of Christ is built up. Find someone who you think you can encourage, love, and challenge in the faith. It could be more than one person, but make sure you don’t overload yourself. Also, be willing to look outside your circle of friends. People are worth the time.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stayed up late praying with friends, listening to someone who was going through a hard time, or choosing to have my quiet time with God because I hadn’t yet had it, instead of studying for my test the next day. Often, I’d have to take the test with little or no studying done, and there hasn’t been a time yet that I haven’t gotten a good grade. I’ve found that when you’re not squandering your time or procrastinating, but you have a “valid” reason for not being able to study, God blesses your efforts, however little they may be. The same is true the other way around.

My last words about the area of ministry are a caution to you from experience. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that ministry equates to spirituality or defines where you’re at in your walk with God, and can be substituted for your quiet time. If you start building a house without a foundation, everything may look okay at the time, but eventually the bottom will give out and everything will come crashing down.

Conclusion

Our time, especially during the school year, is a delicate balance, and this is of great concern to me. I know how easy it is to focus on only one of these areas and let the other two slide. Remember, keep God first and put Him over your academics. If you’re balancing your time the way you should be, God will take care of all your needs (that includes your grades). Give your life to Him and be committed to finding the balance that honors God.

Start praying now that God would show you where the balance is this school year, and plan out how you’re going to make these three areas a part of your life. Above all, keep your focus on God and bringing Him glory, and you’ll find that everything else will naturally fall into place.

¹The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds on Prayer