We’re all in danger of it… it lurks around every corner… and suddenly you are enrolled in it… when you least expect it:

U University.

My eyes are increasingly opened to the sad truth that while we all struggle with U University, there is an overwhelming amount of people that choose to be permanently enrolled. We can get our degree in drama, or the American dream, or even humanitarian acts and still be enrolled in U University.

I was saddened recently to have my eyes opened to the affects of U University. I often use that term with my toddler when she’s having a selfish moment. She doesn’t get it, but it helps me to identify it and try to eliminate it from my life as much as possible this side of the New Jerusalem.

It doesn’t surprise me when the lost act like the lost. But it does break my heart when the “saved” act like the U University of the lost.

We can call it teenage drama to help us pretend like our kid’s 4 year enrollment in U University is normal. We can call it “college age” to help us write off their disinterest in anyone but themselves. Or we can fess up and realize that U Universities serve U Universities and result in wasted time and space.

Please hear my correctly, I struggle with U University just as much as the next guy, but self-control shouldn’t be thrown out the window because we all struggle with it. It would be like making rape permissible because there are so many cases of it in our country.

It’s in times of U University that I find myself desiring to be the Holy Spirit. “Snap out of yourself!” I want to holler at a Christian, “Look outside of you! Are you here to serve yourself? What does that communicate about God?” And while guiding someone in love and compassion is much different than hollering, I am glad there have been Holy Spirit convictions in my life and not only “I am representing the Holy Spirit wrongly” volunteers.

I’ve seen a good host of self-proclaiming Christian examples of U University: those angry at their friend’s efforts to celebrate their birthday, those constantly playing the drama card to remain in the spotlight, those playing the superior game to reside in others’ minds, those constantly seeking more for their families and always complaining about how little they have… sound like anyone you know?

Sadly, we all know them. And many times we are those people.

But God has so much more for us.

It continues to blow my mind at how true the Proverb is: “Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied, nor are the eyes of man ever satisfied.” [Proverbs 27:20]

Sheol is “the nether world” and Abaddon is “the place of destruction”. They are always seeking more to come and reside. And just as the broad path is so much easier and so much more comfortable and so much more appetizing, so are man’s eyes never satisfied.

That proverb is sobering when I start my U University thoughts. I will never be satisfied – my flesh will never be satisfied, therefore, I MUST self-discipline and deny self for Christ to be alive in me.

A challenge…. and a lifestyle emerge.

“And He [Christ] was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:23-25)