Exam Week: What’s the goal?

Thankfully, I am done with my final exams, but most college students still have a few days until they reach the finishline. My brother, a a student at NCSU, is one of those still in the trenches studying. He told me recently that he had heard more ambulances on campus during this time than any other. Most of those emergency calls were for panic attacks.

Research has shown that anxiety and depression among young people is at an all time high, and has been rising steadily since the early 19th century. As someone who has experience with mental illness, the steady rise in psychological disorders is shocking, but not suprising. Many college studnts have had to negotiate the this problem with counseling and medication. It is a real biological problem, but not without societal factors.

Research has identified two societal causes for this problem: Decline in Young People’s Sense of Personal Control over their Fate and the Shift Toward Extrinsic Goals, away from Intrinsic Goals. Young people do not feel like they have any control of their fate coupled with societal pressure to excel in culture which prizes money, power, and accomplishments.

In a post from Peter Gray from Psychology Today puts it this way:

The shift toward extrinsic goals could well be related causally to the shift toward an External locus of control. We have much less personal control over achievement of extrinsic goals than intrinsic goals. I can, through personal effort, quite definitely improve my competence, but that doesn’t guarantee that I’ll get rich. I can, through spiritual practices or philosophical delving, find my own sense of meaning in life, but that doesn’t guarantee that people will find me more attractive or lavish praise on me.

In short, we are laying up treasure here on earth. In Matthew 6, Jesus warns us against exactly that. Instead, he tells us to store our treasure with him in heaven “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also (Matthew 6:21).” We must relinquish the external goals, and focus on the internal goals of our own spiritual formantion. It’s impossible to quantify our faith. We cannot, or should not, parade our spiritual maturity around like a trophy or work promotion. But that’s exactly what our society does not offer. Only through knowledge of Jesus Christ and the leading of the Holy Spirit can we meet the intrinsic goals and find internal peace. So we must press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14 ESV).