Best-selling author Jon Acuff speaks on passions and purpose

National best-selling author, speaker, and blogger Jon Acuff talked about what it means to “serve a wildcard God” at Liberty University’s last full Convocation of the year Monday. Liberty will hold its annual Christmas Convocation Thursday.

Acuff said as he traveled across the country speaking at several colleges, he noticed a trend among college students who try and separate their passions from the work that God has called them to do.

He encouraged students to use their gifts for God’s glory rather than assuming that they don’t go together.

“I don’t want you to leave college never daring to dream with God,” he said. “I don’t want you to leave college with a degree that’s just good enough to make you money because that gets empty really quickly.”

Best-selling author Jon Acuff greets students and signs copies of his books after his Convocation message.

Acuff blended ideas from two of his popular books, “Quitter” and “Stuff Christians Like,” as he talked about the importance of following God’s plan, interjecting his popular humorous observations about Christian culture and garnering much laughter from the students.

He encouraged students to listen for the little moments of direction, to ignore “the haters” who criticize, and to get started with their dream.

“What I’ve learned (is that) figuring out what you’re called to do and what God has put in your heart isn’t an act of discovery, it’s an act of recovery, of rescuing something from your past,” he said.

Acuff explained that often people focus on the critics in their life, giving their opinions much more weight than any positive encouragement they might receive. These negative voices can change the course of a person’s life if they are given the power.

“The world is OK with you being average. But God didn’t create average, common, or ordinary,” Acuff said.

He closed with a challenge: “The only line that we control is the starting line. We have no control over the finish line. God is going to move your story in amazing ways that you don’t have control over.”