Best-selling author Jon Acuff recently told students at Liberty University what it means to "serve a wild card God." During the Lynchburg, Va., Christian school's convocation Dec. 3, Acuff encouraged students to use their gifts for God's glory rather than assuming that they don't go together, Liberty University News Service reported.

"I don't want you to leave college never daring to dream with God," said Acuff, whose books include Stuff Christians Like (Zondervan) and Quitter: Closing the Gap Between Your Day Job and Your Dream Job (Lampo Press). "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."

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

Acuff blended ideas from Quitter and Stuff Christians Like when he talked about the importance of following God's plan, injecting his humorous observations about Christian culture. He also encouraged students to listen for little moments of direction, ignore "the haters" who criticize and 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 [and] of rescuing something from your past," said Acuff, whose blog has more than 3.5 million followers. "The world is OK with you being average. But God didn't create average, common or ordinary.

"The only line that we control is the starting line," he added. "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."

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