It seems to be a habit today to respond to situations with the attitude of "because I want to." With hours of people-watching under my proverbial belt, I have heard this excuse from 21-year-olds: "I will drink because I can." From 18-year-olds: "I will smoke because I can." From 16-year-olds: "I will drive wherever I want because I can." And so it goes all the way down the age scale to some whiny 2-year-olds saying, "Because I want to."

But how do socially conscious people like us combat this ever- present selfish idea of "I'm going to do whatever I want and you can't do a thing about it"? Most importantly, how do we respond to this environment in a manner pleasing to God?

I am currently a student attending the University of Colorado at Boulder. With more than two years of college knowledge inside my head, I have seen and heard some things that make me sadly shake my head. For example, I was downright shocked by the number of people who treat the weekend, Friday night to Sunday night, as a 48-hour party.

In the words of my father, "I have never appreciated the Sabbath as much as I did in college." Let me tell you right here that even though you might dismiss this as some blatant propaganda on my part, when this someday rings true for each of you, I offer my "I told you so."

I personally found the Sabbath tedious to keep while younger, mainly because my friends would go out and I couldn't. And our church area had a serious lack of teens with whom to celebrate God's day. But once I got to college that all changed. Between the workload, the extra responsibility and the new social situations, I found myself torn 1,400 different directions. And the mere thought of an entire day of not working, not doing homework and the chance to build up my sleep bank is enough for rejoicing.

Another issue is taking off school for the Holy Days. In my youth, I grew excited at the thought of being able to get out of school for a week for the Feast of Tabernacles and individual Holy Days when I could relax, go to services and fellowship. But now in college, even missing one class means at least a week of makeup work. It has required a different way of thinking.

Could this act of thinking outside ourselves be part of God’s great plan? To get us mere human beings to stop thinking of our own little avenues of life and to think of the greater structure of God’s laws? After all, these laws are in place for our own good.

But how does one deal with the temptation to “go along with the crowd”? How do you tell your wonderful, fun-loving friends that you can’t see the movie on Friday night, or that you won’t be able to attend that Star Trek party on Saturday? What has helped me the most is having an equally strong network of friends in the Church. While the weekly Sabbath services yielded no gain on that front, the summer camps provided plenty of opportunity to build that network.

I went to the United Church of God’s Teton Challenger Camp for three years in a row and met people who have now become my best friends. And I can honestly tell you that without these friends of similar faith, I would have had a much harder time making the decisions that I know are right in God’s eyes.

So at this point in my ramblings, I wish to direct your attention back to the results of people-watching and ask the following questions: Why should I follow God’s laws? Why should I go against the herd? Why should I stand up for what I believe in a world where I am questioned?

One simple answer: Because God’s ways bring blessings and ultimate reward, and that is better than any Friday night movie, better than any 48-hour party and definitely better than what this world has to offer. Long after the furor of trends and fads dies down, would you rather be known as the one who says, “I did that just because I could,” or as the one who says, “I didn’t do that just because I could”?