Intramurals. Classes. Friends. Life group. Relationships. Sorority life. Ministry. Sleep(?). Exercising. Family back home. Internships. This summer. Next summer. Next weekend.
College students are busy people. We're known to be resourceful and resilient, always shaking off the bad and striving to move forward. From the outside, it always looks this way. But behind the scenes?
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Man, we are notorious worry-warts. We plan and plan, schedule and re-schedule, network and organize. We always push toward the next thing. Sure, our proactivity prepares us for the workforce, but guys.
When are we going to stop living for tomorrow?
Maybe it's impossible. Maybe we are wired in such a way that we always look for progress and the bigger and better thing. That's how we are. But I know for a fact that even if we are wired to look forward, all it takes is a tilt of our heads to look up toward the heavens.
Guys, God's got it. It's easier said than applied, but His power is present over every single plan that we've orchestrated. Every single routine. Every 8 a.m. class. He is sovereign over our every friendship, date, and football game. When we are weary, all we need to do is take that to Him. You see, He is bigger than any conflict, any study guide, and any stress. The God that made us already knows how our tests will go. He knows who our closest friends will be when we graduate, and who we'll stand at the altar with. If it's already been figured out, we have absolutely no reason to fuss about it. We only need to trust.
Walking with Jesus during our college years is one of the hardest and most incredible things we will ever do. It requires so much more than prayer--Jesus wants us to be LIKE Him. And in these transforming years, what a difference that effort could make. Jesus, the reason we get to spend forever in paradise with God, had no worries about the future. "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done," He said. Even when He was facing certain despair and destruction, Jesus remained still and trusted God's timing.
If we want to be LIKE Jesus, we must do the same. It does us no good to waste all our valuable energy on worries and to-do lists. Instead, trust in God's timing and enjoy His presence around you. He really is everywhere. In smiles and tears, in laughter from new friends and phone calls from old, in the library and in the residence halls, in your morning coffee and late night drives, He is there. And He loves you more than you could ever hope.
"He says, 'Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.'" Psalm 46:1.