Dear College Student,

You are in the season of finals. I am, too. It is so easy to become miserable and bitter during this time. You are cramming, stressed, overwhelmed, exhausted, not sleeping much, living on too much caffeine, and not working out. I understand. I want you to know that you are not alone. Every college student is feeling your pain right now. We all want it to be over and we are all questioning our own sanity. We are all wondering how we thought we could make it through college and why we came here in the first place. But, I have something to tell you that I hope will make you re-think those feelings.

College is a time when people really grow and learn themselves. But it is also a place where you are tested and challenged and pushed to your limits in every possible way. Finals remind us of that. They remind us that when we think we cannot keep going, we have to — we have to push through.

Amid all of this hustle and bustle and stress, it is so easy to lose perspective. It is so easy to become completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work in front of us. We get to a point where all we can see is the mountain of work and stress in front of us. We want to give up. And we wonder why we are doing all of this anyway. In essence, we completely lose perspective. We forget about the most important things in life.

We forget to love others above ourselves and our task to complete. We forget to minister to the needs of others. We forget to forgive. We forget to be kind. We forget to be patient. We forget to put others first. We forget to read our Bibles. We forget to pray earnestly. We forget to worship. We forget to be thankful. We forget to share the Gospel. We forget to go to the Cross with our burdens. We forget to turn to the only One who can ease the pain and the stress.

"Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved." -Psalm 55:22 ESV

The Lord wants us to turn to Him with all the things we care about. Finals are not something He does not understand, nor something that is "beneath" Him. Finals are important to Him because they are important to us. And when we start remembering that and turning to Him, everything falls into place. The world regains perspective. And you realize that He is all that matters. Everything else falls away. Worry and stress are gone. And finals are just another stepping stone in this world. We remember that this world is not home. We are not going to be here long. And that His love and grace are all that we need in this temporary home.

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus/ Look full in His wonderful face/ And the things of earth/ Will grow strangely dim/ in the light of His glory and grace"