Take 1: Memories and 'A Million Miles in a Thousand Years'

Bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrringgggggggggggggggg!

Laura: Hello?

Ryan Terry: Hey Laura, it’s Ryan Terry. I have a question and some news for you about the CCCU Tuition Wavier spot.

Laura (excitedly nervous): Yeah, ok. What is it?

Ryan Terry: Well, can you tell me for sure that you’d like to come to JBU if you could, that JBU is your number one choice?

Laura: I think so. God has made it incredibly clear the last few weeks that He doesn’t want me to go to the other school on the top of my list. So yes, I can say with confidence that I would love to come to JBU.

Ryan Terry: That’s awesome. You’re in then! I will have a letter in the mail to you soon…….

That day I got off the phone more assured of God’s provision and power than I had been in a long time. You see, I had been worried sick over waiting to find out about this scholarship spot at 3 different schools, including JBU. At one point I was driving myself and my family crazy by checking the mail, my email, and the answering machine seemingly every waking moment. The supposed notification dates had passed by and I heard nothing. Absolutely nothing. No good news. No bad news. Nothing.

It took Mom and I sitting down and realizing that neither of us had been trusting God with this matter. By worrying we had done absolutely nothing other than make ourselves nearly sick. I had to choose to release it all to God, to put it into His hands, to let go! Only after I allowed God to take my worry off my hands did I begin to hear from the colleges; first disappointing news, then the call from JBU.

You may ask, why this moment? It was then that GOD showed himself powerful. My prayers were answered, my worries absolved and my future clear(er). That doesn’t mean more struggles weren’t on the way. But I was beginning to learn how to wait, trust, and rest in him.

Questions:

Perspective. Angle. Focus.....

I had a hard time coming up with an “exciting scene” from my life, and I am sure other students did, too. Why is it that when I look at my life I sometimes think of it as boring and mundane, while I see others’ lives as exciting and ever-changing? Can changing our perspective (or camera angle) give us a different view of our effectiveness as people, as well as seeing God’s work in our lives in a new light? How do we do that?

Human Flourishing: Too Busy to Grow?

Control. Like most humans, I desire to be in control. I want to be strong and do it all on my own. But Danielle Sallade’s article, Human Flourishing, reminds me that God is our provider. We were meant to live inside of his protection and control. Is our desire for control in a sense telling God that we don’t trust him? That he’s not powerful enough to control our lives? That we can do it better? Maybe we need to quit trying to be the CEO of our lives. As my fellow JBU student, Jordan Vaughan, says, “the best moments are when I give up the reigns [to God].”

Rest. I’m a college student, you may be thinking, I don’t have time to sleep. Why are you talking to me about rest? I understand. Sallade describes students who live lives without margins. I’ve only been at college for two weeks, and I am already feeling worn out and exhausted most of the time. There is always something happening. Join this! Do that! Help us out! Turn this in next class period! clamors the never-ending cacophony of demands for my time, my energy and my involvement. This pervasive busyness seems part of the fabric of college culture. I don’t want to be sucked in. Students around me seem to have lost the joy of learning and living. I don’t want to lose the wonder of discovery because I am buried in a seemingly never-ending pile of homework. I know I can’t go on like this forever, so why is it so difficult to rest?

 Questions:

Are the many and varied demands that higher education places on college students helping them flourish or simply leaving them with no choice but to remove the margins in their lives and subsist with very little rest?

In Mark 2:27-28 (NIV), Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” In our culture of incessant busyness, is it time to return to the age-old practice of Sabbath-keeping, and if so, how do we do that as overwhelmed college students?