Lives and Limps
For the student starting a new semester:
As I drove away from my hometown yesterday, as mile after mile increased, so did the anxious turmoil in my soul. It is easy to feel far from God when we move from the comfort of our own homes, to a college campus where we often feel lost and alone.
As you start the new semester, you may be wrestling with doubt, anxiety, and fear. Jacob was a man in the Bible who wrestled with God. Afterwards, “he was limping because of his hip” (Genesis 32:31). Like Jacob, last semester may have left you limping.
You may have started college with high hopes, until the weight of responsibilities crushed your spirit. The first time Jacob went to Bethel, before wrestling with God, He stated, “Surely, the Lord is in this place” (Genesis 29:16). However, as he endured difficulties, he soon stopped trusting the Lord was with him and started wrestling with doubt.
After wrestling with God, Jacob realized the strength of God and was given a new identity. He came back to Bethel to “build an altar to God, who answered me on the day of my distress, and has been with me wherever I have gone" (Genesis 35:3).
As we move back to campus, may we not be defined by the mistakes we made last semester, but our lives and our limps serve as an altar of remembrance, showing other students on campus He is with us.
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