Hope amidst Hopelessness: Saturday

Saturday March 13, 2021

Created by Elyse Swihart

Matthew 6:34 (NIV)

“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Devotion

As college students, it is easy to spend too much time looking into and planning the future that we lose sight of what is happening around us. The uncertainty of what the future can be unsettling, especially for those of us who like to have a plan. Daily life in college changes every semester, and it can feel like adjusting into a new schedule is hard to keep up with. By the time you fall into a rhythm it’s time for break or finals, you have to start all over again. These feelings can compound and create spirals of uncertainty. When in the midst of one of those spirals is when we can experience hopelessness.

Hopelessness can take many different forms and bring forth mental health troubles like anxiety and depression, which only seems to add to the list of responsibilities we make ourselves. Alongside items on a to-do list, we might see things like “finish assignment” or “study for midterm,” we rarely see tasks like “remember to breathe” or “walk with a friend.” Tasks like these are equally as important to our wellbeing as getting our work done and can begin to alleviate that hopelessness that we feel.

Matthew 6:34 tells us “Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” Instead of thinking about the future, try organizing thoughts on paper and organizing them into a manageable list, and determining what needs done today, and what can be more easily achieved later. It doesn’t make us bad students to divide our work and do it later, but it is too easy to fall into the “I have to get this done now” mindset. By doing this we are following Matthew 6:34 and still achieving our goals.

Prayer

Good and gracious God, help us to find hope in this weary season. Amen.