Back to School

Pause

For students, this season marks the end of summer and the beginning of a new year.

Every beginning has an ending. Time gets by so quickly that sometimes we can hardly keep up with the memories we are collecting along the way.

Endings sometimes come all too quickly. So there’s something to be said for taking every moment as something to be embraced and savored for as long as it lasts.

The God we serve, though, is not limited by time. The moments we spend in the presence of God, then, hold the possibility of timelessness.

Listen

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8–9

Think

I’m grateful that the prophet Isaiah wrote this down. I try real hard to remember what he wrote when I might be getting a little too involved with my own thoughts and concerns, or when my way of doing things seems to be 100 percent right, 100 percent of the time. That’s never the case, is it?

It’s wonderfully reassuring that God has a bigger and clearer picture for creation (what God calls “my ways”) than you or I could ever have. If I keep this in mind, then it helps me in my relationships with others. It helps me to remain calm and to be kind. It helps me remember that even though I might think that I’m 100 percent right, I can never know everything, and that I must keep an open mind to God and to what God is doing in others’ lives.

Rich Clark

Pray

Listening Lord, as I learn and explore and find my way this school year, help me to remember how important your ways and your will are for me and for all of us. Amen.

Go

Go ahead and take that first step.
Is it risky? Of course.

That’s faith for you.

But remember,
Your faith is in God Almighty,
And God will not be moved.

You’re going to be just fine.