“Thou shall have no other gods before me.”
Exodus 20: 3
With essays, exams, presentations, and mandatory events piled on top of each other, it’s a challenge finding time to eat and sleep, so how am I supposed to find time to read the Bible and pray? When school first started I kept the perfect schedule. I knew when to eat, sleep, do homework, read the word, and converse with God. However, as the weeks went on, college life got more stressful, more difficult and more time consuming. I found myself forgetting to eat, pulling all nighters, getting easily distracted in class, dusting off my Bible and questioning God’s voice.
It started off as a simple mistake. One morning, after staying up the night before much later than I should have, I woke up with only 15 minutes to get to my first class of the day. With no time to read even one scripture and neglecting a quick “Thank you Jesus for waking me up this morning” I bolted out the door, jotting down a quick mental note to read and pray before I went to bed. However, when bedtime came I was preoccupied with an essay, so I pushed my devotion back to the next morning, promising to wake up an hour early. Of course, already sleep deprived, that never happened…eventually there was a void that began to develop in my spirit. My Holy Ghost was crying out for the Lord and I’d try to shut it up with a verse from Psalms and saying grace before so I could go back to studying, but it never worked…not that I really expected it to.
I was sitting in my room trying to write an essay on ‘Science vs. Religion’ when I decided to use the scripture above, Exodus 20: 3, to defend one of my arguments. (Let me just tell you that God knows how to reach you.) I contemplated on how people could worship things, and realized that’s just what I was doing. Worship means to “give reverent honor, homage and adoration to a personage or object regarded as sacred.” I’ve always put my education first in my life. Without it I can’t get a career, I can’t earn any money, and I can’t make a living. However, without God I can’t even get out of bed, I can’t breath the air I need to survive, and I can’t make it to heaven.
Education is indeed important but in the end a PHD is going pass away and only what you’ve done for God will stand. We need to keep Him first. Our relationship with Him should be the most important thing. I will no longer let the workload and stresses of college let me lose sight of my bond with God. I have totally reworked my daily schedule, not to fit God around everything else, but to fit everything else around Him. I now have time to read my Bible and get on my knees before eating, doing any type of school work, and manage to go to sleep at a decent hour. I feel myself getting closer to God and my relationship with Him is getting better day-by-day.
#'nuffsaid
