In the blink of an eye, my first semester of the 4-year university experience is over, and the new year has been rung in during Christmas break. My time at college this past semester is such a curious thing to look back at, because the moment of saying goodbye to my parents before they drove back home feels like eons ago. However, the long nights of studying until the wee hours of the morning, spontaneous trips to get pizza, and movies nights, seem so near that I could reach out and touch them. The notion of time has become distorted in my mind. It is as though I have two separate worlds that I have been traveling between in the past four months, and trying to imagine myself in one of the worlds while I'm residing in the other seems impossible. It's an incredible thing, that in just under six months, I have experienced the emotions of heavily anticipating being out of the house, relishing my freedom (and then feeling the pressure when I must rely on my own judgement when making decisions), to counting down the days that I can finally be back at home to rest my mind and enjoy the company of my parents.
Something I have been acutely aware of throughout these breaks is how much my guard goes down when I feel the welcome embrace of being home. Before the student body was sent off on Thanksgiving break, there was a chapel message that heavily resounded with me. The main point? That the Devil often chooses to attack the most heavily over breaks when guards are let down. You see, for the most part, all of the students on campus have chapel every single weekday, 5 times a week, 20 times a month, etc...you get the idea. On top of this incredible resource of chapel, there are bible classes, and an incredible spiritual atmosphere. With this said, once I am home, though my family still fears God, I get the feeling that I don't have to continue my daily devotions because I'm on such a spiritual high. However, I've noticed that when my daily devotions stop, my urge to listen to Christian music begins to dim, and when that happens, my prayer life begins to slack. It's like Jenga. When one of the blocks is taken out, the tower becomes shaky, and once a few more are removed, the whole thing collapses.
Though I have this knowledge of what happens over break, I don't always follow through with my hopes to stay on top of my devotions, etc. With that said, the continuation of my devotions, no matter where I am, has become one of my two New Years resolutions. The other? To cultivate the relationships I already have, and to plant the seeds of new ones. One of my biggest lessons of 2016 is that God is always there, and it is His children that stray from His side, though it may sometimes feel as if it is He that has left.
