The topic last night at youth group was stress. Simple, right? It doesn't sound like such a big deal to many people. Nobody gets "stress leave" from work or school. Even when homeschooled, if I went to my mom and said "Hey Mom, I need a day off. I'm stressed" she would laugh and say "Me too. Get used to it" or "Welcome to the world, that's the way things are." And obviously it would be silly to even try, because things need to be done no matter how we are feeling at certain times. So maybe we could expect the discussion to err on the side of "Get lots of sleep and eat extra chocolate."
Oh wait. Not that simple.
The evening opened as a young woman I have known for many, many years shared about how trusting herself instead of God to cope with the stress of her senior year of high school sent her into a horrible downward spiral. She was being self-destructive to an extreme degree, and hit rock bottom before finally deciding to trust God instead of herself.
Trust was the lesson they emphasized, but the one that hit me was about prioritizing. She placed school above her relationship with God, focusing on how her grades were instead of how Jesus had redeemed her. It seems that it is an extremely common mistake to make, putting grades or work or that sort of thing above faith in God. It's really important, though, for Christians to view that with a God-centered perspective: grades are all well and good, but they are ultimately not the most important thing to be focused on. In the end, ultimately, it isn't going to matter whether we're getting As or B+s or even C-s (though that might be a factor in where God sends us on earth). It's not going to change eternity.
Oh wait. Not that simple.
The evening opened as a young woman I have known for many, many years shared about how trusting herself instead of God to cope with the stress of her senior year of high school sent her into a horrible downward spiral. She was being self-destructive to an extreme degree, and hit rock bottom before finally deciding to trust God instead of herself.
Trust was the lesson they emphasized, but the one that hit me was about prioritizing. She placed school above her relationship with God, focusing on how her grades were instead of how Jesus had redeemed her. It seems that it is an extremely common mistake to make, putting grades or work or that sort of thing above faith in God. It's really important, though, for Christians to view that with a God-centered perspective: grades are all well and good, but they are ultimately not the most important thing to be focused on. In the end, ultimately, it isn't going to matter whether we're getting As or B+s or even C-s (though that might be a factor in where God sends us on earth). It's not going to change eternity.
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