Remember the good days in high school when December hit and the biggest decision we had was what Starbucks holiday drink you had to choose between? Or when the longest you studied was a few minutes before the actual test?
College is much different in the fact that the minute December comes around your brain goes into overdrive and professors shove a bunch of assignments at you all due on the same day. You stay up late into the night, not watching Christmas movies, but studying and writing papers about the correlation between F. Scott Fitzgerald and his narratives while simultaneously washing your clothes, online Christmas shopping, reminding yourself to eat and texting your mom back that, yes, you are fine and alive, and no, you do not want a knitted scarf from Aunt Martha. Tell her to send a gift card to Starbucks because you need about all the caffeine you can chug.
From December 1st to December 18th, every college student can be found either in the library, coffee shop, crying in the bathroom, or at the grocery store buying red bulls and bread. There is no in-between. No matter what major you may be, we can all relate on a personal level that December is one of the most stressful and tiring months of the school year.
You may be thinking, "Hey, the Grinch redeemed himself in the end though. What about college students?"
Besides dropping out or graduating (which leads to a whole new set of stress)? Well, there is one last result that we always go to, when in reality, that should be our go-to from the beginning.
Get ready for the cheese here. It will get super cheesy, but like all cheese, it is delicious and will make all the college weight you bury get a whole lot lighter.
It's Jesus.
We celebrate Christmas because of Jesus' birth and because it was a gift, God gave to us to lead us to salvation. But a lot of the times, we only remember that fact on the 24th and 25th. What if we lived each and every day with that joy and love we feel on Christmas morning? What if we walked through our struggles and not just carried them ourselves, but gave them all to Him?
That test you are worrying so much about? Give it to Him.
Those questions about your love life and future you are dreading to get from your family? Give it to Him.
Having to juggle working retail during Christmas, go to school, and find time to hang out with friends? Give it to Him.
It seems like such an easy answer, one that we fluff up and tie around with pretty red bows and toss them around like confetti. When in reality, it is a solution that should be automatic. We weren't made to carry the weight of pain and suffering. Only by giving it all to Jesus, our hurt, pain, pride, and tears, can we really walk through life freely.
This December, take that weight off and walk in the knowledge that God loves you so much that He sent down His Son to save your sins. He doesn't want you walking around, slowly drowning with all the expectations and to-do lists. Throw down those books, pick up a candy cane, turn on the fire show on Netflix and bask in the knowledge that He loves you and no matter what, that won't stop.
Merry Christmas!