Another finals week is now behind us.

I don’t know about you, but finals week has left me feeling tired. In fact, this entire semester has left me completely exhausted. This semester has been one hard thing after another. My schedule has been busier than ever as I’m juggling schoolwork, a job, and a position as a resident assistant. I’ve had to deal with the loss of family members. I’ve also had to deal with difficult professors. All of these factors added together equal out to make one very tired and slightly discouraged Makenzie. For me, Christmas break could not come fast enough.

As I was nearly through with my finals this week and looking forward to the rest to come, a good friend showed me this video:

I really wish that this reminder would have come sooner. It opened my eyes to how I treated myself this past semester, and how I treated my God. This semester I refused to dwell on anything for too long, but instead immersed myself in more and more work. In a lot of ways, I used work as a way to cope with work I already had to do. Work in itself is not bad, but I was using it as a replacement to prayer and trust in God. That’s bad, so I am thankful that this video came as a reminder before I spent another semester this way.

My favorite quote from the video is this:

“... I have to ace this week so that when my career of choice comes around the corner I get hired. But I’m confused. Because if I’m supposed to love God with all of my mind, and He commands me to find rest in Him then shouldn’t shalom be in my studies too?”

Shalom is often just thought of as a greeting meaning “peace.” There’s more to the word than only that though. Shalom can also be translated to mean “completeness, soundness, [and] welfare” (BibleHub). The word “shalom” is used in Judges 6:24 which says, “And Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it Yahweh-Shalom (which means "the LORD is peace"). The altar remains in Ophrah in the land of the clan of Abiezer to this day” (New Living Translation).

God is our peace. God is our rest. God is our fulfillment. God is our shalom, and He is our shalom in all aspects of our lives. When we love God with all of our mind and find our rest in Him, then we can’t help but find shalom throughout our entire lives. If we can’t find shalom in our lives, then we probably aren’t fully loving God or fully finding rest in Him.

This is my challenge to myself and to you: this Christmas break, find rest and peace in God, and don’t lose it when classes start again next semester. I am sure this challenge will prove to be a very difficult one, but I think it will bring more of God’s goodness back into our lives.