A young college student was assigned a project in his engineering class. The project was to build something that people could use to go back into the past and maybe the future. This young student went to his friends and asked for help with this project. They brainstormed ideas and decided to build a time machine.This project was due in a month, and the students were ready to help him build it. The college students decided that they wanted to make a big time machine filled with images along with the dates, and ideas for the future. There was one specific requirement that these students had to meet, and it was that the machine had to reference times in your life when you were spiritually struggling.

The students started putting together images from their past and wrote little notes to go with some of the images. They were also putting together images of items that represented their struggles. One of the girls had an eating disorder that she was overcoming and while she was facing the eating disorder, she started to blame God, and the image was a mirror. That girl looked in the mirror and could not see the beauty that she really was. After she went through a therapy program, she started realizing she couldn’t do it by herself and her faith was being restored. Some of the boys working on the machine put an image of a campfire and a note that says they have difficulty giving it all to HIM and the fire represents the struggle of letting go. The time machine started to come together with other images of battles that the students were facing at times when they were spiritually struggling. While the college students were helping this boy with the time machine, they started praying and singing. It really helped them to feel that their faith was being restored, while helping their friend with his project.

The students started putting dates with the images and the little notes that went with the images, as well as the many parts that the machine had to have to be an operational machine. Some of the girls grabbed the tools and started assembling the small parts, while the guys were lifting the heavy parts that will later be assembled. The guys built the frame of the machine, and put in the big pieces like the seat, the wheels, and the exterior, while the girls put in the ignition, the buttons, the lights, and decorated the interior. Along the sides of the machine, they painted scriptures that reminded them of the images of when they were struggling spiritually and the scriptures that helped them through those times. The student who was assigned to the project questioned why he was assigned to build something like the time machine, but as he worked on the project with his friends; it helped him to realize that he needed to be the encouragement for his friends. Through the project, the friends became closer together and the time machine was coming all together. It was a month later and everybody that helped this young college student with his project, they didn’t have classes until that night, and they helped him take the time machine to his professor. When the professor saw the time machine, her jaw dropped. She then wanted to see that the time machine worked and had the main requirement, which was a time when you were struggling spiritually.

The student that was assigned the project and six of his friends all climbed into the machine, and they turned it on. They had a projector attached to it, so the slideshow would appear of the different elements and images that helped create the time machine. Once the seven of them turned on the machine, it actually went back in time, to show the professor that it did have the main requirement, and it also showed the images of the past, that they struggled with that they overcame with prayer, singing praises, scriptures, and realizing that they were never alone. The professor knew in her heart, she chose the right person for the project, with the help of friends to help build each other up and see the importance of encouragement, and teamwork.The other students in the class were amazed that the time machine actually worked, and they wanted to try it. The time machine did not change the past, but it represented the struggles that the students faced spiritually, how their faith has grown, how they overcame their battles and realizing that they were not alone. The student received an A+ on the project, and the professor gave everybody that helped build the time machine project along with the student a gift-card to the bible book store on campus, for supplies. The project that the student was assigned was completed, with the main requirement, showing how students struggled spiritually, their faith being restored, and how it helped make them the students they are today, because they realized that they were not alone, and that Jesus was right beside them, helping to overcome some of those battles.

Romans 12:8 (NIV version) if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership; let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

1st Thessalonians 4:18 (King James Version) Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Isaiah 40: 29-31 (NIV version) He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

A-men.