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On Sunday morning, I slumped down on the couch in our youth room, crossed my arms and sighed heavily. Saturday had been a non–stop study marathon and I hadn't gone to bed until after midnight. I'd spent seven hours at three different libraries doing research for a major term paper. One–third of my grade in American Literature depended on how well I did on this paper, and I still felt like I had hardly scratched the surface of all the research I had to do. Along with that, I had other schoolwork waiting for me at home. My mind felt like mush.

As Diana, my youth pastor, began teaching, I pretty much tuned her out. All I could think about was schoolwork. Although I didn't know what topic we were discussing, I did know Diana had us looking up a lot of verses from the Bible. She'd say a verse, and then someone would turn to it and read it to the group—just kind of your basic Bible study stuff.

To keep from totally zoning out and freaking out about all the homework I had to finish, I started flipping through my Bible with everyone else. But it was all pretty much a haze until someone read Matthew 11:28.

"Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads and I will give you rest" (NCV).

I sat up a little and stared at those words in the Bible. It was like they'd suddenly been underlined, highlighted, boldfaced and printed in very large type.

I read the verse again, focusing on "tired," "heavy loads" and "rest." It was like Jesus had said those words directly to me. The longer I stared at that verse, the more I felt like he must know exactly what I was going through. I was still very tired, and I knew I still had "heavy loads" of homework waiting for me when I got home. But I also felt that God wanted to comfort me and give me hope. God will see me through this, I thought, feeling a little less worried about the day ahead of me. I don't need to get all stressed over what will or won't get done. Not wanting to forget the verse, I grabbed a pen and scribbled the reference on the back of my left hand.

After a very busy Sunday of studying and other activities, I sat down at my computer to finish a little more homework before I went to bed. As I started to type, I paused and looked at my hand. There it was: Matthew 11:28.

I hadn't thought much about that Bible verse throughout the day. To be honest, I'd pretty much gotten caught up in the stress and worry of everything I had to accomplish. But once more, the verse reminded me that God hadn't forgotten about me. He'd been there all day long, wanting to carry my heavy loads, waiting to relieve my worry and stress.

I grabbed my Bible and jotted the words to Matthew 11:28 on a few Post–it notes. I then stuck the notes across the top of my computer monitor. As I studied and worked hard for the next week, I kept returning to that verse. It reminded me over and over that God was there for me, no matter what.

Sometimes it's tempting to just sleep in on Sunday morning and skip church—especially when I've gotten to bed real late on Saturday night. But if I'd skipped youth group on the morning after that "study marathon," I would have missed something I feel God really wanted to say to me. I'm glad I was there, and I'm glad God got my attention. It made everything I had to do a little bit easier to handle.

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today/Campus Life magazine.
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