Uptight Senior
Theme of the Week: In God We Trust
Ben Patterson
Friday, October 27, 2006
 1 of 1
Key Bible Verse: But Jesus ignored their comments and said to Jairus, "Don't be afraid. Just trust me" (Mark 5:36). Bonus Reading:Mark 5:21-24, 35b-43
The radio played one popular song after another from 1966—my senior year in college. I sang along, nostalgia oozing out of my pores. But then I remembered how miserable I was that year. The girl I loved had jilted me; I'd almost gotten into a fistfight with one of my roommates; I was tired of school, uncertain of my calling, and afraid of the future.
Thinking of how good my life had been since then, I murmured gratitude to God for the woman I married, the kids we'd had together, the work He'd graciously given me to do, and the great friends I had. All my 1966 fears had since been unmasked as frauds. What a waste it had been to be so anxious and fearful back in college. Had I only known, I could have relaxed and enjoyed my senior year. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live that year again, I fantasized, knowing what I know now? Too bad I can't.
But then something glorious occurred to me: I can live from now on knowing that my life is going to turn out fine. I can let God's future dictate the terms of the present. I can give thanks indiscriminately as an act of hope, acting as though everything God promised about the future is true. Because it is.
—Ben Patterson in He Has Made Me Glad
My Response: I'll thank God for His promises to watch over me and guarantee my future.
Thought to Apply: Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.—CORRIE TEN BOOM (Dutch speaker)
Adapted from He Has Made Me Glad (InterVarsity, 2005) by permission.
Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Lord, You've never let me down in my past. So help me to really rely on You for my present and future.
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