Scraps of Grace

As I reflect on my summer, the busy, confusing, yet wonderful post-grad summer, I pause to realize it’s already August again.

August used to feel so different. It wasn’t just the end of summer vacation. It marked a new year, a fresh beginning, and the excitement of going back to school to see my best friends every day. Whether it was returning to high school after getting my driver’s license that summer and finally being able to park in the student lot, or heading back to college after spending the summer at my parents’ house, knowing I was about to live with four of my best friends again, there was always so much to look forward to.

Today, I find myself reflecting on a particular August: my very first August of college. It was a month full of intimidating change, but it was also the beginning of what God was doing in my life.

It was a season of recruitment, dorm move-ins, learning my way around campus, and missing home.

If you’re in that season right now, I hope you know what a special gift it is. Looking back, I realize how many blessings I carried with me from those years.

It can be tempting to ask, “God, how can I get into the best sorority?” or “God, what should my major be?” Those are important questions, and the decisions you make matter. But there’s an even greater question to ask:

“God, what do You want from me in this season?”

Or maybe even, “How do You want to use me in my sorority, my classes, my friendships, and wherever You’ve placed me?”

That’s the question I wish I had asked more often.

As I finished college, I had the privilege of seeing what God can do through ordinary people in ordinary places. This year, you may feel like just another student on a big campus, but you’re not there by accident. God has a purpose for having you exactly where you are.

Maybe instead of letting this be only a season of learning and achieving, it can become a season of becoming the person God is calling you to be.

He doesn’t just want you to leave college with a degree and a collection of memories or mistakes. He wants to shape your heart. He has placed you in the right place, at the right time, for a purpose. Don’t miss what He wants to do in you while you’re busy chasing what you want to do for yourself.

He invites us to shift our focus from what we hope to accomplish with Him to who we are becoming because of Him.

And if you’re a sophomore, junior, senior, or anywhere in between, it’s never too late to make that shift. Every season is an opportunity to draw closer to Him, to grow in your faith, and to allow Him to shape you into the person He created you to be.

Every accomplishment matters, but who you are becoming matters so much more.

Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” 

Worship song: Who Else- Gateway Worship