BTS (Back To School) / Kayla Frazier
Embrace the New
My first week back to campus during my sophomore year of college, my BCM Director greeted me and asked, "Kayla, are those your BTS clothes??". I was confused. "BTS?", I asked. He said, "Yeah, you know--Back to School clothes". I laughed. I had never heard anyone call them that before but yes, those were my BTS clothes. Because for whatever reason, sometimes a new school year calls for new clothes.
This semester is new. New, yes because it is a literal new semester but also new because it looks like no other semester you have ever walked into. Everyone is wearing masks-you can not see smiles or frowns. Your classroom is filled with less people. You are more aware of germs than ever before. You may even be taking your first online class. Sometimes you are hesitant when greeting people because even the way you greet one another is now...new.
Often when things are new, it can be refreshing and exciting- like a new outfit or trying a new dessert for the first time. But then sometimes new is scary and unfamiliar. While it will be completely normal for us to feel the ups and down of this new semester, we do have a choice to make. Will we fight the new or will we embrace it?
Often in scripture, newness is a very positive thing; new mercies, new creation, new heaven and new earth. If you choose to serve the Lord, surrendering to Him daily- you can have joy in this new semester, in every season and circumstance.
As believers, we can trust in the same promise that Paul gave to the church in Corinth as they were experiencing intense persecution. In Corinthians 4, Paul explained to them that though their circumstances were causing their earthly bodies to waste away, the trials they were enduring were strengthening them within and their inner selves were being renewed each day.
By placing our faith in Christ, we can trust that no matter what we are facing, in the ups and the downs, He is renewing us and making us more like Him with each new day. As Christ followers, we are a new creation, who are being stretched and molded- strengthened in spirit. I challenge you as you step into this new semester, to focus on the things that are unseen, focus on what God is doing internally within and around you that will last into eternity. Your time here on this earth (and in college) is extremely brief, make it count. If you humble yourself and submit each day to Him, God can use this time to grow you like never before.
Let's get on our knees and get ready to be challenged, changed, and to be made new. There is untapped and unlimited potential for what God wants to do in and through you and your peers in this new semester. Who knows, maybe you'll dive so deep into your relationship with God this semester that by the end of it, there will be a transformation within you that becomes as obvious to others as a new pair of BTS clothes, and I do not mean the K-pop group? Embrace the new and by doing so, maybe you will find a new you!
"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18