Devotion - Thursday, December 13

Given that our campus ministry group is at that point in the often repeated cycle where there are a larger number of first year students, I thought it appropriate to end the semester and send you home for Christmas break with a bit of advice:  Be ready for the difficulty of re-entry.

While you may have been home for a weekend or two during the fall, the next couple of weeks will be a real test of how wise you have become and the maturity which is emerging from you.  You go home a different person than the one who left in August.  Your parents and siblings have also changed, but maybe not as much.  Their environment has remained the same as the one in which you all lived together.  You have been in a strange land, hearing strange voices (mine included.)

Add to all this that the time of the year when you return home is Christmas - a time when we have a higher than normal amount of "traditions." Pretty soon you will begin to rub up against those traditions which have been a part of family life for years without anyone wondering why you do things that way and someone (most likely you) exploring options for doing things somewhat differently.

Christmas homecomings are joyful;  but they are expose how much you have changed and how God has guided you during these last months. 

There this the story in our bibles of Jesus' mother and family coming to see him.  He doesn't immediately go out to hug them and remember good times.  In fact, he says that his mother, his brothers and sisters are those who do the will of his father.  Jesus - the one who is often lifted up as the champion of family values - does not give preferential consideration to his blood relatives.  His words remind us that we make choices and that some of the choices which lead us to the place God would have us go also lead us away from those who once held sway in our lives.

Do not go home and look for ways to distance yourself from family or old high school friends.  But be aware of the new things God has done in your life and look for the examples of how your following Jesus may have lead you in the directions which are uniquely yours.  All those folks back home are excited for you to become your own person; they just haven't seen how these new thoughts and behavior patterns fit into the marvelous person God is molding you to be.

God will be with you during Christmas Break - as will my prayers.  Be happy, be safe, post photos on Facebook and tag them to our LCM Fan Page.  Use the time away from reading text books to read the Gospel of Luke - it will serve as our gospel lessons in the year to come.  And I look forward to being with you in four weeks.