Quick side note: I’m super excited to finally be launching the new blog. This change is one I’ve been wanting to make for awhile, and this summer I finally took the jump. It’s taken me from then to now to get all the details worked out and the site ready for launching, though. Hope y’all love it as much as I do!

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We’re just about a month into a new semester, and I can already tell that it is going to be a trying and growing one (or so I hope). Classes are challenging, which is great but also can be overwhelming and stressful at times. If we set aside the stress, though, I’m always up for a good challenge because challenges are so rewarding, in the end at least.

Reaching that end, accomplishing the difficult task, getting to the top of the learning projectile and finally reaching a point of understanding, it’s not called a challenge because it’s easy to do. I’m thankful for that strife though. I’m thankful to be at a college whose professors believe in pushing their students because they know that a rigorous education and serious academic work make us better and prepare us to go into our selected fields and thrive. I think that the hardest part of this process is the process that learning to think critically is. Memorizing facts and regurgitating information is not the hard part of a college education. Synthesizing everything I’m learning in my various classes and thinking critically about the material set before me is.

This process began last year, but I wasn’t as aware of it then as I am now. Maybe that’s the difference between the freshman core classes and the core classes intended for sophomores. One two-part course sequence we take specifically comes to mind; it’s a course that mixes history and philosophy to examine the heritage of modern cultural thought. Even a week ago, I’m not sure I could have come up with that description because I was so lost about what was going on in class that trying to sum it up would’ve been impossible. So, already, I’m gaining a better understanding of what’s going on. And that feels good.

It feels good when a concept that left me utterly lost last week makes even a slight bit of sense more this week. The stretch it takes to get to a point of better understanding, it feels good. Growth requires stretching, and stretching ourselves requires effort and energy, and it feels good. I enjoy the stretch because in the end, it is so satisfying to look back and see where you came from.

I’ve felt the stretch to grow in more areas of my life than just academics, although that is a– if not the most– prominent area of growth to be sure. That sentence though; it doesn’t sit well with me. I’ve grown in loving others well, I’ve grown in responsibility, I’ve grown in maturity, I’m constantly growing in recovery, and I’m often growing academically and in critical thoughtfulness. But something is missing. Should I not first and foremost be growing in Christ?

With our annual day off of classes we take to pray, praise, and rest being today, this thought has been pressing on my mind and even more so my heart. I’m so prone to wander. I’m so prone to push aside growth in Christ in favor of making more time for growth in academics, especially when starting off a new semester that is unsurprisingly proving very demanding.

Today, though, today I was able to slow down, to be intentional with my time and intentional with growth in Christ. I was stretched today— stretched to take time to be still and know that Christ is Lord. Christ, not academics. Living in a culture where material wealth, concrete academic success, and excessive productivity are held in the highest esteem, I find it utterly difficult to slow down and say no to the expectations of the world and yes to the instructions of God.

My heart needs constant reminders and constant renewing in His promises. Oh, how very easily I forget. And because of that forgetfulness, oh how very thankful I am for days like today. Days where I am stretched to grow spiritually, alongside all of the stretching to grow academically that happens in a college semester.