Hometowns

It’s Christmas break!! Nothing better, finals are done, Christmas music is on, and your brain is no longer over crowded with anxiety about when your next assignment is due. At least my brain isn’t and I still have a test tomorrow, whoops. You know when you’re at the point in the semester when you’re like I hope I do good on this final but unfortunately all I care about is being done with it. Press submit and no looking back,,, that’s my brain right now. Despite my exam being tomorrow, all I see is Christmas break on the horizon.

Breaks can bring in a lot of different emotions. You may be excited to go home or like a friend I talked with this week who was dreading going home. You may be ready to hang out with your hometown friends or maybe just preparing yourself to avoid them when you run into them at Publix, sonic, or anywhere else it seems that the whole town gathers. Maybe you’re just ready to relax and enjoy doing nothingggg because me too!! 

I think we often view spending time back at home either amazing or super lame. But I think both are ok. Even though you go home and hate it I think that shows how much you have grown and if you go home and love it, it shows that there’s lots to be thankful for. A common theme in hometown visits always seems to be temptation. We go to college and figure out who we want to be and how we want to live but when we visit home we become reminded of who we used to be and the way we used to live. 

I can find myself riding down old roads and feeling smaller than the things I’m pursuing now. It’s like the enemy tries to put our minds in a box that our dreams don’t fit in. In that small box it is easy for life to get over-crowded and minds to be cluttered and then before you know for the month you’re at home on break,  you resort right back to the mindset and lifestyle you used to live from. I was chatting with a friend today and she said that everytime she goes home she feels tempted to get snapchat back. We laughed about that for a minute because it’s so real. It’s funny how we let an environment rule our minds and when our minds are mis-ruled it comes out in our desires and then our actions. 

I just started reading about Moses and this week I have been reading through Exodus 4. In this chapter God has just told Moses that he wants him to go back to the land of Egypt and rescue the Israelites, aka walk into the Pharaoh’s palace and tell him it’s time for him and his people to go…. sounds pretty easy I guess… or not. Of course Moses begins to question God. Moses says “God what if they don’t listen,” “God what if they don’t believe you told me,” “God why did you chose me, I’m bad at speaking.” These responses make me think of moments like when we go home on Christmas break and we get out of our productive routines  but God is still calling us to something. He still has a dream of yours he wants to use and a pure heart he wants you to keep, and a quiet moment with him that he doesn’t want you to miss. When we are out of our element it can be easy for questions and doubt to slip in and these things distract us from the one thing God is trying to use us for in that moment. 

I love Gods response, he says, “who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind?” In my paraphrase I hear, who is it that created the thing that you are fearful of, who is it that is in control of the one thing that is keeping you from being you. God says “ Is it not I the Lord, now go and I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” 

And this is such good wisdom for us too as we go home for Christmas break. When the old box that you used to live in looks tempting to get back in to remember what God is calling you to. And when doubts flood your mind, remember that He is with you, He is for you, and He is working in you.

XX Scarlet