Students – are you suffering from Post-“Events Week” Blues?
Perhaps you had a week beyond your wildest dreams. All your friends came to talks, you stayed up
till 2am sharing the gospel, and someone came along to Christianity Explored
last night. The whole week was an
absolute joy. But now, life seems to
have gone back to normal. Conversations
at home are back to talking about Syndicate and coursemates are back in the
library over lunch. Are you feeling the
blues?
Perhaps Events Week was the most disheartening week of the
year so far. No one came to the event
you helped with in Hall, your coursemates were all away on reading weeks and
the one team mate who said they’d come on Thursday evening never turned
up. You feel surrounded by apathy
towards Jesus, whilst everyone else’s friends seem to be on the verge of becoming
Christians. In the light of the week
after, the doubt starts to creep in – could God ever use me? Does he care about my friends? Does he actually answer prayers? Are you feeling the blues?
Let me ask you this question – What are you tying your joy
to?
Whilst it is a joy every time Jesus’ name is faithfully
proclaimed, in public or written word or conversation, and whilst we should be
grieved when people ignore their Creator and the battle is hard, our joy is not rooted in whether people are
becoming Christians. Check out this
passage from Luke, and Jesus’ (surprising and slightly bizarre) response to the
disciples’ joy and excitement:
After this, the
Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to
every town and place where he was about to go…
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons
submit to us in your name.”
He replied, “I
saw Satan fall like lightening from heaven.
I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to
overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits
submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
The seventy-two come back rejoicing in the amazing things
they have seen and done. But do you see
what Jesus calls them to tie their joy to?
“…rejoice that your names are written
in heaven.”
If we tie our joy to the fruit (or lack of fruit) that we
see around us from our work, our joy will be yo-yo-ing all over the place
through times when the Lord blesses us with seeing fruit and times when it
looks like we’re in a drought. But our
names are written in heaven – and that will never change.
So let’s help each other fight Post-“Events Week” Blues,
whatever the cause, by reminding each other that our names are written in
heaven – that will never change, so we will never cease to have a reason to
rejoice.
