Finals

Saturday marked the beginning of finals here at the University of Maryland. Students are pushing down the home stretch of the semester, and it is a rather quiet time for Logan and me. Students are often too stressed and busy studying to meet with us.

There are a few of these bronze Testudo statues around campus, and it is a tradition here at UMD to treat them as a sort of shrine. Their noses are rubbed shiny from students who rub them for luck on tests and during finals week offerings are even left for help on finals. As you can see this year Testudo even received a deep frier! While done in fun, I think these traditions also reveal something about the religious climate of the University. It is one thing to leave trash as an offering, it is another to see full bottoms of Vodka and other alcohol offered. On a campus like this, that is quite a sacrifice that makes you wonder if students really believe offerings do something do them!

As amazed as I am that students would give up this much alcohol to a statue, I'm more amazed that there is enough reverence for other students not to take it!

Please take a moment to pray for our students during this time.

• Pray for our campus that is so very secular and has so many desperate and wandering students. 
• Pray that our students would finish the semester strong, study well, and not neglect sleep and meals.
• Pray that they would know the merit of Christ. 
• The immeasurable worth they have as image bearers of God - something that cannot be taken away by test scores. 
• How much their are valued and loved by the Father - so much so that He would send His only Son to live and die in their place so that they would not have to try and measure up themselves. 

In finals time especially, the message of the Gospel proclaims good news to the weary!
Grace & Peace,