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Three things I have learned from going to college full time:

• You can either get an "A" in English or in your favorite class - not both (choose wisely)
• They give away twice as many room job demerits on Friday because nobody works the desk after classes
• You will get very sleepy - really! By the second week of school, you are falling asleep in classes

Why? Because the plain and simple fact of life is natural selection - only the strongest can survive the full credit load, work, and social time involved in college. Oh, and there's eating too... forgot about that one.

So I'm kinda joking a bit, but sometimes that is how it seems. And talking to those who are older than me, it sounds like it doesn't actually get better the older you get - you just don't have as much energy to do more things.

Have you ever thought about the fact that God doesn't get tired? Well,duh! Who else would be listening to our prayers at 2 am when we're working on our paper and the computer dies?

No, seriously. Our God is never weary, never weighed down by the cares of life, never sleeps, never faints, never even takes His eyes off of us to blink. He is vigilant, faithful, and cares for us more than we do.

On Monday, in chapel, the preacher was reading Isaiah 40. He was really only reading the first part to emphasize the perfect and enduring nature of God's word and the necessity for Bible translation. That afternoon, I was studying for a science test and came across a note I had made about a verse later on in the passage. Then, that evening I was getting ready to go running and was a bit antsy, so I pulled out my Bible again to read the same passage (once I get stuck on something, I have a hard time getting off of it until I have it completely processed in my mind).

The whole passage is speaking about the marvelousness of God and asks twice "Have you not known? Have you not heard?" concerning certain attributes of God. But I want to show one thing to you:

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:28-31 

Our God is not weary and doesn't faint. That is something that everyone should know and accept. But God is the One that gives us our strength. We are weary. We faint. God renews that which we have lost so that we can run without weariness and walk without fainting.

Another thing I've learned, somewhat recently but this is also just a review lesson for me, is that there are different kinds of weariness. Sometimes it is physical weariness. Without the proper amount of sleep and nutrition, your body wears down faster and faster until you can barely stay awake in chapel at 11, much less pay attention in your 4 pm class. 

The second type of weariness is emotional or mental. You can reach a point where you're technically getting enough sleep, but because of just life in general, you are weary. And it's not necessarily something bad that happened, but just something that took up a lot of emotion in your day. For me, when I write, especially on this blog, I'm basically putting my devotional journal on here - that just takes a lot out of me. Sometimes it's comforting a friend who is hurting, sometimes it is a moment of complete joy and happiness. Somethings are just emotionally draining.

And then we have Christ. We love as He loved. We give ourselves to others for His glory. And there is always enough grace to make it through one more day. 

I can tell you that there have been times this semester that I have gotten up before 5 and didn't fall asleep until after 2. I was completely worn out and was struggling to get the minimum amount of work done (lets not even talk about the "extras" of studying). But daily I found that He gave me energy to make it through. He gave it by different ways - a friend to talk to, an encouraging verse, a kind word at work.... But it was Him. He daily filled my life with His strength and then kept topping me off until I reached the end of the day - completely empty, but looking forward to the next day to glorify Him in His strength.

Because of Him,

Missa