I started my car, ready to head home after a long day of schoolwork.  Except, the Toyota Prius hybrid didn’t start.  The lights on the dash came on for a few seconds, and then flickered off.

Perhaps you’ve had the experience of accidentally leaving your headlights on and then finding your car needing a jump.  In my case, however, this was more than just a simple battery problem.  This was just one more issue that was going to cost me money in a long string of issues plaguing my bank account for the past year.

Last spring I picked my backpack up off the ground to swing it onto my shoulder when the zipper broke and my Macbook Pro slipped out and hit the cement sidewalk on the laptop’s very expensive corner.  In a few days that unfortunate fall resulted in a slowly cracking screen that ended up costing me around $700.

Easter Sunday last spring I was heading to a potluck with my family, when the “check engine” light came on and then I noticed the car started driving roughly.  We made it into the driveway, and enjoyed ourselves at the Resurrection celebration.  To make a long story short, we later discovered the entire car engine needed replacing, and it would cost more than I had paid for the used car.  I bought another used car.

Like most students, I still needed to afford school tuition, books, and supplies. I worked two jobs all summer long, but because of all these problems by the end of my summer financial stress had hardly lessened. By now you are probably either relating heavily to my dramatized crisis or tired of hearing me complain about my financial woes.

These compounded problems have made it easy for me to complain and to try  to fix them on my own.  Every time a new financial strain arises, my brain instantly starts drawing up solutions based on account balances and work hours.

While from a physical perspective, this practice is a good idea for today’s students, it is a stark reflection on a lack of trust in God’s provision for us. Since some of us are financially independent for the first time in our lives, learning complete trust in God in this area can be terrifying although essential.  Rather than allowing ourselves to get stressed about our financial situations, or become apathetic, we should simply do our best to work hard and trust God with all our finances.

  I might have ideas about how I will afford present and future needs, but I must constantly keep in mind God’s sovereignty and care for me.  God is in complete control of my future and aware of what I need.

I would guess most students are similarly struggling with financial issues or life-altering situations.  While learning to give these situations to God is a lifelong maturation process, making conscious decisions to trust Him with every aspect of our lives is also a daily battle.