Unscheduled Grace: 40 Devotions and Prayers for College Students

By Katherine Fick and Matthew J. Marohl

Unscheduled Grace: 40 Reflections and Prayers for College Students, is a collection of devotions and prayers. This book can accompany students through the changes, challenges, and joys of college living, including homework, relationships, stress, vocation, and more. Through all its entries, the authors assure readers that no matter what they face, their lives are blessed by the unscheduled grace of God. Authors Matt Marohl and Katie Fick are campus pastors at St. Olaf College in Northfield Minnesota.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sparkhouse Family
• Release date: Aug 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798889830962

Book preview

UNSCHEDULED GRACE

40 REFLECTIONS AND PRAYERS FOR COLLEGE STUDENTS

Written by Matthew J. Marohl and Katherine E. Fick.

Copyright © 2023. Printed by Sparkhouse, an imprint of 1517 Media. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Email [e-mail] or write to Permissions, Sparkhouse, PO Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN 55440-1209.

Cover and interior image: tk

Cover and interior design: tk

Proofreader: Alena Schuessler DeYoung

Editor: Heather Blackstone

Project Manager: Julie O’Brien

pISBN 978-1-5064-9677-1

eISBN 979-8-8898-3096-2

Manufactured in USA

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TO THE READER

College life can feel completely controlled by schedules. Your classes are scheduled. So are your labs, rehearsals, practices, and study groups. You may feel like you have to schedule everything from eating to spending time with friends—and maybe even time with God. But the grace of God is an unscheduled grace. It is unscheduled because it is constant—it is already and always with you. The unscheduled grace of God can also surprise you. When you are reminded that you are not alone exactly when you need to hear that message the most, that is unscheduled grace. When you realize that you are more than your major, that you are more than your GPA, that is unscheduled grace. Unscheduled because it never fails, unscheduled because it can still amaze.

The book that you are holding, Unscheduled Grace, is a collection of devotions and prayers. Each devotion is a short reflection on a verse or section from the Bible. Each prayer is dedicated to a different aspect of life. There aren’t any rules when it comes to reading this book. You may want to start at the beginning and methodically work your way through to the end. You may want to open to a page and read whatever you happen to find at that moment. This book can be read alone or with a friend or in a small group.

We wrote this book with students in mind, with you in mind. We are pastors at a college. We spend all of our time with students. It is a great joy to listen and to talk, to hear all about average days and momentous moments. It is not unusual for our offices to be places of laughter and tears, often at the same time. This book draws upon the themes that we hear and discuss every day. Love, fear, uncertainty, regret, dreams, and hopes; they are all present in these pages. We know that multiple realities often exist at the same time. The theme that ties the devotions and prayers together is an emphasis on the unscheduled grace of God. With all of its schedules, college life is often unpredictable. It is our hope that this book can bring you unscheduled grace.

May the love of God surround you,

the grace of Christ attend you,

and the Holy Spirit keep you,

this day and forevermore.

Amen.

Pastor Matt Marohl

Pastor Katie Fick

CONTENTS

COVER

TITLE PAGE

COPYRIGHT

GENESIS 1

CREATION AND NEW BEGINNINGS

MATTHEW 2:1-12

REVELATION AND MYSTERY

MARK 1:9-15

FROM BAPTISM TO THE WILDERNESS

MATTHEW 28:16-20

SOME DOUBTED

MARK 10:17-31

GOD AND MONEY

JOHN 19:17—20:18

THIS IS WHERE GOD IS

GENESIS 37–50

IT’S OKAY TO CRY

JOHN 11:1-44

MARTHA AND MARY AS MODELS OF CHRISTIAN GRIEVING

JOHN 20:1-18

GOD’S WORK IS TRANSFORMATIONAL

EZEKIEL 37:1-14

CAN THESE BONES LIVE?

EXODUS 32

GOD CHANGES

GENESIS 3

HIDING FROM GOD

THE BOOK OF JONAH

CHOICES

MATTHEW 20:1-16

GOD IS NOT FAIR

MATTHEW 18:21-22

AM I REALLY FORGIVEN?

JOHN 20:19-31

KNOWN BY OUR SCARS

MARK 12:30-31

HOW GOD REFORMS US

EXODUS 5

ENOUGH

EXODUS 17:1-7

GRUMBLING

MATTHEW 25:14-30

IN CHARGE OF MANY THINGS

PSALM 92:1-4

THANKSGIVING

EXODUS 3:1—4:17

GOD DOES NOT WAIT

MATTHEW 6:1-6, 16-21

THINK WELL OF ME

ACTS 8:26-40

GOD’S LOVE FOR ALL

MATTHEW 3:13-17

BELOVED IDENTITY

MARK 10:46-52

STANDING OUT FROM THE CROWD

MARK 10:35-45

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE POWERFUL?

LUKE 16:13

GOD AND WEALTH

DEUTERONOMY 10:19

WELCOME THE STRANGER

MARK 9:33-37

WHO IS THE GREATEST?

LUKE 18:9-14

LOOKING DOWN ON OTHERS

1 JOHN 2:7-17

REPENTANCE

LUKE 13:31-35

JESUS OUR MOTHER

GENESIS 18:1-15

BREAD OF LIFE

JOHN 20:19-31

WHAT DO WE DO WHEN WE DOUBT?

LUKE 15:11-32

WHAT’S SO WRONG WITH WANTING TO BE RIGHT?

ACTS 2:1-21

LANGUAGE AND TRUTH

JOHN 17:1-11

ONE IN CHRIST

JOHN 15:1-11

JESUS IS THE VINE

LUKE 12:28-34

DARING, JUST, AND FAITHFUL LIVES

PRAYERS

MORNING PRAYER

NEW BEGINNINGS

TIRED

ONE-SIDED FRIENDSHIP

FRIENDS MAKING BAD DECISIONS

CONCERN FOR A FRIEND FAR AWAY

ROOMMATE PROBLEMS

FAMILY

A FAMILY ILLNESS

I WISH I WAS DATING

WHEN RELATIONSHIPS END

BELONGING

BODY IMAGE

DOUBT

I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO PRAY

KNOWING RIGHT FROM WRONG

MONEY

MY FUTURE

OPPORTUNITIES

SERVICE

SICKNESS/HEALTH/HEALING

WHO AM I?

HOMESICK

I DREAD GOING HOME

FEELING LONELY

GRIEF

JEALOUSY

PERPETRATING PREJUDICE

EXPERIENCING PREJUDICE

PROCRASTINATION

REGRET

STRESS

BURDEN TO SUCCEED

GETTING HOMEWORK DONE

BEFORE A TEST

WHEN HOMEWORK IS DIFFICULT

HELP

IN TIME OF NATURAL DISASTER

IN TIME OF CONFLICT OR WAR

IN TIME OF CRISIS OR DISASTER

GENESIS 1

CREATION AND NEW BEGINNINGS

In the first creation story in Genesis, God speaks creation into existence. On the first day, God speaks, creation begins, and it is good. On the second day, God speaks, creation develops, and it is good. It is a story of beauty and wonder. It is a story that is at once powerful and intimate, full of mountains and tiny creatures. There are two theories about this story of creation. On the one hand, people believe that there was nothing, and out of nothing God creates everything. On the other hand, people believe that there was chaos, and out of chaos God creates a structured, orderly world.

Imagine that there was nothing, no light or sound or life. And out of this nothing God begins to work. God begins to fashion the stuff of this world and with it hopes and dreams and a future. Perhaps one of the reasons that we are attracted to this version of creation is that some of us might imagine our own beginnings in similar ways. I don’t mean that our high schools and hometowns, our family and friends, were nothing. But, we might have imagined the new beginning of college as truly something. Here there would be life and hope and a future that was distinctly different from what was available in our past. Or we might think that life after college will be something, everything. It is not to say that we do not value what we are experiencing today, but we may feel that our real life will begin with our next step. There is something very appealing about the progression from nothing to something.

Imagine that there was chaos. And out of this chaos, God creates order. The creation story describes God as a great organizer, separating dark from light, land from sea, day from night. Perhaps one of the reasons that we are attracted to this version of creation is that we imagine that our new beginnings will bring order and structure and meaning. As we examine our lives we may see confusion. If I only knew my major, this confusion would go away. If I only had a boyfriend or girlfriend, the chaos of my life would disappear. Perhaps we imagine our future selves, living future lives that are structured and orderly. There is something very appealing about this progression from chaos to order.

While both theories are appealing, they are also incomplete. It only takes a page or two into our reading of Genesis to discover that God’s creation is not perfect; people are sinful and creation