Student Weekend Away Reflection

‘Remember your creator’.

That’s the resounding message which has stuck in my mind, and in the minds of many of us after our annual SOS (Students on Sunday) Weekend Away. The trip, although only a couple of days spent in Eastbourne, was filled with leisure activities, laughs, and of course, scripture. We were studying the book of Ecclesiastes over the course of three sessions, but the final session was the one that really stayed in my mind.

“Remember your creator in the days of your youth” (Ecclesiastes 12:1)

Ecclesiastes 12:1 is a verse appropriately aimed toward our group of young, university students.

This verse gave me a new perspective on my daily life and made me cherish the trip even more. After all, how many people have the opportunity to just drop everything, drive away from the rest of the world, and have an entire weekend away to study the Bible and spend time sharing their faith with fellow believers? It’s definitely a rarity in the busyness of everyday life—and something that will become even more a rarity as we get older and have more and more responsibilities.

But it made me think: do I remember God every day? Of course, there are Bible studies and church meetings throughout the week, but how often do I sit down to really consider the effects of God’s presence in my life?

For example, our group walk on Saturday afternoon consisted of plodding through muddy trails amongst trees and up hills until we reached the sand and stones of the beach. The weather, that day, couldn’t have been more perfect. The sun came out just as we made it to the ocean, and it stayed until we headed back to our accommodation.
But all this changed the very next day, when there was storming rain and wind on the drive home.

Little things like that are clearly God’s doing, yet it’s so easy to not think of Him in those times, those small, fleeting moments that come and go in the blink of an eye. The weekend away reminded me of that. It was a reminder to not only take the time to remember God, but to do it while we’re able to.

As James 4:14 tells us: “You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes“.

Only God knows what will happen tomorrow, which is why we mustn’t wait to remember our creator. We must do it today. Today while we’re able and while we still remember to remember.