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\u201cA time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. \u201cI have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.\u201d (John 16:32-33)

This is a devotion for all the graduates of 2020. (Pass the podcast on to a graduate you know!)

These are the words of Jesus, spoken just before his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. We\u2019ve actually touched on this text before in this series, but I thought it was worth coming back to again. Because Jesus was right.

I mean, not in some Sunday School way whereby Jesus is always right and is always the right answer. That gets you off the hook too easy. And I don\u2019t mean to say that Jesus was predicting how you\u2019d be scattered to your homes to finish the semester during COVID-19. He was talking to His disciples about His imminent arrest, not one of many pandemics that would come thousands of years later.

But when Jesus said: \u201cIn this world you will have trouble,\u201d he was right. Because we do have troubles, and unlike any North American generation in a few decades, you have all experienced that fact first hand. Because COVID-19 did happen. It did scatter you, each to your own homes. It did hurt your friendships, increase your screen time, and raise your worries. And it has impacted the way that you mark this major transition in your lives, too. Much of the personal goodness of celebrating and saying goodbye to friends and teachers with hugs and laughs and food and conversations and ceremonies was lost. You probably didn\u2019t get to finish like you wanted to.

Some of us feel this loss like a sadness. Others of us get a nervous energy. Others get angry. Others ignore it and press on. God\u2019s people have used prayers of lament to bring these feelings of sadness, anger, energy, and the desire to get away to God in prayer. Asking Him the hard questions: Why did you have to let this thing happen? Why now? Why us? When will it end and what will my future look like? Sometimes those questions come out sidewise in tears or shouts. That\u2019s ok. God is one of the few in your life always there to listen.

And, I think He cares too. That is, in fact, why Jesus came. Because God cares enough to look the trouble of this world in the eye\u2014not just COVID-19, but also things like structural racism, climate change, and family hardship. Jesus cares enough to sit with us in the middle of it all. And, the Spirit cares enough to continue to sink Jesus\u2019 peace into the fabric of our hearts and weave Jesus\u2019 victory slowly through the fabric of our world. Jesus\u2019 kingdom where all troubles are made well and are set right is coming. But it\u2019s not here yet.

For now, Jesus\u2019 words of John 16 remain true: \u201cin this world you will have trouble. But take heart! Because I have overcome the world.\u201d

Wherever the journey takes you in this wide world: to high school, to work, to a gap year, to further training or studies\u2014remember that all the world and the paths that lie before you belong to Jesus, the one who has overcome. No matter what happens along the road, He remains with you always, offering you His peace. Take the time today to talk to Him and wrestle with Him and seek that peace for yourself and for this world.

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