On this Thanksgiving weekend, Covenant students have scattered to the homes of families and friends for a few days’ break from the ordinary routines of college life. During these days, we have watched and heard the reports of the violence in Mumbai, learned more about the key Cabinet and staff members whom President-elect Obama will gather around him, and enjoyed a bit of a break from the whip-lashing volatility of the stock market. In the midst of momentous events in the world, we have been blessed with the privilege of Thanksgiving feasts and fellowship, reminders all of the enormous mercy and generosity of our faithful God, and of the remarkable gifts of faith and family and freedom, which seem even more precious in light of the news from around the world.

These next few weeks are full of demands on our students as they come to the end of the fall semester and focus on finishing projects and preparing for exams. Our faculty, too, bear a particularly heavy load during these days as they grade papers and exams and complete the many responsibilities of a semester’s teaching. My own schedule includes several trips on behalf of the college, a final chapel message before Christmas break, and, this next weekend, the delight of our annual Madrigal Dinners, for which Kathleen and I will serve as the Lady and Lord of the evening’s celebration.

I am very, very grateful for the ordinary rhythms and patterns of life at Covenant. While there are wonderful highlights – like the recent theater production of Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest,” or the multi-day speaking engagements of Mark Dever and Michael Oh, or the bracing competition of our men’s and women’s soccer teams who just missed trips to the NAIA national tournament with losses in their conference championship matches – the real work of the college happens in the daily routines of classes and study and practices and prayer and mealtimes and conversations and church and, yes, even sleep! In these routines habits of mind and heart are formed, character is shaped, sins are exposed and confessed, lasting friendships are built, and God’s purposeful work is done.

As this Thanksgiving weekend comes to a close, I invite you to increase your prayers for our students and those who serve them. Please pray that we would finish this semester well, and that we would give praise to God for both the highs and lows of these last months. Pray for all of us as we face financial challenges – for families as they wrestle with the cost of a Covenant education in an environment where their resources are stretched unusually thin; for faculty and staff as they work and serve in a time of very stringent budget management; and for the administration and the board of trustees as they seek to steward the mission of the college in God’s wisdom and grace. Your prayers for us – and our prayers for you – gain strength and hope when offered with thanksgiving for God’s mercy and provision in the midst of a troubled world.