What are you going to do with your life? 

I hate that question.  I hear it at every family gathering, every time I tell someone I am an English/writing major, and just about every time I introduce myself.

I think this is a popular question for people to ask college students, but is also the most terrifying.  Why are we so obsessed with this question?  I think it is because in our culture we are defined by what we do, or what we want to do. 

I am the kind of person who loves to have everything planned out ahead of time.  I am terrified of the unknown.  For those of you that know the DISC test I am definitely a C.  The past couple of years I have been obsessed with figuring out what I am going to do after college.  I have changed my major around about seven times now, always trying to find the perfect combination to fit me.  Every time I did that, it felt like the right thing to do, and I completely re-structured my life plan around that change.  That would last a couple of months at most and then I would change again.

I feel like we all walk around campus with big labels.  They read “Youth Ministry,” “Psychology,” “Journalism,” “Education,” and numerous other majors.  We let these things define us, whereas we should be walking around with labels that say “Christ-follower.”

This past summer I thought a lot about purpose.  What is my purpose here on earth?  Is it my career?  Is it to volunteer?  Is it to be a good friend? These things are important, but our purpose is something much bigger.  Our purpose is to be a follower of Christ.  It is that simple, but also that challenging. 

I am a senior.  I am going to graduate in May.  Even looking at those two sentences freaks me out.  I don’t know what I am going to do right after I am done with school, but I am okay with that.  I have put my “figure your life out” agenda on the back burner, and I have had more opportunities cross my path and drop into my lap.  It is finally when I don’t worry about things and give it all to God when these things happen.  There is something beautiful in that. 

We all have our passions and things that make our souls soar.  For me that includes writing, photography, art, music, story, and good conversation.  We also have the things that make our hearts break: poverty, homelessness, pornography.  In essence, this is who we are.  These things come from God.  He gives us passions that He is passionate about, and opens our eyes to see what makes His heart break.  We are made up of our passions, and those things that break our hearts.  What we do should come from these things.

God has also blessed us with specific gifts.  We may not be the best at certain things, but we have talents that we can use to glorify God.  He delights when we use what He has given us to make Him known in this world.  Always remember that God does not call the equipped, but he equips the called.  A favorite quote of mine is from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “If God had wanted me otherwise, he would have created me otherwise.”  I can rest in the fact that God made me the way I am for a reason, and from that comes my purpose. 

My focus this semester has been on who I want to be.  I’ve been working on reading my Bible more and really taking stock of what my passions are.  I want to be a better Christ-follower.  I want to be someone who knows what they are passionate about.  I want to be able to weigh career options against who I am and go from there.  If it is not something that furthers the Kingdom or edifies who I am in Christ, then it is probably not my best choice.  We need to be constantly seeking God’s best. 

I challenge you to think about who you want to be first, and let what you are going to do come from that.

Be a human being, not a human doing.