rMag

Practically Speaking On Your Mark … Get Set … Graduate!

Jennifer Duff

What are you going to do after graduation? This is a question posed to every graduate innumerable times, evoking annoyance and possibly even fear or confusion. What am I going to do? Where am I going to go? What should my priorities be? When we as young people are faced with one of the largest decisions we have ever had to make, we can easily get caught up in ourselves. What are my dreams? What are my goals? What are my needs?

As we wrap up last minute studies and reading of books in high school, make flurries of preparations for graduation, and try to decide what to do in the fall, it is crucial we take our minds off the question “what am I going to with my life?” and focus instead on what God wants to do in our lives. Maybe you have a confident, take-charge personality, and look forward to new freedoms and challenges. Or maybe you are reluctant to find what’s out there, and have to decide just what it is you want to pursue. But regardless of our feelings in approaching this new step in our lives, one simple truth needs to be impressed firmly upon our hearts: our lives apart from Christ do not matter for eternity. We need to be ready to leave behind even our deepest longings and dreams for the cross, from which the world will try so hard to tear us away.

“I Need to Find Myself….”

A common secular idea is that we all need to go out into the world to “find ourselves.” Christians believe that all men are born in sin, and in need of repentance and salvation by the blood of Jesus Christ, but we often have a hard time digging any deeper than that. When we “find” ourselves according to the world, we see a naturally good man with no need for law, salvation or help. When we find ourselves according to God’s Word, we see that we are but grass that quickly withers; a fleeting breath, a passing shadow. Isaiah 41 describes man as a worm in need of God’s help and redemption, and of His upholding us by His righteous right hand.

Job 25:6 says, in asking how man can be right before God: “how much less man, who is a maggot, and the son of man, who is a worm!” (ESV) We are nothing. Our life is going to be gone in a moment; soon it will be faded and withered, and who will remember it? What will count? And, how can we, small and failing worms that we are, do anything so big, good, and grand as to count for eternity?

A song that my mom taught us kids when we were little goes like this: “My God is so BIG! So strong and so mighty; there’s nothing my God cannot do!” Just how great is our God? We read that God is majestic and clothed with awesome majesty (Job 37:22), awesome from His sanctuary and the one who gives power and strength (Psalm 68:35), greatly to be feared in the council of holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him (Psalm 89:7), eternal, with everlasting arms (Deut. 33:27), and great in his majesty and fury (Exodus 15:7).

First Chronicles 29:11 says:

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. (ESV)

Men are nothing. God is great; He is everything! And instead of being depressed in our fallen and lowly state, a depression common in a world of dependence on man’s goodness, we can take joy in the fact that God would use us as tools in His hands. It is by His grace we are even alive, and it will be by His grace that we accomplish great things for the kingdom in the years to come.

Having a “God-sized Vision”

We think we know it all and are able to fend for ourselves until we take a look at man’s state from a biblical perspective. We realize that we are foolish to have even thought we could sustain ourselves in light of God’s incomprehensible power. Likewise, we should be ashamed when we limit our visions to our own abilities and wants. God’s abilities through us are so much greater, and His desire for our well-being so much stronger.

Philippians 3:12-14 says:

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (ESV)

We humans are constantly being distracted by fleshly things of this world. We get caught up in the “how’s”, “when’s”, and “where’s” of life and forget about the ultimate prize; we lose sight of what lies ahead and keep our eyes fixed on the spot where we presently stand. How am I going to pay my way through school? When should I pursue this dream? Where should I go? All of these little steps in life are just pieces of the great plan God has for us, and the blessings we see are just previews of what is to come in our eternal life. How we pay our way through classes is not going to matter for eternity; how we put our faith in God’s providing for us will. The name and place of the college we attend will not matter for eternity; the training we receive and the people we minister to will.

We are nothing and our plans are feeble and unsure. Truly, if we are to pass away in a breath, then so will our plans, thoughts, and physical successes. The only way our visions will count for eternity is if we exchange ours for His.

Keeping the Goal in Sight

So, friends, this is an exciting time as we dream of ways to minister and learn in His name, surrendering every day to the Lord’s plan. The world will seek to confuse and Satan will endeavor to deceive; it is only by God’s grace that we as sinful men would be included in His eternal and perfect kingdom of warriors. But warriors, regardless of age, experience, or passion still need to be reminded regularly of what they strive for and how to attain it.

So, what snares should we be on the watch for and how can we arm ourselves to resist them? First of all, everyone has experienced the difficulty that comes from being different – the one that stands out against the majority. As a Christian endeavoring to live for Christ in every area of life, we have to constantly be on our guard when caught up in crowds. Otherwise, we are easily blinded to the truth by giving in to the coaxing of our peers. Also, pressing deadlines and school responsibilities make it all too easy to push time with God to the back burner. I would urge you, as young followers of Christ, to be active in the following:

* Find a Christian support/Bible study group that agrees with your theological stands to give encouragement and to keep accountable to: to counteract the daily influence of peers.
* Continued counsel and influence from those older and wiser is so important – keep up a strong relationship with parents and friends and be sure to go to them for advice first!
* Make time with God at the top of your priorities: despite deadlines and responsibilities, the Word needs to be the first and last thing of the day.
* Memorize scripture: when bombarded with untruths, secularism or the shallowness of peers, it is crucial you are armed with the Word of God to keep focused and clear headed.

The world tells us “this is your time to shine!” But instead, this is your time to let God shine through you! What an amazing privilege and honor! May we seek to be tools in the hand of our Creator as we embark on this new journey.

Congratulations, class of 2008! Now go and make His name known.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2, ESV)

Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper
Knowing God by J.L. Packer
The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer