Post-grad life
can be disorienting, even if you are not freshly departed from the education
system. In any stage of
life, we have to expect transition and change- some seasons are just more
jolting than others. Post-grad
life has been a whirlwind for me personally; in a matter of weeks I had moved
to a new apartment, found myself unemployed, lost my grandmother to cancer, and
began to bid many of my closest friends adieu. I stocked up on waterproof mascara and dove into piles of
job applications and prayer.
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Through it all,
I discovered many beautiful revelations though- like the fact that I was
blessed to have such precious people and experiences to mourn the loss of. C.S. Lewis’ said it best in his
concluding remarks on Narnia- “All
their life in this world and all their adventures had only been the cover and
the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story
which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter
is better than the one before.”
In the midst of
my senior year, I dialogued with God often about what this coming year would
look like. I applied for countless opportunities to return to Germany for the
year, looked into grad schools, explored all the options post-grad life could
potentially hold. And His gentle
voice invited me to rest. I’m so used to running at light speed, validating myself in my
busyness and ambition, and He invited me to a season of rest. I’ve become a connoisseur of reading
post-grad career and life advice articles and sermons, and one of the best
messages I’ve heard is simply that life is not a rat race. It’s not a competition to see who can make the most money or
get married or have babies or get the trendiest job or travel more of the world
first. Really, it’s not. It’s okay to explore and rest and
dialogue with God and to stop rushing, to stop the glorification of busy.
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God is, and always is, endlessly faithful and provident, and I’m working two jobs now, one at
a church and one at an incredible Christian nonprofit. I’m also helping with admin for a worship ministry on the
side. For the first time, my life
is (relatively) calm. I have space
to breath, space to create, space to seriously and intentionally invest in
relationships that matter, relationships that are life-giving. And I encourage
you to consider doing the same.
Don’t rush, don’t fret. Savor
time and learn that it’s okay to wait on God, and it’s equally important to
invest in your twenties wisely.
More than anything, I hope this blog
invites you to celebrate and mourn the good and perfect gifts God has given you
as they come and go, whether they be seasons, people, or experiences, and to
embrace with faith and surrender the adventure that lies ahead. Take good risks, surround yourself with
life-giving friends who seriously pursue Jesus and their dreams and love you
wholly. Invest in your education
and do work that matters with people who share your vision, that makes you come
alive.
There comes a
day when you have to fill out tax forms that are like abstract Sudoku games and
you have to trade your favorite college t-shirts in for professional clothes,
but that doesn’t mean that you have to lose your heart in the process. Don’t settle on jobs that make you
miserable and don’t compromise on the people you allow to live life with you.
At some point you have to realize that your life is FULLY in your hands- YOU hold
the sails, the steering wheel, whatever metaphorical device you choose- but
really, you’re not a victim or a bystander in your own life. No matter what circumstances are thrown
your way, you alone choose how to respond. You alone can create your life and make the choices that
guide it, responding to the invitations God lays before you. So take the ownership. Work hard. Love hard. Learn to pray
hard. Pick up hobbies and passions that you can maintain and develop throughout
your entire life, and ones that you can use to serve others. Find mentors and ask people that inspire
you good questions.
Take loads of
pictures along the way and leave people better than you found them. Never lose your sense of wonder. Never make decisions based on fear;
make them only out of love.
At our staff
retreat last fall, someone said something incredibly profound: As Christians,
we’re called to be Kingdom-minded, not castle-minded. We need to stop building ivory towers of comfort and
security. No one season is meant
to remain forever. We must hold it all loosely, journeying forth with hearts of
trust, eyes of wonder, and steps of confidence.
People care more
about the quality of your work than when you get it done in the work world.
It’s incredibly liberating. In
college I rushed around, quite literally, like a chicken with my head cut off.
I need to send out apology cards for my overdone usage of, “Sorry, I’m too busy
being an RA/on Exec in my sorority/a student leader/president of a student
organization/going to church/taking 16 hours of senior-level classes/oh, and
writing my Honors thesis/while trying to graduate Magna Cum Laude to invest in
our friendship” line. Don’t get me wrong, all of those things were life-giving
experiences that shaped me, grew me, and prepared and honed my leadership and
work abilities. But was ALL of
that worth it at the cost of my sleep and the depth of my friendships? I’m
learning to stop the glorification of busyness. Life is infinitely more enjoyable when you aren’t so focused
on meeting deadlines (especially self-imposed ones; jobs, raises, relationships,
etc.) and more focused on making quality work and relationships that actually
mean something.
To conclude this
spiel: I urge you to pray to be strategically positioned. My constant prayer, through all of my final semester and
through my brief period of unemployment, was to be strategically
positioned. It caught me off guard
when God actually did so, even down to the details, like where I’m living. I wanted to live in the center of the
Nashville metropolis I was accustomed to and adored, but I found myself living
and working on the outskirts, which is much less appealing. While at first my flesh complained
about the price of gas and commuting, the aesthetics, the general distance from
the things and people I was used to being within a 5-minute walk of, it dawned
on me a few weeks ago that my prayers were answered- I was strategically
positioned in places where I could learn to be more like Jesus, where Jesus
was needed and not usually sought out.
In life, in careers, in
relationships, we learn to do a lot of waiting; we must learn to worship God for
WHO He is, not what He does. He IS breakthrough, IS providence, IS love and IS
our portion. Letting His love and
strength become our superior reality paves a way of faith and breakthrough. We
come to realize our weakness is an opportunity to experience God's strength and
also to encounter just how unconditional and constant His love is. Miracles happen where "voids"
are. Change and transition can be
uncomfortable, but accepting new seasons allows us to experience new facets of
God's love, provision, and goodness.
“Running the race to win the prize" often means not giving
up/turning back when the view before is sweeter than the current one. Persevere. The best is yet to come and beauty always
catches us by surprise. Let’s
reprioritize investing in and celebrating others, saying farewell to our
obsession with self-preservation. We’ll often find ourselves disoriented and reoriented as life
ebbs and flows, but this life was meant to be dreamt and dared and danced. Let’s
live into this season and into what God is dreaming about doing in, through,
and around us!
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Also: If you've made it through this post, I invite you to check out this amazing TED Talk by Meg Jay. She has a phenomenal book out as well, fantastic food for thought if you're in your twenties or thirties:
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