What are you doing with your life?
That’s what I ask myself every time I hit a crossroad on this journey of being a young adult. So many times I’ve had to stop and seriously consider what I want to do with my life, and I’ve realized something. What matters most is how you prioritize everything you do. As a little kid maybe you thought you wanted to be a Major League Baseball player like I did, or maybe you wanted to be the next Tom Brady or Serena Williams. There’s one problem though. You can’t.
Being a faithful follower of Christ requires many sacrifices from us. One, being our time. Some careers just DO NOT allow you to fulfill some of your duties like you need to. You can not have a career or hobby that has you busy on Sunday mornings, it won’t work. Who are we to think that God will have time for us if we put a secular career before Him? Like Matthew 6:24 teaches, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” Possibly, we could convince ourselves that the time could be made up somewhere else and we could balance everything. It’s an honest thought, but it isn’t always about whether or not we have enough time, or energy to expend. Sometimes it is about whether or not our careers, and even our hobbies strike a divide between us and our faith. I want us to consider how pursuing riches and focusing on worldly things could bring us closer to sin.
Look at Lot as an example. In Genesis 13 Abram and his nephew Lot had a sort of “this town isn’t big enough for the both of us” moment. They decided to part ways and Abram gave Lot first take on where to go. Genesis 13:10 shows that Lot chose the plain of Jordan, a rich and fertile area, one that became the site of one of the mightiest displays of God’s wrath. Scripture tells us that Lot eventually would pitch his tent as far as Sodom, leaving him in an epicenter of sin (Genesis 13:12). In hindsight we know this would cause him tremendous pain and suffering to be in the presence of such sin, but did he know that beforehand? I believe he did; verse 13 says that the men of Sodom were extremely sinful at this time, and Lot would presumably have known this as he settled to graze his livestock. Reading through the next several chapters we see where Lot’s decision put him and his family.
Lot’s career put him in a spot that left him widowed, and brought devastation to his family. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was so great that God rained fire and brimstone to destroy them. He told Lot’s family to not look back and by doing so his wife was killed on the spot, turning into a pillar of salt. We cannot be completely certain, but if Lot had chosen the other plain to graze his livestock, his family may have been spared from the devastation and tragedy that took place in Sodom the day it was destroyed. This is a stark reminder of why we need to be considerate of how we choose our careers.
For a lot of younger Christians (as well as some older ones), planning careers and futures can be extremely stressful. Being a young adult trying to live a faithful life can be difficult. The question that we can often ask ourselves is, “How can I balance my spiritual life with all these other things I have to do?” Something I have found while studying this more and seeking advice is that your life cannot be compartmentalized. I try to remind myself that with everything I do, my faith must come first (Colossians 3:17). If you’re at school, don’t think that you’re just some college student; remind yourself that you’re a Christian first and student second, and live like it. Little reminders like that can help us buckle down and keep the faith when we will be inevitably faced with trials. We are told to be lights in the world (Matthew 5:16), and we do not get to pick and choose when that light shines. With that being said, I completely understand that it is not that easy.
Getting into college, or a new career is hard, it tests your faith. There are early mornings, and long days full of new and often overwhelming responsibilities. The late night cram sessions that make it seem like there’s no time in the day to study the Word. These are just new situations we have to learn to navigate. There are a couple things we can control everyday that will help us grow closer to God. We can make time to read God’s Word and seek Him in prayer everyday. When we are feeling like we cannot tell what direction to take, what better place to go than to what the Psalmist tells us is a, “Lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” (Psalm 119:105). We know through the reading of the scripture that Paul tells us in his epistle to the Philippians that we have no need to be anxious for anything here, especially the trivial problems we face in balancing our lives as we gain more responsibilities (Philippians 4:6-7).
The decisions regarding our future are not something to be taken lightly, especially for a young adult who wants to spend this life serving The Lord. Before we worry about how we will manage the career, we have to first decide whether that path gives us enough time to be managed. One thing to consider is whether or not this occupation will allow the ability to seek God everyday. Some jobs and hobbies consume our time without us realizing it and before we know it we are backsliding like Israel. There are some occupations that truthfully do not allow enough time to raise a family, or relax, and most of all, they do not give us the ability to serve the Lord and His people.
I know these thoughts may jump all over the place, but if you take one thing from this article let it be this. Let’s try to constantly consider what James writes on how Christians should plan for the future. James 4:13-16 emphasizes the fact that we have no idea if we will be blessed with another day, so why put so much weight on the vanishing things here on earth. Equating our lives to a vapor as James does may help us keep the spiritual responsibilities on the forefront of our minds, as the riches in heaven we are seeking will never fade.
written by Zackary Miller
