Escaping the Pressure to Know What You’ll do After Grad

Remember when people used to ask what you wanted to be when you grew up? I was determined to become a baker. My bakery would sell brownies (because they’re my grandpa’s favorite), and my Dad would drive the delivery truck.

As I grew up, the brownie bakery and delivery service dream quickly died. But the question “What do you want to be” didn’t. In fact it was fired in my direction more frequently each passing year.

Now that this query was relevant and pressing I couldn’t find an answer. What did I want to do with my life? I could no longer answer with all the confidence of 6-year old me. Sometimes I even avoided talking to adults because the dreaded question would inevitably get asked.

I’ve heard from a lot of girls going into high school or graduation that are experiencing a similar pressure to get your lives figured out. Everyone is asking what you want to do and you just don’t know. How are you supposed to wisely choose high school courses and college courses, when your future is uncertain?

It’s almost 3 years since I graduated high school. And I still don’t have my life figured out. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up. But I’m no longer anxious and I don’t dread that lingering question.

In fact I’ve come to love not knowing!

Just think, God could call us anywhere, to do anything, and we’re completely free to do it. It’s exciting to anticipate what might happen.

James 4:13-15 says “Come now you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit;’ whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills we will live and do this or that.’”

We Can’t Know the Future

The hard truth is, that no matter how much planning and preparing and thinking we put into our life, we can’t predict the future. We can’t plan for marriage. Neither can we plan for a successful career. We can’t plan for sickness or family crisis or economic crisis.

That’s why James cautions us not to plan out our whole lives saying “Next year I’m going to go to such and such university, spend four years there completing my course, then get a job in this city and set up a home.” We do not know what will happen.

Life on Earth is Short

James goes on to remind us that we won’t live here forever. Life is short. We spend so much mental energy planning for life on earth when, in a few, short years it will all be gone.

But how many of us spend this much effort and time planning and preparing for eternal life after death? The vast majority of our future is not dependant on a university degree or marriage. It’s dependant upon our relationship with Christ and our obedience to Him.

We can gain all wisdom, make money, enjoy our job, have a houseful of kids, love our husband, create a beautiful home. But when we die it will all be gone.

Where we go to school, what career we choose is insignificant in comparison to how we trust God and love Him.

Entrust your future to God

Even though you don’t know your future, God does. He knows the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done. He knows if you will get married and when. He knows if you need a university degree and which one.

If you sincerely desire to follow Christ, if you are praying about your which courses to take, which career to pursue, God will make sure you are prepared. He will direct you.

You probably won’t see writing on the wall or hear an audible voice. But as you use your God-given wisdom and as you seek godly council, God will not allow you to mess up His plan for your life.

Some Advice for Making Plans

Don’t know what courses to take? Spend less time worrying, and more time praying. Ask God for wisdom and come with a real honest openness to God’s direction. Ask godly people in your life for advice. Get to know God and trust Him.

And then just pick something. Choose subjects you enjoy! Chances are, you won’t become a chemist if you hate chemistry. But if you love social studies there’s a good possibility you will use that in your future.

Planning is important. James didn’t tell us to stop making plans. But we need to make them recognizing that we don’t know what tomorrow holds, only God does. And He is able to guide and direct us. So hold your plans loosely for God to take, shape, destroy or grant however He sees best.

 

Do you know what you want to do when you “grow up?” Or do you hate that question?