The day I graduated from high school, I could not answer the question, “what do you want to do with your life?”
When I closed my textbooks for the last time, my tentative plan was to find some sort of job, save some money, and pray that God would make my future clearer.
My life has definitely not been one straight line or clear path. That used to bother me because I like to plan big picture. I thrive with long term goals that I can work towards.
God just has not worked that way in my life though. And you know what? I’ve actually learned to love it.
Since high school I’ve had the opportunity to learn graphic design, work in customer service, join an online writers program, start this blog, lead Bible studies, travel half-way across the world, continue leading worship at my church, go to Bible school, and work as a social media manager.
None of this was part of my plan. And honestly, when I look ahead at the next five years I still don’t exactly know where God’s taking me. It’s not always easy to be content with not knowing. But I’ve learned that God is always faithful.
Since many people are facing a lot of unexpected uncertainty right now, I thought it might be helpful and encouraging to hear from someone who is familiar with the feeling.
My whole life I’ve been learning what it looks like to live with my eyes fixed on Jesus for daily direction and wisdom. So if you are a high-school grad whose future seems unclear, if you recently lost your job and the next steps feel uncertain, or if you’re just looking at the world wondering what is going to happen next, here are a few things God has taught me.
1. My Identity is in Christ
When I graduated without a plan, it wasn’t just the future that seemed unclear, it was my identity.
I didn’t mind not knowing what I would be doing after high-school, what bothered me was that I felt like I didn’t know who God wanted me to be. I was placing my identity in my career plan.
Have you ever done this?
It’s so easy for us to wrap our identity up in which university we go to, what job we get, who our friends are, our relationship status, the money we make, the trips we take, the clothes we wear. So when our school might not open for fall classes, when our dream job is not hiring, when our trip is canceled, or we simply don’t even know what we want to do, it can lead to an identity crisis.
I have found there is so much peace in placing my identity in Jesus instead of what I do.
People often ask me what I do for work. It’s a common first question when you meet someone new. And I know that people judge me based on my answer. If I’m honest, I do the same to others.
So that question used to make me panic a little inside. Who am I? Which part of me do I want them to know about?
The fact is, people will judge who I am based on how I answer their questions. But I’ve learned that God does not judge my value based on the things that I do and neither should I.
Reckoning my identity in Jesus instead of my work means that I believe He loved me while I was a sinner and died to deliver me from sin. It means there is nothing I did or can do to earn His approval or to get anything from Him. He did it all.
Placing my identity in Jesus means that I place my faith in Jesus’ finished work on the cross. I believe that my old sinful nature died with Him on that cross and when He rose from the dead, I rose with Him a new creation.
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
This is my identity. When I believe this is true, I am free to do whatever work the Lord sets before me, whether it will look good in the eyes of men or not. I am free to tell people honestly what I do for work and not mind how they judge me. Christ has already judged me righteous, loved, and accepted in His sight.
Even if your future is currently unknown or unattractive, your identity as a believer is not a mystery and it is most definitely not commonplace. Your identity in Christ Jesus is certain and beyond amazing.
2. God Leads Us Step by Step
Another thing God has taught me is that He always leads us one step at a time.
We cause so much confusion for ourselves when we delay stepping out in faith and obedience by praying that God will show us the bigger picture before we take that first step.
But if we are not obedient with what God has given us today, He will not show us something new tomorrow.
Some of you might be thinking, “Katie, I don’t even know the first step. I’m completely clueless.”
I’ve been there. And God showed me that He has actually has given us the first step in the Bible. It’s the same first step for everyone. Let me share it with you.
“Therefore I tell you, stop being worried or anxious (perpetually uneasy, distracted) about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, as to what you will wear. Is life not more than food, and the body more than clothing? … For the [pagan] Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; [but do not worry,] for your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right-the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also. So do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself.” (Mat. 6:25, 32-34 AMP, emphasis mine)
Notice what the first step is in this verse? Seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
What are you striving after and seeking to figure out right now? Where you will work, how you will make money, what you should be doing a year from now? Or are you seeking to know the character of God, and striving after the kingdom of God?
The promise of scripture is seek Jesus first and then He will add the other things to us. If we get this out of order – if we neglect our relationship with Jesus, delay obedience, or straight-out live in rebellion – God will not add the next steps.
God leads one step at a time. If your next steps seem unclear, stop worrying about a job and start with seeing Jesus. Go back to that last step of obedience God asked you to take and start there. He will be faithful to give wisdom and direction as we seek Him.
3. God is Faithful
Never doubt God’s faithfulness.
This is one of the most important lessons the Lord has taught me. It is the thing I have clung to when life seemed really hard, the future really painful.
Elisabeth Elliot defines suffering as having something we don’t want or wanting something we don’t and can’t have.
Many of us have an uncertain future right now, and we don’t want it. We want clarity and direction and don’t have it. Often the reason our future is uncertain is because of other sufferings in our life such as the loss of a job, sickness, or the loss of a friend or family member. For many right now, world crises and violence.
So I think we can call facing uncertainty a very small form of suffering.
After defining suffering in this way, Elisabeth Elliot says,
Each time the mystery of suffering touches us personally and all the cosmic questions arise afresh in our minds we face the choice between faith (which accepts) and unbelief (which refuses to accept). …
I write as one who has desperately needed a refuge. The bottom has dropped out of my world, as it were, more than once. What, exactly, was going on? Where was I to turn? To God? Is He God or is He not? Does He love me or does He not? Am I adrift in chaos or is the word true that tells me I am an individual created, called, loved, and purposefully placed in a cosmos, an ordered universe, a universe designed, created, and completely under the control of a loving God and Father?
It helps me, at such a time of bewilderment and sorrow, to go to some of the simplest words, such as I am the good shepherd. My Lord chose that description of Himself, and He does not change. He was and is and always will be my shepherd. The word fits my need, for I am a sheep, helpless, and bleating. He cannot forget one for whom He lays down His life. I bank everything on that. … I choose to believe, to surrender, to trust, and to accept. That much I can do. God then does what I can’t do.” (A Path Through Suffering, p. 98-99)
As you face all the questions choose faith. These questions are a choice to believe that God is faithful as He says He is or to reject His word as false. In the face of uncertainty, we must choose to believe God, to surrender to His will, to trust His plan, and to accept His dealings with us.
As Elisabeth Elliot said “that much I can do. God then does what I can’t do.”
This Thing is Sure
Our Lord is good and all His ways are good. He is a good shepherd who leads us in paths of righteousness, through dark valleys, beside still waters, and among enemies.
If you desire to know Jesus and to spend your life doing and being who He has created you to be, it begins by seeking Him. It continues by walking ever so closely to the Lord, trusting His faithfulness, and looking to Him for every step of obedience.
In these days of so much change and unknown, this one thing is sure; “That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Cor. 15:3-4) And “whoever believes on Him will never be put to shame.” (Rom. 10:11)
Katie: of many insights that encouraged me while reading your thoughts on taking life “one step at a time”—and on seeing how you situate that concept in scripture—here are a few:
1. That some of those single steps at a time require a leap of faith.
2. That Faith also requires accepting our present circumstances before we move on to the next step.
3. And that it is not our job to create the next step (let alone the entire path or ladder); or to make sure that it gets us closer to whatever the true destination might be—but rather to step into Christ’s attitudes, which include both humility and a mindset willing to surrender our own fears and desires.
NOTE: “fears and desires”—this is complex. We are instructed to “fear not”; but desires (hopes, passions, aspirations)…we were intended to have these, so the process of surrendering is different. We are asked to surrender our fears and not return to them, but when we surrender a hope or aspiration, we are encouraged by scripture to believe that God will bring them “back” to us…in the right context and in the fullness of His timing.