This May, I will be graduating from college and starting my life out as a “real adult.” I will have a job. I will have bills to pay. I will be building my credit score and calling the eye doctor and learning about the world of insurance. I am sure you are experiencing this angst along with me, fellow college student.
Since all of this is fast approaching, how should we go about these next few months planning for our future?
Since all good plans start with a list, let's will start this planning list with a great first step:
- Make a list! Start with the things you need to do in the order you need to do them:
- Find a job
- Find a place to live
- Buy a car
- Figure out everything else I need to add to my list
- Then, make a sub-list under each main category:
- Find a job
- Email colleagues about job leads
- Look up jobs online
- Apply to places
- Go to interviews
- Cry while choosing which job to accept
- Now you have your future plan! Congratulations!!
- Now rip it up and burn it! Surprise. You can plan all you want, but I can guarantee you that it won’t work out. It’s not like your plan is a bad thing. I am sure it is very, very good. You know what you need to do, and you know what you need to do to get there.
- However, have you committed your future plans to the Lord? Have you given Him your every desire, and surrendered your own will in favor of His?
- Can you cry out with utmost sincerity, “Thy will be done!”?
- Can you trust God that He will lead you down His path for you one step at a time? Maybe you don’t know where you will work or where you will live. That’s okay. I bet God has graciously revealed to you exactly what step He wants you to take next.
- Take that one step. Take it in faith. Just jump in. Your one act of faithful obedience in the face of uncertainty means a lifetime of giving God the glory.
- You take that one step; over time God reveals the next one. It’s a dance – He leads, you follow right after. You need not know what comes next until the current move is coming to a close.
- Finally, one day, you look back in awe at the beauty of God’s hand on your life. This is the perspective of eternity. What happens in your life now is just one tiny aspect of the whole picture. God has a greater scheme of things, and one day you will see it. One day it’ll all make sense. Until then, stand firm.
Future planning can be a good thing if it is done in the right way. Give the control where control is due. God is the ultimate Planner of our lives, so let’s let Him do the job He does best and worship Him all along the way.
“In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps.” - Proverbs 16:9
