As a senior in college, those things smack me in the face every second of the day. It seems like every person I know wants to know what I'm doing come May 11... the day after graduation from the place that's changed my life. To be honest, at times I just get plain sick of people asking. Here have been my most recent answers...
- I don't know!
- Wherever God sends me.
- Africa yo. For a year, then we'll see.
- Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'll just apply to schools in a bunch of random cities like Des Moines, Minneapolis, etc..., and move to one. This one's sounding especially exciting right now.
- Well there's this cool school in Indonesia...
- I really loved Cambodia. Like seriously, I want to go change the world there.
- Sioux Center? I love way too many people who aren't graduating this year.
- Oh wait, ELIC just came on campus. You can commit for only 11 months IN CAMBODIA and then make bigger decisions?! SWEET!
So with all of those options... and basically the freedom to move wherever in the world I feel called to teach, I've been a bit overwhelmed during the past couple weeks. Add to that the amazing friendships I've recently been developing with underclassmen, including some amazing freshmen girls, and I really just want to stay at Dordt for another 10 years with all of the same people still here. Unfortunately, that's not possible...
And then today God brought one of those awesome and encouraging answers into my head. I was listening to some Christian praise song or something and the gist of the song's lyrics was about how we'll all worship God together forever someday in Heaven. I seriously don't remember what the song was, otherwise I'd write some better lyrics in here than that poor summary I typed.
But anyways, that got me thinking. It doesn't matter where I am in two months. It doesn't matter where I am in 20 years. I mean, it doesn't matter when I think about where everyone else at Dordt ends up in relation to me. Someday I'll be reunited with all these stinkin' awesome people in Heaven and it'll be the most glorious reunion of my entire life.
That reality doesn't mean I'm not going to keep struggling or bawl my eyes out at graduation or cry myself to sleep the night before I move away. But it does mean I might experience a tiny bit less homesickness, and it definitely means I can keep finding joy in the beautiful chapters and experiences God keeps blessing me with, regardless of whether I'm surrounded by my best friends or not.
Such beautiful words. Going on the Engage trip totally opened the world for me. Like you wrote, we can go anywhere! Sometimes, faced with so many decisions makes actually making a decision much more difficult.
ReplyDeleteSomeone once said, "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. What the world needs is more people who have come alive, so find the thing that makes you feel alive, and do that."
Your words..the reason I bookmarked your blog. Simple. Real. and Good. I love it. And you, of course!
ReplyDeleteYou guys are great. I LOVE YOU BOTH.
ReplyDelete