Make Your Move

LEARNING OBEDIENCE STARTS NOW AND PAVES THE WAY FOR A LIFE LIVED WITH PURPOSE

I remember having a conversation with a group of friends in college about what life would be like after graduation when one friend asked the group, “Who among us do you guys think would be first to become rich?” Another friend pointed her finger at me, and they all exclaimed my name simultaneously. Looking back on this now, I can see why they all thought that. Because at first, college was all about getting my degree to get a high paying job. Little did I realize that college isn’t just a financial stepping stone or a life upgrade. Rather, it should be an incredibly formative time to dig into God’s specific mission for your life, and it starts now, not after college. 

DISCOVERING PURPOSE

What is your purpose? If you don’t know, how do you find out? Is it possible to know what you were created for even as a young adult? It is easy to go along with what everyone else is busying themselves with instead of going against the flow to find the bigger picture. We try to fit in because we are afraid of what people will think of us. We excuse ourselves from big responsibilities, especially while in college, because we think we’re too young. But in truth, this weakens our ability to face all the challenges that will inevitably come our way. In the end, we lose the drive to find the real meaning of our existence because of too many excuses and reasons not to. We’ve taken the bait.

To be honest with you, I was in that same mindset the first couple of years in college even though, to my friends, I was going places. But that’s because I was going in the direction where I thought life was found. I thought that it would be meaningful if I did it my way while disregarding obvious issues that stole my attention from what truly mattered. There came a time when I doubted the purpose of life – whether it was truly a gift from God. It is clear now, however, that God was watching over my brokenness and knew every pain I was experiencing. In my first few years of  college, God was preparing me for a whole new way of experiencing college. Eventually I crossed paths with an international Christian organization, Street Level Ministries, which paved the way for my knowledge of God. It was then that I discovered that I can be who God wants me to be and let Him use me in any way, even as a student. Life is not waiting for the good stuff that supposedly follows college: a career, house, family. God has a plan for what I’m doing right now.

“Endurance is showing up despite the hardships.”

THE BEGINNING OF SAYING YES

Life began to start making more sense once I slowly allowed God to enter into it. I experienced a turnaround where my sole drive wasn’t just academic anymore. Instead, I was getting excited about what the day held in the hands of God.

Having a busy schedule, living with different people in  our first apartment, or being too inexperienced is not a hindrance to serving God as a young adult. Though we often hide behind those excuses. Every 24 hours, our actions portray what our priority was that particular day. I remember one time when I had to choose between saying no to traveling back home for the weekend or saying yes to a Friday night Bible discussion. Saying no to say yes to other things can be hard sometimes, but God is going to use what might seem like a roadblock so we can learn to choose Him over our own desires.

Being faithful in the small things today is how a person shows their willingness to surrender himself to an authority, which is what it means to obey God. Every university or workplace has a list of rules and regulations for everyone to follow, like encouraging everyone to show up on time and meet deadlines. Obeying one simple rule develops our perseverance and gets us ready for the “bigger stuff” God might have for us down the road.

These crossroads show up in small ways. One time I had to firmly decide whether I would complete a school project or procrastinate for the rest of the weekend. It was so easy to daydream about avoiding the project, but in the end, it came down to asking myself whether I would simply do what I knew to do. I thought, “Am I going to meet the deadline for this submission or am I going to ignore it?” It is tempting to separate ourselves from tasks like classwork or work deadlines and think it has nothing to do with our walk with God, but that is a lie. Everything we do affects our walk with God, and it affects those around us too.

Even procrastination is disobedience. James 4:17 says, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” We are all guilty of it, and the truth is we are not perfect like God is. But God weighs the heart, and He knows who is willing to obey Him. Fortunately, He’s patient when we fail in this area because He desires to grow us so that we become more like Him.

Being obedient to God is part of surrendering to God, something the prophets, apostles, and disciples all had to experience. Abraham left his homeland in obedience to God’s command; David became a great king after his obedience to God’s calling; Ruth showed incredible faith in obedience to God’s promise; and Mary, the mother of Jesus, humbled herself in obedience to God’s great message. We should sit up and take note of these biblical characters, especially considering that they weren’t ancient superheroes. They were everyday men and women that, through their obedience, God used greatly. This same condition applies today. He uses every weak person, poor or rich, young or old, who takes a small step of obedience to Him.

THE POWER OF SHOWING UP

One way of telling if a person is obedient is if he consistently shows up. No matter how hard the things that life may throw at him, he still shows up. Endurance is showing up despite the hardship. Facing project deadlines, exams, report presentations, being a student leader, and combating personal and financial problems aren’t easy, but that is how you deal with responsibilities as a student.

The organization I mentioned earlier, Street Level Ministries, encourages its members to follow Jesus in simple ways while in college. Serving in this ministry while pursuing my architecture degree was such a beautiful adventure to me, and I enjoyed it, but it was hard. Every event that I was a part of was an open door to step out and see how God might work through it. In these situations, I faced nerve-racking decision to start, or not start, a conversation with someone, or hand out a copy of this magazine to a group of college students, or just keep it to myself.

As I was learning architecture, God put me in a position where I could be creative in both designing buildings and impacting the world around me. Every step we take in obedience to God often has a dual purpose because He’s not just looking out for our interests now, but also for our future, and for that matter, the interests of everyone around us. Most of the time when we can’t see past an inch in front of us, God is working in us an outcome that we often may never understand fully on this side of heaven. When I handed out a magazine or took the time to listen to a fellow student rather than rushing on with my own studies, I didn’t know what the outcome was, but God did. Every difficult decision-making situation is a learning experience from God, calling us to a deeper dependence on Him. Rather than asking why all the time, He wants us to obey and trust Him because He alone has our best interests in mind. We simply don’t have His foresight and knowledge, or for that matter, His same love for others.

“One simple act of obedience to God, that builds on another, reveals the purpose He has for you.”

Some people ask me, “Why does it seem like you have so much time for everything you do?” If we let God handle our lives, He will ultimately put everything into order. The power of showing up to do what God has called you to that day, that hour, that year, despite how uncomfortable it is, will result in experiencing true inner joy. The weight of figuring it all out on your own vanishes when you’re free to simply follow Him.

Experiencing radical changes in our lives comes through total surrender to God. As Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it” (Luke 9:23-24). The true meaning of life is unfolded by the One who created us. He made each of us on purpose for a specific mission. Every piece of blessing or skill that we receive are gifts to be used for the mission we are created for.

MAKING A MOVE FOR JESUS

Being a young adult doesn’t have to simply be a spin cycle of attending class, working long hours, taking exams, joining clubs, checking off experiences like trips to the lake, and then graduating on to a career, family, and house. Without God at the center of all of it, it’s safe to say that your life will be wasted, no matter what age you are. However, one simple act of obedience to God that builds on another reveals the purpose He has for you. It’s crazy amazing how being a part of a Christian community, even as a college student, encouraged me to step beyond what I thought was normal because it wasn’t something obvious or glamorous. It was simply showing up every week and to every event with a group of Christians to see what God would do. Every opportunity forged by the commitment I had with God strengthened my relationship with Him and those around me.

Before I started writing this, I asked God with hope and trust that whoever reads this would discover that we are all created for a specific mission and purpose, but it doesn’t just fall from the sky. It starts in shaky obedience, in simple trust, and making a move to go out and do something. No matter what you have done, where you came from, or how young or old you are, God has already something prepared for you.  Will you make your move?

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Ephesians 2:10