Did you feel the anticipation in the air? A wave that induces a mix of deep sighs and exclamations of joy, its midterm time.
Why do we feel this need to know what and where we’re going? This overwhelming desire to have our life planned out, where does it come from?
At the root of it, it’s peer pressure, which is often associated with bad habits such as smoking and drinking. In reality, at Corban our peer pressure often regards our future plans.
“Where do you see yourself in five years? In 10 years?” These harmless questions have rendered even the best of students stiff once or twice. Responses are typically clusters of words resembling the thought process involved when solving calculus equations.
“How long is five years? If I am 19 now, that’s what, 24? I’ll have a degree then….”
Life seemed to be all figured out during Freshmen Orientation, when we had wide eyes and smiled with the zeal of the promise of a fresh start. Now, shells of lives are accented with under-eye bags and the caffeine stimulated bodies of students simply trying to make it to the weekend. It always is so simple before the first week of classes each semester, until the pressure creeps in.
“How does your major play into where you see your life going?” Its intention of gaining perspective into your life, instead causes doubt and self-reflection. One, two, three doubts and major changes later, not much good has come, only anxiety. Moreover, most of the time confusion has been bred, rather than closure.
Aside from Jesus dying on the cross for our sins, a reoccurring theme in the Bible is God having a plan. Taking note from the graduation frames and Christian planners, Jeremiah reads, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Paul takes a more direct approach in his epistles. In James 4: “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
The point: only God is in control. Time and time again, God proves to be sovereign, whether it be in the Old Testament, the New Testament, your neighbor’s life, your pastor’s life or your own life. God has it. So why do we feel the need to have a five-year plan?
When it comes to the future to find peace and comfort we need to let go of the reigns and feeble attempts of control. Paul says it best at the end of James 4, “Instead, you ought to say, ‘If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.'”