To all the Graduates this Year:
It is my ten year college graduation reunion this year, and it's been ten years of running without stopping. Until now. I'm learning a different way. My hope is that you can take my lessons with you into your first season in the real world rather than learn the hard way.
Fill your life with the abundance of Christ and work from the overflow. It's really the only way. I've done some of the currently recognized "noble pursuits" of today's Christian culture, each so needed and important, but the world applauds performance and our Christian communities uphold martyrdom and a loss of healthy balance as signs of sainthood, so if you're like me, you're already set up to crash. Don't. Cling to the abundant life.
And bring your whole self not to the world but to Jesus. When He said to lose your life to find it, He didn't mean you should lose your connection to Him. He didn't mean you lose your self, the one He created in His image to be an image-bearer to the world. He meant, instead, you empty yourself of anything but Him that's providing your worth, your identity, your peace. It means that you make life equal Him and He equal life. It does no good to lose touch with ourselves because when we do, we also lose touch with Him. When we lose touch with Him, we can't really connect with anyone in this world, and isn't that what the image-bearing is all about?
Your four years (plus) were about one thing (maybe two for you over-achieving double majors - guilty as charged), but really it was supposed to be about the One. Don't leave without realizing it and tasting it. Don't take your next step without knowing it deep in your soul. Because if you don't, you're entering the haunted wood that many don't survive; it's full of sandpits and deadly creatures around every corner. Are you picturing the Princess Bride yet? Yes, that. Instead, take every distraction, every selfish ambition, every self-serving idea and toss it to the wolves and find your Life.
Realize simple and serving and bottom of the totem pole are okay; it's where Jesus lived! When we try to lead with ambition, all we do is pile people beneath us and we don't really find the transformation of His grace or His love.
Finally, find the important things, your life-givers, your spiritual monuments, your people, and hold space for them rather than squeeze them into your all-encompassing life. Make room for all of them now, because life will not make room for you. Be brave and courageous in your pursuit of these things amidst your career and life and choose to pursue your inner circle first (God, family, your people) before pleasing your outer circle. In your inner circle, abide fully in His love and let it settle fully into you.
His,
Betsy
It is my ten year college graduation reunion this year, and it's been ten years of running without stopping. Until now. I'm learning a different way. My hope is that you can take my lessons with you into your first season in the real world rather than learn the hard way.
Fill your life with the abundance of Christ and work from the overflow. It's really the only way. I've done some of the currently recognized "noble pursuits" of today's Christian culture, each so needed and important, but the world applauds performance and our Christian communities uphold martyrdom and a loss of healthy balance as signs of sainthood, so if you're like me, you're already set up to crash. Don't. Cling to the abundant life.
And bring your whole self not to the world but to Jesus. When He said to lose your life to find it, He didn't mean you should lose your connection to Him. He didn't mean you lose your self, the one He created in His image to be an image-bearer to the world. He meant, instead, you empty yourself of anything but Him that's providing your worth, your identity, your peace. It means that you make life equal Him and He equal life. It does no good to lose touch with ourselves because when we do, we also lose touch with Him. When we lose touch with Him, we can't really connect with anyone in this world, and isn't that what the image-bearing is all about?
Your four years (plus) were about one thing (maybe two for you over-achieving double majors - guilty as charged), but really it was supposed to be about the One. Don't leave without realizing it and tasting it. Don't take your next step without knowing it deep in your soul. Because if you don't, you're entering the haunted wood that many don't survive; it's full of sandpits and deadly creatures around every corner. Are you picturing the Princess Bride yet? Yes, that. Instead, take every distraction, every selfish ambition, every self-serving idea and toss it to the wolves and find your Life.
Realize simple and serving and bottom of the totem pole are okay; it's where Jesus lived! When we try to lead with ambition, all we do is pile people beneath us and we don't really find the transformation of His grace or His love.
Finally, find the important things, your life-givers, your spiritual monuments, your people, and hold space for them rather than squeeze them into your all-encompassing life. Make room for all of them now, because life will not make room for you. Be brave and courageous in your pursuit of these things amidst your career and life and choose to pursue your inner circle first (God, family, your people) before pleasing your outer circle. In your inner circle, abide fully in His love and let it settle fully into you.
His,
Betsy
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