Fellow College Students,
Some of you finished your first semester of college, others fervently type your final paper while staring at a graduation gown you promised mom you would iron. All of us land on the spectrum between, “I 100% know my career” and “I frequently google what I can do with my degree.” I know some of us welcome the world without school and some of us hope to go onto more school. However, I think a common denominator among us is a lack of money and an excess of time. We have not yet started a full time career and that is what I want to discuss today. Can you give 10% of your career?
Generally, most people have entered their career by 25 and end around 65, leaving 40 working years. Can you take four to five and spend them overseas serving an unreached people group? Of course, we can serve God within our careers and wherever we live, however, we are given a very specific task by Jesus in Matthew 28:18-20. This mission was given to a group of people, not an individual. As college students, we are part of the next group.
Those of us with analytical brains are currently calculating how much more we would have to set aside for retirement within our career if we took five years off. Some of us wonder how we would enter a field without those 5 years of experience. Will we go? We don’t have much money, we don’t have many possessions, but we have time. Sometimes the amount of time we have scares us; we have to decide how to allocate this resource. Many people will declare this an unwise choice. Sometimes I feel rushed to enter the working world. Is this hurry to start a career displaying a type of greed breeding in our hearts? Typically, greedy means chasing money and possessions, but does our treasure lie in our time? If so, there lies our heart. Are we leaning on time in order to avoid decisions? I want to cultivate a generous life, this includes giving of my time.
In the spirit of Christmas I would like to bring to our minds a carol I love, Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel. The first line says, “Oh come, oh come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.” “Emmanuel” means “God with us.” Many people groups do not have God with them, they do not know of the ransom of Christ. During this season of giving, pray about how we can give part of our careers to a population that does not know of the Savior.
A soon-to-be college graduate who has a blurry
picture of the future but wishes to serve the Lord