Black, medieval gowns and hoods, processionals, and tearful good byes—it’s that time again—Graduation, when everyone asks, “So what are your plans for the future?”
For many high school graduates the answer is easy. You simply name the college or university you plan to attend. But how do you answer this question when there is no more schooling ahead and that perfect job has not yet opened up? The uncertainty about your future can paralyze.
Don’t be afraid. The truth is that even when you think you have everything planned, you don’t. I graduated from college with a BA in chemistry planning to go to medical school. I ended up in Seminary, majored in New Testament in a Masters program, and in Old Testament in my doctoral program. I planned to spend the rest of my life in academics. Instead, I am now in my thirty-fourth year pastoring in a small town in Texas.
When I taught a group of eight families, sitting in a circle in a child care center, on the temptation of Jesus in the spring before my junior year in seminary, I had no idea that this would be the place where the Lord would want Mary and me to invest our lives.
George Lindbeck, an eminent Yale theologian, is now in his eighty-third year. He taught for more than four decades and recently, when asked about what his career would be like if he were starting over, he replied, “A life less planned is better!” Pope John XXIII of Vatican II reminded him of this reality and went on to tell him that he greeted each day with this verse, “The Lord’s mercies are new every morning” (Lam. 3.22).
The full quote, flowing out of Jeremiah’s uncertainty about his future
when sitting in the rubble of his beloved Jerusalem, is,
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
His mercies never come to an end;
They are new every morning;
Great is your faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, says my soul,
Therefore I will hope in him.
Lamentations 3:22-24
With this assurance, uncertainty about your future does not need to paralyze you. Remember:
Yale University, Dr. Lindbeck’s school, just celebrated its 306th graduation. I know because Mary and I were there. Our youngest son received his Master of Divinity degree, and now he and his young family step out into that world of uncertainty as he hunts for a job, yet their future and yours is secure if the Lord is your portion.
Because of His grace,
Dave Wyrtzen, One proud father