Graduating to Your Purpose
This is the Graduation Season. Many of us have shared the exuberance of a race to the finish of a life assignment and then slowed to a walk and then to a stutter step with the next task less clear. As we matriculate along the path, our parents have coached us, but now the comfy nest and free room and board are history. Into the wild blue yonder we are told to go. “Equipped,” they say. “You have all you need for the next chapter.”
I never felt equipped to lead a mission into Orange Mound. Yet, I knew and now experience daily, the assurance that she whom God calls, He equips.
God has used every aspect of who I am and where I came from to bring about the purpose He has for me. He factored in my background, level of education, parenting role of 5 children, and everything from my life experiences in teaching, short term mission work, domestic interests, my Spiritual gift, and many of my friends.
As with the young men and women among us who are graduating, He led me into new territory. Once committed, I was surrounded by unfamiliar faces who have since the beginning, taught me lessons I could have learned no other way. At first, I thought I had read all of the right books and heard the orations of how to build a bridge to a different culture and socioeconomic community. I was confident the Lord was shepherding me and believed He would use my knowledge and reward my eagerness. I can now look back over the last 10 years and gasp at my naivete, blunders, and how little I knew. Now, I am ever more grateful for how faithful He has been to override my mistakes with His grace. He has led skilled and gifted men and women to walk with me. He has brought lovely and courageous women to work with me in the tea company. He has broadened our reach and strengthened our grasp of His mission on the corner of a busy street in a neighborhood to which I am now devoted.
As for you, He is at work as well. He will get you to exactly where you need to be. As He did for Paul the Apostle, Daniel the Prophet, Esther the Queen, Deborah the Judge, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and countless more. And it’s worth remembering that none of these “Biblical heroes and heroines” were powerful or influential people of their day.
Don’t dare miss your opportunity to trust His path for your purpose in His Kingdom. He promises all of the equipment and equippers you will need to step forward. He will do the work and give you the diploma.