It’s the end of another school year and we thank God for every paper submitted, exam written and lesson learned! Yeah, it was a different school year than we were hoping for – thanks to “you know what”. You didn’t get to hear your name on the P.A. to walk on the stage. You didn’t get to wave to your family as you walk off with that piece of paper that says, “You did it”!

Perhaps you are now scratching your head about what’s next. You have a lot of decisions to make about life’s direction, goals, and the kind of person you want to be. And everyone has advice for you to follow, so you’ll need to be careful who you listen to.

Our culture wants you to define yourself, shape your life, become the best you and profit as much as possible by offering something “valuable” to the world. Our culture wants to train you to be self-made, to see every obstacle as something that you can overcome with elbow grease and creative problem solving. You should “write your own story” and prove to your peers and the world that, compared to them, your path has progressed upward.

I just summarized a bunch of self-help videos from YouTube.

As Christians, we have a better storyline: We don’t live to create our own story; we are invited into God’s story. In his story, God is the Creator and we are his creatures. He is the Rescuer and we are the redeemed. In his story, Jesus is our Lord and Shepherd, he is the voice we listen to and follow. And this is good news if you are experiencing some decision fatigue about what steps to take next.

We can be certain what to do with our most important decisions. As Christians, we follow Jesus. Students, when you make plans, when you decide what to do, will you consider what it means to follow him?

You will face decisions like:

What education and career path is best to take? How will you use your education and career? For selfish reasons or for God’s glory? What if God wanted you to become a missionary? Will you look for a spouse according to your own wisdom or will you seek the Lord’s direction? Even if that means being single for a while, or forever?

Eventually you might have savings and a plan to retire. Will you consider Jesus and his Kingdom when you make plans? He will ask you to serve him. He will ask you to be generous with your time and money in a way that only makes sense from Heaven’s perspective.

Only God knows where he will lead you. Following Jesus is the adventure our souls were created for! There is no such thing as a more joyous path! “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Psalm 16:10)

Jesus calls us to follow him today! This means “in all of your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Prov. 3:6)

I pray we will all follow him with joy. That we will trust him in the uncertain times, seek to honour him with our whole lives, and to “taste and see that [he] is good” (Psalm 34:8).

May we all know what it means to walk with Jesus every day, regardless of the dark cloud blocking our view of the future. May we follow him where he leads us and join him on his mission to share the Gospel with the world.

Let’s make his glory and blessing others be the deciding factor in everything we do!

Pastor Dave Miller