Just go

Ah, the omnipotent identity crisis. It seems like everyone, no matter how sure they are of what they want in life, experiences this, and I have recently gone through it as well. I, of course, have been going through the Christian identity crisis, which asks "Where does God want me?" Christians sometimes seem to think that every decision we make holds the potential to screw up God's plan for us, that God can only use us in a particular situation. As a part of my little identity crisis, I wasn't feeling particularly "called" to my major. In fact, I haven't felt particularly "called" to much of anything. This has created a great deal of stress for me, especially worrying about life and debt after college. I have, over the past few weeks, questioned whether I really even was supposed to be in college.

With all of these little worries in mind last thursday, I went to my weekly discipleship with Matt. Upon my voicing of these concerns, Matt used his weird Matt-powers to point out something frickin' crazy. He said to turn to the Great Commission and to read it. Aloud, I read "Therefore, go and make disciples...." and so on. "Where does Jesus tell you to go?," he asked. Reviewing to make sure I had not missed anything and that I wasn't embarrassing myself, I replied "He doesn't." Matt's reply: "Exactly." God does not always tell us exactly where we are supposed to go, only that we make disciples and praise Him wherever we are. It seems a trend in Christian thought that if you are not precisely where God wants you, then God can't use you. This idea is fundamentally flawed by the fact that it places limits on God. As a Christian, it is perfectly plausible that you may not end up where you have felt called by God, or that you may not feel called to anything specific at all. But God can use you wherever you end up. We aren't told where to go, only what to do wherever we happen to be. I'm becoming more and more comfortable with the fact that God doesn't always explicitly tell you to "Go here." Oftentimes, God simply says "Just go, and I'll take care of the rest."