So, now that you've got all your priorities straight. Where do we go from here?
If you're like me and feeling like you're stuck right smack in between childhood and adulthood, please raise your hand. I swear, as college students, we have most of the responsibilities of adulthood without many of the privileges. (Or if you're financially independent like me and many of my friends, you're currently tasting adulthood itself...minus all the fun stuff.)
Ok, let's play hypotheticals for just a second. You're career path is set, you and God are tight (good prayer and Bible time), God has allowed you to begin looking for "the One". Everything seems to be going right. But, your career isn't here yet, and "the One" that you're looking for will undoubtedly not arrive on your time table. So what do you do until life takes off...?
At this point in life, I believe the most important thing we can be doing is throwing everything we have at knowing God better and becoming more of the person He has created us to be. (In a larger sense, that is the overarching purpose of our entire existence...but that's not the point.)
Attempting to be popular is pointless. Striving for the approval of a fickle and bent people is not only impossibly hard, it is also self-destructive. We should be striving for the approval of our Heavenly Father. The more effort we put into our relationship with Jesus Christ, the more fruit our lives will exhibit. When we as followers of Christ finally understand that Christ loves us as His bride...everything comes into greater focus. Jesus is an actual, literal, super-natural being. He has called the church to be His bride. He died upon the cross to rescue His beloved and reconcile her to Himself and His Father in Heaven.
Look at the entire story of Jesus. Place on it the perspective that the whole time Jesus was on Earth, he was trying to save His bride from guaranteed destruction and damnation. I believe it will help you to better appreciate the motives upon which Jesus acted. Put yourself in His shoes, guys. If someone had captured your wife, your beloved and was going to destroy her...wouldn't you do everything in your power to stop that from happening?
I don't know why this aspect of the whole story gets so badly messed up or just plain forgotten. The church is referred to as the "Bride of Christ" on several occasions. For some reason, I'm completely O.K. with being a bride. It's gotten to the point where I look up at the sky some nights and can almost tangibly feel Jesus looking down on His bride and smiling. It's a shame our society has grown so perverted and homophobic that we can't even discuss this subject in open forum without it being extremely misconstrued very quickly.
Ok, I'm definitely rambling now. Lets get back on track...
Between where you are now and where you will be on the day of your marriage, you have the purpose of becoming more like Jesus. (I use marriage as the dividing line because a job isn't necessarily a big deal.) We are called to be like Jesus because He was the example, the way things should have been from the beginning.
It's really just as simple as this: Unless you're fairly convinced that you have no desire to be a spouse or parent, that you will not struggle with maintaining sexual purity for the remainder of your days...you need to be preparing for marriage. Now, I'm not talking about picking out flower arrangements and dress colors. I mean that you should be working towards being the person God's called you to be in your marriage. Your future beloved has a list of qualities God has instructed them to look for in their mate. It's your responsibility to eliminate the sin from your life as much as humanly possible. It's your responsibility to take the truth that God has placed in your heart and mind and finally do something about it. Hmmm.....
Recently, a friend told me that she didn't want to fall in love. That she wasn't looking for it; she didn't want to flippantly give her heart away when wasn't really hers to give. She knows that when God thinks the time is right, He will move the two people in that direction. My friend is quite correct.
Until that day, we should be taking every opportunity to grow in knowledge and grace. Just because school, job and relationship status seems to be idling, it doesn't mean we shouldn't be working towards the goal of becoming a little more like Christ every day.
Thought of the day:
"Life is enjoyed on the mountaintops, learned in the valleys and lived on the roads between the two." - James B. Jenkins
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