A student once asked me this question: What’s the best job to take after college?

He was a college senior then, and he was really hoping to get a good job after graduation, a job that he really liked and would actually pay him a decent salary. I thought it funny, somebody asking me that. Because six years ago, I was asking the same exact question, when I was a new college graduate.

I remember telling him that probably the best thing to ask was a question to himself, and not to me: What’s the best journey to take after college?

I realized, after college, that it’s never about the next job, but it’s about the next journey to take. The truth is, you can have the best job in the world, and still miss the journey that God wants you to take.

Here is what the culture of the world today tells us to do about our lives’ direction:

1. Risk early. Whatever crazy thing you want to do, do it while you’re young.
2. Find your groove. That could mean graduating from college, getting a job, and building a career out of something that you really want to do.
3. Settle down. Start saving & building for the future.
4. Consolidate & Maintain speed. (In short, just keep on doing #3)
5. Retire. Slow down and enjoy life.
6. Then die. (I’m sorry for this, but it’s a universal truth.)

But God’s way is a different way. It’s a different journey to take. 

All throughout the Bible, you will find people who God calls to take a different path. It didn’t matter whether they were young or old. Even while he was a child, the prophet Samuel felt like God had a specific purpose for him and he was right!

Then there was Abraham. God found him when he was very, very old. And God said to him, “Go to a place I will show you.”

It was like God saying, “I want you to do something completely different with your life and your life would rock the whole world!” And I can imagine Abraham saying, “I’m old! I’m not rocking anybody!” But still, God wanted him to be on a journey.

If the culture’s way is like what I wrote above, then God’s way, I believe, is something like this:

1. Follow God with abandon, at every age.
2. Have an eager expectation that God could use your life for His purpose in this world.
3. Always risk. Never count God out of the picture.
4. Never completely settle. Let God surprise you.
5. Be different. Live your life for God.
6. And die gloriously. Let your life touch lives.

God wants us to take every journey with him. It’s a faith journey. 

God wants us to take every journey with him. It’s a faith journey. 

I did not say to that student not to look for a good job, because it’s important. But what I wanted him to realize, is what I want to say to you: whatever direction you may take, God wants to take you into a journey—a journey to honor Him for the rest of your life.