Experiencing God In College Sample

If you were to ask my father’s generation what they were passionate about, you may have gotten sideways looks. Yes, they loved to do a variety of things. My dad, for example, loved baseball, and hanging with his friends, and taking his girl on dates. But the very concrete fact was that he also needed to get a job and pay the bills. He stayed in his job for forty-plus years. My dad provided for his family with his job, even though it didn’t line up with all the things he would have loved to do.

Shortly after I became a Christian in high school, my Christian friends started to ask each other what God’s call was on their life. I remember thinking, “God’s call? Like on the phone? What would he be calling about? What if he didn’t call me? What does that even mean?”

My youth pastor filled in some of my blank stares by asking me, “What are you excited to do with your life?” He asked me in such a way that made me consider how I was made; specifically, what was I good at and what did I enjoy doing? Did these things please God? It seemed important to him that I consider what my heart got excited about. Since I am made by God, following the talents and passions he has given me  could offer direction for my life.

Over my fifteen years of working with college students, I have taken to asking young adults three questions when it comes to the direction of their life: 

What are you good at? 

What do you enjoy? 

What pleases God? 

What you are good at might not be the same thing as what you enjoy. But where does what you are good at and what you enjoy overlap? How has God created you? Do you love being around people or analyzing numbers, or maybe both? 

Anything done by faith, hope, and love pleases God. If we work by faith, we work believing God is in it all. If we work by hope, we work with the expectation of what is to come. And loving others while we work is the bedrock of our faith. 

This means you can work pretty much any job at any time pleasing God. You can work a fast-food job with joy in your heart and love every single customer who orders a cheeseburger and a Coke. Who knows how your kindness and hope and joy might impact their day? Who knows what God is doing in and through you in the lives of your coworkers? 

Looking back on my dad’s life, I can see that he was always making his job enjoyable. He may not have been passionate about his actual job, but he was certainly passionate about loving his coworkers, providing for his family, and being home so he could go to all of our sporting events. And a life lived with faith, hope, and love? So pleasing to God. 

Today, ask yourself: What are you good at? What do you enjoy? What pleases God?