College Decision with God's Help

Yesterday, I visited Rhodes College in Memphis with my parents and girlfriend. I love the college decision process. I don't like the applications and the stress with the decision, but I love the exploration of a new life after high school and the opportunities in each campus.

I love thinking about the future and different opportunities such as this, and perhaps more than having to actually experience them. Each choice is like a puzzle piece I get to connect to create the larger picture of who I will be, but more importantly, who God intends for me to be.

It's that second part that is crucial: who God intends for me to be.

We hear this more often than we think.


We hear it in the Lord's Prayer: thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. The collect for Proper 11 says "Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking..."It's crazy! God knows what we need more than we do!

It should be comforting, especially in my college decision process. Why worry about making the decision? God knows what's best, and he knows I know that. All will be well!

I wish this Christian stuff was that easy.

I have watched Evan Almighty with my youth group more than my fair share, but one of the most meaningful parts is when God tells Evan, "If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?"

This is how God works in the world, or at least in my own life. God gives us the chance.

Well that doesn't really help with our decision process. It puts the decision back on us.

In part, yes, but really, no. It's about exploring what opportunities we might be presented with. At Rhodes, I would be given countless internship opportunities in the very diverse community of Memphis, but in a school in Arkansas, I could further my connections in the state I want to spend the rest of my life in.

I don't know if this blog post really helped anyone, or shed light of any specific subject, but there is truth in it. God gives us opportunities for his will to be done. All we have to do is ask ourselves, "How can we use these opportunities to be molded into the person that God intends for us to be?