So, what is your plan now?

What will the rest of your life look like?

What’s next for you?

Any way you frame it, this is the question I’m pretty sure almost every new graduate is facing. Please map out what the next 10 years of your life will look like! Um, I’m sorry, I can’t even map out the next 10 days!

At first, I was overwhelmed by this question because I felt like I needed to have something profound to say. Oh, I’m thinking about doing a masters or I’ve got a few things lined up, I’m just weighing out my options. Of course there’s always the number one Christian cop-out – “I’m praying about it.” And actually, it’s true.

But here’s the thing – I think most of us are asking the wrong question. We don’t realize that the way we ask about someone’s plans is actually inferring that they have to have a plan. It’s sending the message that what we are doing at the time isn’t good enough. It’s actually communicating this idea that we need to know what comes next or what the next 10 years will hold and here’s the question I have for you – why? Where is the adventure in knowing exactly what I’ll be doing for the next 10 years? I’m not against having goals; I think goal setting can be very important. But having goals is different from knowing exactly what your life will potentially look like for the next 5 years.

Why don’t we ask questions like: What’s God teaching you right now? What are you loving about life right now? Do you have people around you that are pouring into your life and that you do likewise? What are your dreams for the future? What is filling your mind these days?

We are not promised tomorrow, next week, next year or 10 years from now, and so I’m much more interested in knowing where a person is at right now then where they’ll be in a couple of years.

Some of us have this expectation that when we graduate, we know what job we will do and of course we will do it for the rest of our lives. But the world just doesn’t work like this anymore. What I originally went to school for is definitely not what I’m doing now. But nothing is ever wasted. My previous experiences have shaped who I am and brought me to the place I’m in now.

So to answer your question of what’s next for me? I’ll let you know when I know, but in the mean time why don’t we talk about what’s happening in the now.