Life is a constant stream of difficult things coming our way. Big decisions. Hard choices. Tumultuous relationships. There’s a lot going on.
Post-graduation, there is a lot of pressure to sort your entire future into neat little boxes. College? Check. Career? Check. Future spouse? Check.
We want everything to work together into little boxes. But life usually doesn’t go that way. We have options. Sometimes both options are good options. Sometimes both of them are hard options.
For me, I have found that the pressure to choose did very little to affect the route I went. I was certain in the path of my choice.
Or so I thought.
I made decisions. I acted according to those decisions. Things went well. Life moved on. I did hard things.
I introduced distraction to my life.
And…my brain began to question the decision.
Behold, the power of the cell phone.
I, as a creative writer, am choosing to pursue this art form as a career. Controversial, I know. But I’ve been given the opportunity to learn how to do it well.
However, once I began filling my time and brain with other things, I found that I wasn’t doing what I did really want to be doing: writing. I was not motivated. There wasn’t a “spark”.
This made me question whether I should really pursue writing seriously. If I can so easily distract myself away from writing, maybe I’m not going to want to do it forever.
But this idea at its core is flawed: it depends on me deciding to spend my whole life distracted my phone and other such things. And I don’t want a life like that.
Yes, I might end up not wanting to spend my whole life writing. That’s the risk of post-secondary education. But if I don’t try it, I guarantee you it won’t be any different.
It reminds me of Yoda from the Star Wars movies. “Do, or do not. There is no try.” I can decide to dedicate my time to something, or I can decide against it because I’m scared that maybe I don’t have what it takes.
Doing something hard and time-consuming isn’t bad. If anything, it makes it more worth it. So I’ve made the choice – a choice I will need to keep reminding myself of – to do the things that are hard. To push myself beyond the skills I have now. Because it will pay off. I’m only going to get a lot out of this upcoming program if I put a lot in.
So the encouragement for this week is to do the hard things in your life. To give everything you have to the path God is calling you to. This looks different for everyone. But do it.
