The Twenties

I realize that I usually blog about food and delicious recipes, but after reading my sister's Young Life work crew application, I felt inspired to express my thoughts through writing. There are a few things in life that get me really excited and those are clean sheets, a fresh pack of gum, wedding cake, and a good playlist. But some things that do not get me excited are alarm clocks, parking tickets, dry cupcakes, and last but not least...the twenties.

All of my life I feel like I have been preparing for the day that I will live on my own, pay my own bills, and have my "dream job." Why did I go to high school? To prepare for college. And why did I go to college? So that I can get a job. And what's next? Well that is what I have come to find rather difficult in figuring out. The twenties are strange and no one really prepares you for the awkward middle stage after college and before marriage. Growing up you always hear about college...the best four years of your life, a time to be independent, a chance to discover what you want to do with your life. The whole time you attend college you are preparing for the day that you will graduate, move off to a big city, and start working somewhere you enjoy every single day of your life. You dream about this eutopia and fantasize about what type of life you will live the day you step foot off your college campus. Well all this preparing doesn't actually prepare you for the "real world." People warned me saying that "the transition is hard," but regardless of how many times I heard this or how many people hinted around about the fact that life wasn't going to be easy after graduation, nothing could have truly prepared me for this first year out of college. The thing that is interesting is that everyone feels the exact same way. I have talked to boys, girls, married people, single people, shy people, loud people, doctors, lawyers, and preachers and everyone agrees that this stage of life is not easy. Our whole lives we have had "ends in sight." Even though middle school is kind if crappy, you know that high school is only four years away. Then in high school you work hard because you know you only have four years until you get to college, and then in college you know that in 4 (or 5...or 6) years you will graduate and get a job, but then what? There is no "end in sight" in this stage of life. It is a time of complete unknown and instability. The one thing that has stuck out to me most is that people have picked certain careers and taken certain jobs. A lot of times they majored in a certain area and ended up getting a job in that particular field, but countless times I have talked with people in their twenties who after getting that first job decided that maybe after all this wasn't what they wanted to do with their life. Maybe that "dream job" wasn't so dreamy once they started working. But countless times I have also heard from these same people that even though they knew they hadn't landed their life calling, they still had yet to figure out exactly what they were supposed to be doing. I find myself in this category as well. I often wonder if I am doing "God's will," and I question whether I am in the right  city, state, and sometimes country. Despite all of this confusion and instability, I think God created the twenties exactly like this on purpose. When you are young you depend on your parents. When you're in college you depend on your friends and roommates. When you are older everyone starts depending on you. But in your twenties you have no one to depend on except God. The only stable thing you have to hold on to is the Lord Himself. It is a time where faith has to kick in and trust has to form. Like I said, it is a strange time in life, but also one that I wouldn't trade for anything. There have been lots of lonely and anxious times this past year. Times where I have had to completely start over, make new friends, and enter into unknown territory. It has been scary and sometimes discouraging, but I have learned so much about God. I have learned that God is in control of every detail of my life. He has placed me in this city, even though a lot of times I hate it and wish I were somewhere else. He has placed me in my job, even though it's it often thankless and disgusting. He has placed me with my roommates, even though I didn't even know them 8 months ago. He has placed me at my church, even though a lot of times I go alone. See, despite my situation or how I feel, God is still in control. In Matthew 15 Jesus appears to his disciples walking on water. Peter sees him and wants to go to him. Jesus calls him. Peter steps out onto the water with complete faith. He begins to walk on the water, and he's doing pretty good, but then the winds pick up and a storm comes. Peter gets scared and starts to loose his faith. He begins to sink, but Jesus goes to him and lifts him out of the water and sets him back on dry ground. Peter feared the storm...but God controls even the storm. So when the twenties start really getting hard remember that God controls even the tough times, but He doesn't let us sink all the way to the bottom. He will eventually reach down, pick us up, and put us back on dry ground, and when he does our faith will be stronger, our beliefs will be confirmed, and our trust will not be shaken.

Hold tight fellow twenty-year-old. Enjoy this stage of unknown and trust the One who created it.