“…memories are not the key to the past, but to the future…the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do.” ~ Corrie Ten Boom
“Hey! Nice to meet you, my name is (insert name here)” says my new acquaintance.
“Yeah, nice to meet you too, I’m Sarah.”
“So, what’s your major?”
“English,” I reply.
”Oh, ok. So you’re going to teach. That’s cool.”
“No, actually I don’t want to teach…”
With a puzzled look on my new acquaintance’s face, he or she interrupts, “Well then what do you want to do with an English degree?”
“I haven’t exactly figured it all out yet, but I would like to be a writer eventually. What’s your major?”
“Nursing.”
“So I guess that means you’re going to be a nurse?”
“Yep.”
If I had a quarter for every time I had the above conversation, I might be able to pay off my student loans. Ok, let’s be realistic—it would take many, many, many quarters to pay off my student loans. So in actuality, I might be able to make couple of payments on my loans with the quarters I would have from every time someone asked me what I would do my English degree besides teach.
Now, 4 months after graduation, I still do not have it all figured out. When I told people I wanted to write, I secretly had this idea in my head that after graduation, the Lord would lead me to go on some exciting adventure worth writing about—like teaching English in China or working at an orphanage in India. I wanted to take the gospel to a foreign land with people who had never before heard the name of Jesus.
God had other plans. He has placed me in a medium size town in Tennessee working as a secretary—not exactly the grandiose dreams I had envisioned. However, all is certainly not lost because God is at work in this medium size town and in my life.
I'm beginning to see that this part of my story is worth telling because God will use the moments and experiences He gives me now to mold me more and more into the image of His Son and to prepare me for the future He has written for my life.
These days—or pages—should not be wasted or taken lightly. The story God has written for my life is unfolding daily, and each page only makes sense in light of the previous ones. There’s no jumping around or skipping the boring sections to look for more thrilling chapters.
I’m sharing my story with you because this is not really my story at all; it’s God’s story...the telling of His faithfulness and love in my life with the prayer that it encourages you to recognize His faithfulness and love in your own life.
