Your target
What do you expect to achieve in the next 5 years? 10 years? By the end of your life? Recently I was asked to speak to a group of post-graduate students in our church on the subject of ‘What next?’ and I started with these questions.
There are over 50 nations represented at CCK and many have come here to study at one of the universities in the city of Brighton and Hove. For them the question ‘What next?’ is very real.
This material comes out of a very interactive session. To be effective and helpful it requires serious consideration, and the self-discipline to carry out the exercises. It may be relevant for you or your friends, or for others in your church, particularly students in the same situation as my audience.
Each part of this series will be quite short. This is to encourage you to do the exercises as you go.
Nb Since it was prepared for those in the above context (ie post-graduate students from other nations) you may need to adapt it for your own purposes.
Let’s get going
When you arrived in Brighton you probably saw the main purpose of coming here as being to get a degree. That is still the highest priority. However, I hope that your being part of CCK has also been a blessing that will affect the decisions you make as you prepare for the next phase in life.
To get you thinking about the issues, I want you to answer two questions. Consider them prayerfully and ask God to enlighten you of His will:
Exercise 1:
Where do you expect to be in 5 years (geographically, job, married status etc)?
In the UK we often put a statement on the headstone of a grave which encapsulates some quality or achievement of the deceased person during his life. So the second question I now want you to answer is:
Exercise 2:
What would you like to have written on your headstone?
Please take time now to answer these questions. Do so prayerfully; the answers will affect the rest of your life.
Once you feel that God has helped you to find the above answers these will help you define your calling in Him. But what do we mean by a ‘calling‘? We shall consider this next time.