Choosing a Life Major

Warm up: John 6:1-13

During your high school and college years a particular question pops up many times. It may come from your parents, your relatives, your friend’s nosey parents, and even yourself. “What am I going to do with my life?” Everyone has a desire for their life to count for something and everyone seeks a certain purpose in the world. It is a big world, however, and sometimes making a difference in it can seem like a daunting task.

Fortunately, there is someone on our side who holds the world in the palm of his hand. Making a difference in this world is like taking a breath of air for Him. In fact, creating it just took a few words. Through Him, any one can make such a huge impact on the world that even the person God is using will have trouble believing it is happening. One girl, Esther, was able to save all of her people simply because she used the position God had given her and was willing to risk her life and speak with the king. A small boy named David was able to defeat a Giant and cause the turning point in a war simply because he knew how to use a sling shot and offered his gift to God. In John 6, a small boy does not have much, just a couple of fish and some bread. Despite the little he has, he offers it to Jesus and believes something good will come out of it.

The focus of this story is not what the little boy did. Rather, the focus is on what God did through the little boy. Perhaps this boy was naïve, or maybe he still had the faith of a child, but for some reason he believed Jesus could do something great with what little he had. Now that we can see the full story, one thing is for sure. He wasn’t naïve, he was right. Jesus took what the little boy had, an insignificant amount of food, and turned it into a feast for thousands of people. Everyone of us is like the little boy compared to God. None of us are gifted enough to make a difference with eternal value in the world. But if we offer ourselves, and our gifts, to God, then He will do incredible things with them.

What gifts has God given you? What is He asking you to give back to Him so that He may use it in an incredible way? Are you a gifted musician who He wants use by bringing people into his throne room through worship? Are you a gifted accountant who He wants to use by bringing integrity to a particular firm? Are you a great sports player and he wants to use your talents and influence on the professional level for evangelism? You may not be that good at many things, but God has gifted you in some area and when you find it, the best thing you can do is offer your gift to God. If you do, He will do something amazing with it.

There are a few good questions to ask yourself in determining where God wants you to go in life. The first question is, “Does what I am doing bring God more glory?” The job or career you are pursuing should not be a job you are pursuing because you think it will bring you contentment, but because you think God will use you in awesome ways there. This does not mean that you have to become a pastor or join a monastery; it simply means that where you go in life should not be about your glory. It should be about God’s glory. The beauty of pursuing God’s glory is that when we make our job about Him, we achieve a much higher tier of satisfaction than was possible when we were working only for our own contentment.

The apostle Paul is a fine example of this because he did not make a living off of being a minister, but instead he made a living by being a tent maker. I do not think there is anyone in the world who would argue that Paul did not make a huge impact on all of history. Despite not being a full time minister, his career still gave him the ability to be a incredible witness and bring God glory.

The second question to ask is, “Do my gifts fit the career I am choosing?” Sometimes it is easy for us to see someone else finding great success in bringing God glory and desire to have the same job as them. For instance, a man who sees another man coaching high school football. The coach has incredible influence on his players and is able to help them move towards Christ. The person who sees this decides he wants to be a football coach as well so that he can have the same influence. The only problem is, he knows nothing about football or athletics. It is tempting for us to desire to do something we hate or have no talent in because we have seen God use others in the same field. We make ourselves believe that we are making a great sacrifice for God in order to further his kingdom, but really all we are doing is wasting a great deal of people’s time, including our own. If you try and do something for God that you are not gifted in, you will quickly find yourself getting worn out and bogged down with responsibility.

The church is a body, each person with a unique role and gift. I have found that when I perform the tasks that I am gifted in, I become more energized as I do them and get better as I go on. On the other hand, when I do jobs that I don’t particularly care for, I get worn out real quickly and am not able to do them as well. God knows how He gifted you, so He probably is not going to call you to do something you have no skill in. That does not mean he might enable you to do something bigger than you would ever dream of, but He is most likely going to work through your gifts He gave you.

There is definitely a certain risk in choosing a career or searching for a purpose, but your purpose is out there. You may not know what God’s calling for your life is until you are fifty or seventy, but He has one for you. It may be at your work, it may be at your kid’s baseball games, it may even be feeding the multitudes with what little you have to offer. God is not asking us to change the world, He is asking us to take a step of faith and offer what we have to Him. We may not know what He will do with those small gifts, but if we give Him control, the sky is the limit.

If you are unsure of what your gifts are, talk with some people you care about you and know well. You may be surprised to hear how they encourage you. There are also plenty of tests you can find online that will help guide you in determining your gift set, so try some of them (I am not referring to the facebook quizzes about which Disney character you are). Lastly, the things you are passionate about doing are probably the things you are gifted in. Choose your major and your career based off of your gifts, and give your gifts to God. You will love it.