Dayna Wichhart—Staff writer

In high school, I never had a clue what I wanted to do as a career for the rest of my life. I was regularly concerned with what major to choose and what career to pursue. All I knew was that I didn’t want to sit at a desk all day, every day. In high school, it was always okay that I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. People would tell me, “You’re young, you don’t need to know what you’re doing with your life.”

Here I am a few years later. I’ve changed my major from what I entered college as. I am very excited about what I am learning. But what I am going to do with that major — I have no idea yet. It’s a stressful way to live when you are spending thousands of dollars to get a degree you’re not sure what you’re going to do with.

Every time I talk to family, friends, or people at my church, one of the first questions they ask is, “What are you majoring in, and what do you plan to do with that?” I can answer the first question no problem, but when I answer that I don’t really know what I’m doing with my life, I’m no longer met with the previous assurances that “I have time to figure that out.” Now that I’m about halfway through college, it’s no longer an as acceptable answer.

I know I am not alone in this. I live alongside hundreds of students walking through these same feelings. Some of us still haven’t found and chosen a major, some of us are so deep into a major that we feel we can’t switch now, and some are about to graduate with a major that we aren’t sure we are going to love.

Years ago when I was in high school, I remember talking with someone at my church. We talked about how I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I figured he was going to say the typical adult things and tell me that I had time to figure it out, or that he would tell me what he thought I would be good at. But here’s what he said: “You know what Dayna, you can glorify God being homeless.”

I was taken aback initially. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized he was right. He wasn’t telling me to be homeless. He was making a point to me that I could glorify God in whatever I chose to do. Choosing what we do with our lives is not really about us. Our purpose in life is to glorify God. That’s it. Our purpose is not to love our job, it’s not to make lots of money, and it’s not even to help others. Our purpose is to glorify God.

Can we glorify him through our jobs? Absolutely. In fact, our work should be worship. Work is something God has given us and called us to do. So take heart in the uncertainties of your future. If you go right, God will bless you and if you go left he will bless you. God has a plan for you–Whatever you choose to do with your life, do it to the glory of God, and you will be fulfilling your purpose.

Contributed photo