New Roads on the Old Path

     I graduated this year. I now have a bachelor's degree, and I'm looking for work. My whole life has been spent pursuing academics, and I have been blessed with the aptitude for that pursuit, but now I'm on a new road, and academics are not as important for now. At Patrick Henry, I learned the word "vocation" from a Lutheran scholar named Gene Edward Veith, whose vocation was to study the role of vocation in literature and in the Christian life. At College of the Ozarks, one of the main goals of the school was to develop people who are vocationally minded. (What they meant was hard workers, but I tend to look at it along the lines of the way that Dr. Veith and several of the CofO professors think of the concept.) I know that vocation refers to the calling that each man and woman has wherever he or she finds him or herself. The scope of my vocation right now has been limited to my hometown and what friends I am able to keep in contact with. The main goal right now is to broaden and narrow that scope by adding a particular place in my hometown where I'll meet more people to my daily schedule. (By that I mean, I need a job.)
     The old cliche verse I've been hearing a lot recently, and many grads hear is Jeremiah 29:11. This verse is (almost) ALWAYS out of context. However, God does know His plans for us. "The steps of a [righteous] man are established by the Lord, And He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, Because the Lord is the One who holds his hand." Psalm 37:23-24 NASB (I added righteous based on the inclusion in several other translations, which see.) God does know his plan for me, and He is watching and directing my every step.
     One way I know He is doing this is through His answer to a prayer that I have had for a long time, and His wisdom in the timing and manner in which He answered it. Last fall, I started dating. This beautiful woman who God brought into my life has more that once spoken truth that I've needed to hear which I would have ignored from others. She has made me more gentle, wiser, more considerate, more patient, and taught me that I have a lot to learn.
     So far, I have had a couple of weeks of rest, and I've had ill luck finding a job, but God continues to bless me every day with opportunities and good circumstances, so I praise Him for all that He has done. I hope that I will continue to praise Him if my circumstances change, but I know that I am fickle so I can't assure myself of that. Either way, He is worthy of the praise. And I look down the path ahead of me expecting His glory.

In love, from my dining room,
Justus

Chasing Blessings

To answer the question posted under "Why":

     I think that there is a fine line between following God for the blessings and following God and accepting the blessings. If one were to simply chase the gain, they really wouldn't be following God to the fullest extent. "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth" (Matthew 6:24) One example of this is when Annanias and Sapphira were giving to the Church in Jeruselem and they withheld part of their earnings. (See Acts 5.) They seemingly were serving God, but the Holy Spirit wasn't fooled. In their hearts they were seeking gain from God and from men. (I'm not going to guess at the state of their souls at the time of their death, but the point is that they were not following God.)

     A counter example to look at is that of Abram. In Genesis 12 God commanded him to leave his home and wander about. God promised blessings for doing so, and Abram went. Now whether his motive was the gain or God is not clear, but he was following God's command and God blessed Him for it like He promised.

     All that to say: we should follow God's commands, and where blessings are promised we should expect and even look forward to them, but we should not make the rewards our ultimate goal. (I don't know about all my readers, but I can't wait for the reward I'll get at the end of this life.)

Blessings-
(Matthew 6:24, Acts 5:1-11, Genesis 12)