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From the Executive Director
Mark Yaconelli was our speaker on campus last weekend for the annual Kaleo conference, for people who minister to youth. Mark gave us a beautiful illustration of how people discover and rediscover God's calling on their lives. He reminded us to "follow the thread" and helped us see that each of us has a long, thin thread that runs through our lives. Sometimes it gets buried in layers of busyness, stress or distraction. If we keep our hearts open, we are able to find the thread, pick it up, and follow it to new manifestations of God's will for our lives. This image accurately describes the longings of my heart for the past year. I am in the process of following my thread by listening, praying, watching, and preparing. The journey has been so joyous that I'm relatively unconcerned where it's going!
This journey has given me an opportunity to better relate to college seniors. We impose pressure on them when we ask, "What are you going to do when you leave Fox?", "What are your plans?", or "What are you doing with your degree?" Some graduating seniors know the answer, but most of them don't know. After spending all that money and working so hard they feel they should know, but they are looking for the thread! They need a little time to pray, watch and listen!
Ask your children and friends who are graduating what God has been impressing on them for the past four years. Ask them what they are passionate about and what their favorite subjects were. It's interesting how those kinds of conversations can reveal direction to new graduates. The truth of the matter is that most of us didn't know where we were headed when we finished college. We found our way, or it found us. It's time for all of us to talk about callings instead of jobs, passions instead of security, and faith instead of anxiety. A world of calling, passion, and faith sounds pretty exciting to step into, doesn't it?
Before you realists write me off, let me remind you that I have a daughter who will be graduating from George Fox this spring, and yes, she has some student loans to pay off. So, as a parent, I do want her to be employed soon! But mostly, I want to do what I can to support her as she continues her pursuit of God's calling on her life. And we'll trust together that God is able to work out the financial details. We'll follow our threads together.
Sheri Philips
sphilips@georgefox.edu
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