My Advice to a Youth

As I encroach on two years of running this blog, and only a year away from graduating college, I've begun to notice something: life runs in circles.

Sometimes literally, when you get too busy and feel like you're running on a hamster wheel.

And sometimes, more cyclically as you enter into a new season.

Because I see that now, at 20 years old, I have the same questions that I want answered, that my 16 year old brother has, as a junior in high school. But as I listen to both of our running commentaries, and do my own internal reflection, I see that:

Life doesn't necessarily get easier - you just learn to trust God more.

I still want to know the career path for me, I want to know what to do once I'm done with school, I want direction for my future, and answers for things that may simply take time, I want to make money, and gain independence, while also staying put and planting roots - I want everything and I want it now, but unlike a 16 year old Emma who asked the exact same questions - I now have faith that God will do exactly as He says He will and provide.

I put it like this: at 16 I had choices - A, B, or C.

I knew I was supposed to go to college, it was just a matter of which. Determining where I wanted to live, and how often I wanted to be home.

And now at almost 20, I still have choices, they just look more like: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I ... Z.

The more freedom you gain, the more choices you get to make, which is just as liberating as it is daunting. And my heart goes out to every "youth" trying to make those choices and navigate these new found freedoms they gain every day - I'm doing much of the same!

But I want to make it a whole heck of a lot easier for you.

The moment I realised that I don't have to have it all figured out, it became a lot easier to trust.

Have faith. Know that He is God, and He is good, and even when you don't see the whole picture - you do the next right thing.

When we come into a relationship with the Lord, He becomes King of Our Hearts, which in turn becomes the King of Our Lives - and as evidenced in His Word, there is nothing that He won't do to care for His people, so long as they are willing to step out in faith.

In Exodus, when His people were being held prisoner in Egypt, there was no length He wouldn't go to liberate them, and while He was liberating them, make it a point to show that He is the Lord Over All.

And yet, time and time again, the Israelites would doubt him.

"Why have you abandoned us Lord?" they'd ask.

"I can't do this," Moses would decide.

They'd wander, and whine, and do everything but trust the Lord for some 40 odd years in the wilderness, when God was simply asking for them to trust!

And that's the beautiful opportunity that we get to learn from: trust.

Have faith. Know that He is God, and He is good, and even when you don't see the whole picture - you do the next right thing.

I would listen to my "college friends" when I was in high school (now my "adult friends"), and they always seemed to have such peace when walking towards the future.

Uncertainty didn't seem to scare them because they simply knew "God is making a way for me", and I didn't entirely get it at the time.

When your whole life has been largely lacking in variables, taking the first step into the unknown can seem so very scary, but then I did it.

And now I get it.

When you don't know which way to go, just do the next right thing

(and yes, that absolutely is a reference to Frozen 2 - which I highly recommend for anyone in a season of life "trying to find yourself").

Take a baby step in faith, and then take a few more, and then suddenly you've found your way to a whole new season of life with even more choices to make, but they just won't be so scary.

They'll still be equally as unknown, but only for a brief period in time before God shows you which next step to take. And when you take that step, it won't be so hard.

Not because life has suddenly got easier, but because your faith in God has gotten stronger.

Because you were able to watch Him work in your life time and time again, each time reminding you that He is still there and in control and caring for you.

To the girl who thinks the world is riding on her shoulders: set it down, that's not a burden you were ever meant to carry.

To the guy who just wants to know what to do with the rest of his life: there's no clear cut answer - only a clearly speaking God who will show you the next right steps.

To the person who thinks they are too far down a path to change (be it career, classes, or otherwise): you're not. It is never too late to take a step in a different direction - because it's okay if something was simply for a season.

To anyone paralysed by the fear of "what comes next": don't be. I know everyone in your life has told you that, but it comes from a place of experience, that you too will have one day - when you've walked through this season of life and came out the other side because God is simply that good.

You are all going to make it - because God does not abandon His people;

He just grows them.

So, if I could give advice to some "youths" - no matter what stage of life you're truly in, it's this:

Relish these choices, these opportunities to grow. Get comfortable in being uncomfortable. And learn that fear is not even remotely a place you will stay. That there is no need for anxiety at the foot of the cross, because what comes next is new life. Every unknown is really just an opportunity to learn more - about yourself, about your faith, about God, but most importantly about the unending peace that is found in His love.

Here's to next right steps...

- Emma

"Be fearless in pursuit of what sets your soul on fire."