So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.

(Rom. 12:1, MSG)

Here it is, graduation time once again.

Students look for it, long for it, even dream about it, and then suddenly, it’s here. (gulp)

The robe is donned, the family gathers, the pomp is played, and you walk off the stage with an empty folder.

Pictures are taken (lots of pictures) and the next thing you know you find yourself surrounded by relatives at a backyard BBQ.

It’s a good time. You get some handshakes, pats on the back, words of wisdom, a few gifts, some cards with money in them and it’s all nice (especially the money).

The rest is a blur and the momentum gradually shifts toward the next thing.

Except for that one earth shaking question.

If someone doesn’t ask you at the BBQ, you ask it of yourself the next morning,

“What are you going to do now?”

And then come the aftershocks:

“Where?” “How?” “With what skills?”

These are big questions, but don’t let them rattle you.

You have what it takes to get started, just go for it.

Commence!

Take all that learning, relating, studying, writing and creating and combine it with all that you are and have been, inside and out, and take the next step.

Live forward; past the now and on to the next thing.

In God’s economy nothing’s wasted.

Look to him, call upon his help and let him work good in your life.

You’re going to need to do some work too, but you are ready.

Place your talents, your accomplishments, your experiences, your learning and your life before God as an offering and step out.

I love the movie, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” (the one with Ben Stiller). It’s a fun film with lots of great life lessons scattered throughout. I think the clip below touches on the idea of living forward with what we have, from where we are, with hope.

In the movie clip, Walter is in a foreign place and he is faced with a big challenge. (Sound familiar?) He wants to move on to that next thing, but the obstacle before him seems insurmountable. 

Yet, the way forward lies right in his hands. 

In one hand he carries a skateboard. As a kid he was a serious skateboarder and in the midst of his current adventure he just happened to make a trade for a skateboard.

In his other hand Walter holds a duffle bag containing his office work clothes. Contrasted against his current adventure, the dress pants, dress shirt and tie are representative of an old, limiting and stifling life. 

Or are they? 

The things from his past come in handy.

He ends up using his dress tie to secure some rocks to his hands so he can safely navigate the high speed turns that he will make on the skateboard on the way to his desired destination.

It’s a cool scene that illustrates the idea that all that you are and have been, inside and out, is ripe fodder for God to use for good in your life.

Check out the clip below. Embrace all that God has given you, place it before him as an offering and . . .

Commence!