How to Spend a Life

In the eyes of most, and I would agree with them, I am a young man. Most would say that I need to be taught more and need to go to school and spend thousands of dollars on a degree and then I will be an adult and ready for the world. i would agree that this is a good path and that most would need to follow it. College has a good place in our society and most people aren't grown up by the time they get out of high school and they need time to grow and they have more to learn and college is a good place to that all this. I'm not saying that I have arrive and that college has no place in my life and I don't need to learn more. I have much to learn, I love to learn, and I will spend the majority of my life learning. No, my problem is not that I'm grown, my problem is that I have the gospel and it compels me to do more.
I could go to college, affect those who are around me for Christ, spend thousands of dollars, learn a lot and get a degree. I could also stay here, get a job, affect those around me, learn a lot, save money, and get no degree but meet a bunch of people and network and live out my life so that people know me by my actions and life and not by a name and title. I see two paths I could take, the first being harder at the beginning and easier at the end while the second being easier at the beginning and harder at the end. What am I to do?
I have had a unique life, one that I know of no one who has had a similar one and not done big things. This is not to say that I am marked for greatness but I do think that I'm marked for something. I don't think it will be easy, for the kind of person I am, if it could be easy, I would make it hard, but that doesn't mean that I should try to make it easier. At the end of my life, I want to say that I have worn myself out for Christ. I want to be a beaten and battered pot by the end. I don't know what this is going to look like for my life but I do know that it won't be normal. This is not to say that normal is bad or easy, I think normal is just as hard, but it will be different. I know that God has some plan for me and I am excited for that. A dear brother told me yesterday that he doesn't know why but for some reason, I needed to get ready, for what ever is to come. So I shall.
A quote that has been on my mind for 3 years is this: "I frequently hear persons in old age, say how they would live, if they were to live their lives over again: Resolved, that I will live just so as i can think I shall wish I had done, supposing I live to old age." Jonathan Edwards.
I think college would be a good use of my time but not the best use of my time. I think that getting a job and saving money would be a good use of my time but not the best use. I think that doing ministry right now would be a good use of my time but not the best use. The best use that I see for my time is to do all 3. I think this will be difficult and very wearing on me but I only have 1 broken body to use up and so I will use it as much as I can until God decides that it is enough.

An objection comes to my mind at this point about all that I have written. What about Ecclesiastes? Isn't there a time for everything? a time for school, work, and ministry? Yes, there is a time for everything, a few hours here and there each day for each. Life is so short. We only have a few years here on earth and if we spend our time the way that the world tells us to and not how we are compelled to through scripture, then we are not spending our time as the best we can. We will all be held accountable for how we use our time, are you using it the best way that you know how for your life? Each life is going to be very different from the next, we are all not the same which is the great thing about God and His creation, He doesn't make cookie-cutter things, we are all unique. I am not trying saying that one life spent one way is better than another. What I am trying to say is that we must all think as to how we can best use the little time that we have. I am fairly sure that I have less time than most people my age and so I want to make the most of the time that I have left. Do remember though, we each only have so much time and we don't know how much that time is. Spend each day as best you can for that is all that you can do in life is your best. Try to take every thought captive. Try to maximize each hour and minute. Don't waste meetings and times of fellowship. Live your life as if you only had a few days left because you might only have a few days left. Trust me, I know this from experience, the end comes up on you quick.