What I Want To Do After Graduating

What do you want to do when you move back to IL this summer? 

Ah! The graduation question! I'm stunned by your novelty.... I think questions like this are usually fishing for "What job will you look for? Will you go to seminary? Or other schooling? etc." Usually I want to answer with big items like these. But if I start answering honestly, it may look more like this . . .

I want to spend time with my family. I want to "meet" some of my younger siblings (maybe even influence their lives, and/or be influenced by them). I want to spend time hanging out with my recently widowed grandma. I want to get involved in a disabilities ministry with Amy (maybe even start one). I want to get plugged in as a regular member of a small-town church. I want to serve homeless people in St. Louis, build relationships, share the gospel. I want to get to know my best friend Emily a little better. I want to get to know my family's friends better, and Emily's family/friends. I want to rekindle old friendships, start new ones, mend damaged ones. I want to see small churches in southern IL strengthened individually, holding hands corporately, and serving Christ globally. I want to spend time with my twin before he moves to Minot, North Dakota. I want to learn how to lead a family by watching my parents who have like 25 years of experience. I want to be a better son, better brother, better boyfriend, and a better grandson. I want to read, write, study, teach, and learn about God and his wonderful-yet-broken-world. I want to glorify God in the little things, serve his church, love my family, and bless the world. 

Oh . . . and of course in order to do these things I'll also need to find a sustainable job. But that's not the answer to your question. That not what I want to do when I move back to IL, it's what I have to do. 

"Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to." –Cicero (Gladiator)

Sometimes our questions ask for what is objectively important in someone's life, but good questions pry for what someone actually values.