Prepared

Each year about 60% of the graduates of IMPACT 360 return to our campus for our annual reunion. It is always great to reconnect with many of our alums who are investing their lives all over the USA and even in other countries. At our last IMPACT 360 reunion, one of the young men who was in our first class in 2006 walked into a room filled with graduates from this past May and exclaimed to Cheryl and me: “These are babies!”

It has been a great privilege to watch our former students grow in their walk with the Lord during their studies. Some of them are married—some to classmates whom they met at IMPACT 360. Some of them now have children. Some of them are in grad school and others are engaged in the workplace. However, there are a few who are still working on a degree after five and six years of college.

I have had opportunities to talk with a lot of young adults who are college graduates and who are still trying to “find themselves.” I think there are some common factors among these young adults. One that I have observed is that they are concerned about whether or not they will be prepared for whatever God wants them to do. I have tried to encourage these students and others over the years with some examples from our lives and from others with whom we have worked over the years. If God can use a Mississippi farm boy, then he can use anyone.

 God gives us all different gifts. He prepares us for whatever He calls us to do. Romans 12:6-8 says, “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.”

 Too many people worry about whether or not they are qualified or whether or not they have the right experience for a task that they believe the Lord wants them to do.  God never gives a call without giving the gift or gifts necessary to fulfill that call.