So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
Ephesians 5:16 NLT
I graduated high school ready to shake off the shackles of high school and get going with life. I was ready to get started doing what I wanted to do with my life. We spend the first 18 years of our lives doing our time; as babies, we have to learn the fundamental skills to live, then we spend 12 years in school learning life skills and the basics for life, as well as getting an understanding of what further education we might desire—if any! I had made the decision to pursue beauty school. It was a short program that would leave me with skills I could use to build my future. Success would be up to me. If I worked hard I could build my book of clients; I could find a niche and start to specialize in what I might specifically like to do—hair on a cruise ship, wedding hair … there were so many options! It was going to happen to this world—it was not going to happen to me!
It was much to my chagrin then that two years later I found myself absolutely miserable in what was supposed to be the career of my dreams. I sought the opinions of people in my life who I respected and asked whether I should throw in the towel or keep going in the beauty industry. I was largely encouraged to keep going so for another year I kept going. And I was miserable for another year. By this point, I was even more defeated. I felt like I had just wasted another year of my life.
After much deliberation, my husband and I decided that it was time for me to leave the beauty industry. The next few years were rough as I tried to figure out exactly what I wanted to do—go back to school, start a business, work a job in which I could work my way up…. To spoil the ending, everything worked out. I started a business and when that still wasn’t quite right, I started a second one. All the while I felt like I was wasting time. I have always been hyper-aware that life is so very short and I have never wanted to waste a moment of it, so this season was agony for me.
There are seasons of life when we will simply be doing our time, working towards an end we cannot yet see. This was one of those seasons for me. During these times we may feel like we are not good stewards of our time as Ephesians 5:16 urges. However, sometimes seasons like these are faith-building seasons where we have to trust God to show us the next right step to take—not necessarily the whole path! We need to remember that just as Jesus told the lame man to get up and walk, we need to just look at the next right thing in front of us and take the first step. It doesn’t have to be the first step of the mapped-out plan for the rest of our lives that we might like it to be; it might just be the first step that we can see, but I believe that if we are seeking God with all our hearts, He will illuminate the way before us as we need to see it.
Romans 12:6 says that we have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us, and we are to use our gifts accordingly (paraphrased). Each of us was created with certain gifts. And we are to use that gift. As a side note, just because you are unsure of what your gift is doesn’t mean that you don’t have one!
My personal conclusion this far through life is that it may not necessarily matter what we do, but it does matter that we are using the gifts that God gave us! There are many different ways to use our gifts and skill sets. In the work I do now I use the same gifts I’ve been given as I did as a cosmetologist. But applying these gifts in a different way allows me to feel more fulfilled than I did in my first field.
If you are feeling unfulfilled and restless in what you are doing in your life, I urge you not to spend your life doing something in which you feel unfulfilled. There is so much opportunity and so many different ways to use the gifts we’ve been given. For a season we may just have to do our time, but let us not get stuck in this rut! As the Bible says, our days are short on this earth—let’s do our best to use our time well.