One of sad and troubling trends in our modern world of competition is the frantic scramble among our high school students to add as many accolades, as many accomplishments, as many unusual interests to their college applications as is humanly possible. They struggle to be the best in as many sports as they can. They take SAT classes so as to ace the tests. They join school clubs so as to have more activities listed on their applications. They go to the Soup Kitchen because social service is impressive to college admissions offices. They may head off to Uganda for a summer because it is unusual and interesting and will surely catch the eye of anyone who reads their applications. Too often the rigid and competitive application process drives the kids away from what they really love, to what those colleges want them to be.
God knows the competition for college admission is fierce. God knows competition for any position in the world is fierce. Try finding a good job these days! We all want to put our best foot forward, of course, and we should do that. But when it becomes obsessive, when it makes us worried and frantic and sick, something is terribly wrong.
Nouen says that a life without a quiet place, some solitude, can easily become destructive. We need the time just to "be" - to give ourselves a break, and to look at who are are, not at what the world expects of us, or demands of us. What do we do well simply because we love doing it? Maybe gardening is our passion, not the desire to be a nuclear scientist. Maybe gardening is what we are meant to do, and to do with gusto and passion!
So listen to your heart, and to what God may be whispering to you. Put away the worldly shoulds and oughts and rest in the knowledge of God's love for the person you are, not the person the world may be shouting for you to be.
Audrey
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