To Be Or Not To Be

Has anyone ever told you that you can be anything you want to be?

I myself have been told this as a young boy. I remember getting a book from my aunt with a dedication that read, “To Justin, You can be whatever you dream to be. Do you dare to dream?”

This motivational phrase is perhaps one of the most, if not the most, clichéd of phrases. But how true is this phrase? Can you really be anything that you want to be?

I would say in this time and age, the answer is yes, you really can be anything that you want to be. With all the technological advancements, paired with grit, determination and oodles of hard work, there is truly nothing that you cannot achieve.

Long gone are the days when a son had no choice but to be a fisherman or a farmer because this was his father’s trade. Gone are the days when one’s gender dictated the things one could and could not do. Gone are the days when one’s standing in society dictated how far you could get ahead in life. The advances in technology has given to everyone a more level playing field, thereby opening more and more opportunities to people to be what they want to be. So yes, now more than ever people are in a better position to become who they want to be. It’s as if we are standing in a circular room with doors all around, all of them open to us if we choose to enter.

But all of these opportunities come at a price, because young people today are subjected to a very complex life. Logic dictates that when you have to pick one from a number of choices, the more the choices are, the greater is the probability of making the wrong one. That is exactly the dilemma that young men and women face today. They are faced with so many opportunities that sometimes they choose the wrong door. Some won’t even make a choice or take an inordinately long time to choose for fear of making the wrong one.

A few months ago, I was being interviewed for a job at a local petroleum company. The interviewer said that people of my educational background are very much in demand, a statement that is supported by the thousands of job postings on the internet looking for accountants. As the figure of speech goes, I had my pick of the litter. I could apply for any of these companies and because of my background, I had a good chance of being hired. I remember my response to my interviewer when she made that comment. I told her, “Yes Ma’am that is true; so many opportunities are out there. So many doors are open that sometimes it gets overwhelming; and this is why I have to seek God’s guidance more than ever, so that I’ll know which of these many doors are being held open to me by Him.

You see you may think that God has become obsolete in these times when you can be anything that you want to be, but the opposite cannot be more true. With all the complexities of life today, we need God more than ever to bring sense back into our lives. We need more than ever to be able to recognize the sound of His voice so that we can distinguish it from the noise of the world that more often than not is blaring loudly to mislead us. So as not to lose our way, we young people have to seek God’s guidance even more. We have to develop a deeper relationship with Him, something we can only accomplish if we spend more time and give more effort into seeking Him.

It is during this time, while we’re young and the choices we’ll be making in the next few years will shape our future, and that of our nation’s and the world’s as well, that we have to start seriously working to get closer to God. It is at this point in our lives that we need His guidance the most.

Why?

Because it is at this stage of our lives that we make the choices that will define who we will be ten or twenty years. A few Sundays ago, the Archbishop shared about choices and how the right choice will bring blessings, but the wrong choices will bring about suffering. We have to be very careful then about the choices we make from now on.

Which dreams to chase?

What career to pursue?

Who we choose to spend the rest of our lives with?

How to make a difference in this world?

How to fulfill God’s purposes for our lives?

These are just a few of the choices we have to make at this point in our lives and like I said, our choices now will determine the kind of life we will have – one covered with God’s blessing or one that is filled with suffering. So now is the time for us to seek God’s guidance so that we can align ourselves with God’s plans for us; plans that are for our welfare, and never for our calamity. Seek God now. It is easier to map out the course at the beginning of a journey rather than to alter it midway.

So before we set out to be anything that we want to be, let’s take time to ask God.

“Lord, what do you want me to be?”