The Two Most Important Questions You Need to Answer
READ: Joshua 24:14-15

Choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

Do you remember your senior year? It may feel like just yesterday, or it may feel like a million years ago, but all of us have experienced the feeling of transitioning out of the structure and routine of high school and into the wild blue yonder of being an adult. It’s jarring, it’s terrifying, and when it’s done well, it’s amazing.

The summer after senior year of high school was extremely important for me. If you think about it, those few months before launching into the rest of your life is kind of like a rebirth; nothing from the last 18 years has to go with you into the next chapter. Of course, you’re still you, you still have the same hair, eyes, nose, you still have the same parents and the same siblings (for better or worse), but isn’t it true that like being born, you are forced to grapple with a new state of being, a new environment, and a new set of realities?

After finishing high school, I decided to take my last chance as a student to go overseas on a mission trip with my youth group. I know I could have stayed home and ease my way in,” but instead of working a job at some fast food joint to make some 5 dollars an hour (minimum wage at the time), I decided to do something BIG. When we came back home, my whole world was turned upside down, and with college fast approaching, I sat down and asked myself two questions:

Who am I?

What am I about?

I decided, before I ever packed a bag, set foot in my dorm room, joined an organization or put on a t-shirt with a logo across the front that I AM A CHRISTIAN. I am a sinner saved by grace, adopted into the family of God as a son by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s who I am. I decided that I AM ABOUT knowing God and surrounding myself with people who would spur me on in my walk with Him. (Incidentally, one of those people would later become my wife).

Who am I? What am I about?

Everything I did, everywhere I went, everything I decided to attend or not attend, every person I decided to associate with, every invitation I decided to accept or not accept was filtered through those two things. I saw many, many people around me drift through those years, finding themselves at dead ends and painful pitfalls. I’m grateful that when I left college, and even to this day, I can know who I am, and what I’m about.

Do you? Do you know who you are? Do you know what you’re about? Or are you just drifting through life, letting your appetites and your guilt drive your decisions? Don’t let that be your college experience. Don’t let that be how you lead your family or how you engage your career. We were meant to live with purpose and mission. And that starts with two questions.

This week, I challenge you to ask yourself those two questions. Seriously. Don’t be flippant about it, but really mediate and ponder those questions. They’re the two most important questions you’ll ask yourself: Who you say you are speaks to the core of what you believe, and what you say you’re about speaks to the reason you do everything. Write it out. Put it on your wall. Make it the mission statement of your life.

Looking for a song for this week? Well, instead, I’m going to send you to read something amazing! Jonathan Edwards, the great American theologian, at age 19 wrote out his own resolutions. The first: Resolved that I will do all I think or say to the glory of God and not to take into consideration my own comfort, profit or pleasure. And the second: Resolved if ever I shall fall and grow dull so as to neglect to keep any of these resolutions, I shall repent when I come to my senses again. How intense is that? He was 19! Go read it, and be inspired.

Jonathan Edwards Resolutions

Annnnd… this is me, at MY senior banquet, back in 2005!