What's your major--Or What are you going to do with that degree?

“What are you going to do with that?”  This question seems to be thrown around quite a bit around graduation season or when new college freshman pack-up and head to college.  The conversation typically goes like this, “What are you/did you study?” “Art history,” says the excited young person. “Oh, so what are you going to do with that?” 

In my case, the conversation is a little bit different.  I tell people I studied theology and then went to seminary, and if they don’t ask me the infamous question of what I’m going to do with that, the question is usually much more direct.  They ask if I’m going to be a pastor or even if I am “going to take a church.”  And so, repeatedly, for the past nine years, since I was first a freshman, I have not known how to answer that question.

Certainly I was able to tell the inquiring individual that no, I did not have plans to take a church.  First, I wouldn’t know where to take it, and second, I don’t know who I would be taking it from.  All joking aside, I have been thinking recently about how to answer that question for the majority of college students who aren’t quite sure what they are going to do when they graduate.  The answer has nothing to do with knowing exactly what career path one will take or all the details of one’s life planned out and everything to do with being faithful to God.

My answer to the question of what I am going to do with my degrees is that I  will seek to remain faithful and obedient to God’s call on my life.  The question of “what we you going to do with that” is actually much bigger than just college degrees.  It refers to every aspect of one’s life, college or no college.  Are you good at golf?  Then, golf for the Lord.  Are you a good cook?  Then, cook for the Lord.  Even when we begin to look into careers, the call is the same: are you a teacher, scientists, plumber, or carpenter?  Whatever pays the bills or whatever hobby you have, the call is the same--do it in the service of God.  This is Paul’s message in the book of Colossians 3:23, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”

So, for all those new college freshman, those who just graduated, or anyone pursuing their dreams, remember that you serve one master, the Lord.  The answer of what you are going to do with your degree or future might not be as clear as a one word answer such as pastor, or teacher, and that is ok.  Continue to follow, listen, and serve the Lord.  No one, including you, might know what you are going to actually do with an art history degree, but serve the Lord, follow him, and you will be a blessing to others and receive the blessings of the Lord.  (And please don’t read that to mean monetary blessing, because with a degree like art history or theology, that might not happen.)

Grace and Peace.