Real Life

This is a guest post by Brittany Williamson. I met Brittany a few months ago at a conference I attended in North Carolina.  Brittany will be hosting her very first conference for ladies ages 17-30 on October 1, in the Austin area.  You can follow Brittany on Facebook.

I still remember the nervous way my knees shook as I sat on the edge of my chair during the ceremony. After four intense, long years, graduation had finally come, and I just knew I was on the verge of something big: real life.

Real life meant a career, husband, and babies. It meant a new car, new house, and new responsibilities. Real life would let me sit at the ‘grown up table’ for  Grandma’s Sunday supper and help me fit in at women’s ministry events.

Real life would give me purpose and fulfill my dreams. I thought it would make me complete.

Instead, it let me down.

The career and husband and babies didn’t come. The new car and new house were nowhere in sight. The ‘grown up table’ was still reserved for moms and dads, and women’s ministry events still felt more like reminders of everything I didn’t have than opportunities for fellowship and spiritual growth.

Real life disappointed me, and then it left me empty.

Eventually, God showed me why empty was necessary. Binding my purpose and fulfillment so tightly to ‘real life’ and all that I thought it would bring had blinded me to the blessings of the present. God had bigger plans and possibilities for this season of life than I ever expected, but I almost missed them. It was until emptiness removed those blinders that I finally realized only He could fill me. Only He could make me complete.

Many of us spend our twenties waiting on real life to begin. We waste years longing for the things we think will give us purpose, and when they don’t come in our timing, we feel cheated. But God never intended for us to live a life on hold.

Are you experiencing an in-between season now? Perhaps you’re in between high school and college, or somewhere between single and married. Perhaps you’re married and looking forward to parenting. Maybe you’re just like me and waiting for it all.

Ignite!, an event at Fellowship Church on October 1st, is designed to inspire twenty-somethings to push past the waiting and embrace life in the in-between, to engage them in fellowship with each other, and to ignite their faith in a powerful way. We will hear from Sarah Martin, writer for She Seeks and www.liveitoutblog.com, worship with Emily Cousins, laugh with each other, and drink too much coffee. Most importantly, though, we will celebrate that even in our twenties, God is the only One able to fill us up and make us whole.

We would love for you to join us for this unique and powerful event. Details, directions, and registration are available at www.faithinbetween.com.

I hope to see you there!

Until then, LIVE.