What do you want to be when you grow up?

     What would you answer the question with?  Desire changes with the development of age and education.  Someone who is between 7 and 18 may have "vocation" changes every day.  Someone who is depressed may not be able to list any answer.  Circumstances of the seen and the unseen are driving forces in our lives.  To the religiously inspired, the focus is on what God desires in our lives.  For the mechanically inclined their field.  For the education related interests there is teaching in various contexts.  So it goes with pretty much everything.  Maybe....
     Let's pretend that everything is going right in your life and suddenly a terrible accident claims the life of a loved one.  Some ones spouse, child, mother/father, sister, brother or grandparent is the victim.  Every ones life is suddenly changed.  Perhaps someone finally stops smoking?  Another person slows down their driving.  Maybe you, lose the desire to do anything for a season.  Regardless of who you are and what you do the question still remains in our minds.  What do I want to be when I grow up.
     Rarely do we ask the question while we are already in a vocation.  We see no need to contemplate the alternatives.  When I graduated high school pretty much all people knew they would choose a profession, enter into that field and somewhere in the future would retire from that profession.  What happened no one saw coming.  People began to job hop.  While once the list of achievements of a person was expected to be limited showing dedication to an employer and to a field of work; now the opposite was true.  To not have many entries on the resume meant you didn't have dreams and experience. 
     So it is with our growth in other areas of our life as well.  Some are forced on us while others are dangled in a tantalizing way.  Your girlfriend becomes pregnant when you are a Junior in college.  Suddenly you are required to be an adult and act accordingly.  You fail, like so many of us do, and need to start over.  You are approached by a rival company and the offer is very tempting.  Only you would be required to disclose your current employers secrets.  There are so many different scenarios that can be played out in each of our lives.  I'm 61 and have had 17 vocations.  Loved all but one.  I'm currently retired and enjoying writing.  I still catch myself saying; "What do you want to be when you grow up?" 
     The key isn't to be looking at age as the defining element in our life.  The key element is knowing yourself well enough to do anything that is sent your way.  The Bible says that God knew us before we were even created.  He put us together and it is He who rules our destiny.  God only wants one thing from us.  He wants us to be ready to do as He wills.  Being ready means that you have dealt with "stuff" and nothing can get in your way.  It may mean coming home from work and announcing your new job. 
     If we put Christ first place in our lives he will accomplish his will and we will be blessed more than we can conceive.  Be warned though!  We are called to be prepared, to have knowledge and wisdom (key ingredients in any vocation).  We cannot understand the future fully because of limits we have put on ourselves.  I dare you to dream, go after the dream, and become the dream.  There are no parachutes (golden or otherwise), no 401k, or any other carrot out there meant to trick you into doing what you don't want to do.  It's all about us allowing God to speak into our lives and bring forth his will that we are told to do. 
     When I grow up I want to be more understanding and patient in whatever box God deposits me into.