Following a Different Storyline

Spring tends to bring about a lot of milestones for me.  I just celebrated my birthday. This May will mark 4 years living in the city (and same apartment!).  Every June marks another year since graduating from college. Working in education means that May/June are generally job transition times.

My birthday party my freshman year of college. Love these ladies!

This weekend I'm hanging out at my aunt and uncle's house. I have a lot of memories connected with their house since most of my birthdays in college were spent there. One of my favorite pictures from freshman year was taken in their back yard.

10 years have past since that birthday. There are big milestones that, if my life followed the standard cultural script, I would have passed by now. The life I was living at age 19 in modern western society, as told by movies, books, television shows would have predicted that in my 20's I: graduate from college, find a career with a steady income, marry, buy a house and have a child (or two). 

Even though I live in an area where a lot of people my age don't check off these milestones, there is still the looming question of "why not?" or "what's wrong with you?" that underlies our lives. Our culture is set up around passing through these steps. (Try and find tv shows or movies about people in their 20's that aren't about getting through one of those milestones. Not impossible, but pretty hard). The storyline for people my age is pretty clear, regardless of how much people think tradition has gone out the window.


Well, I graduated from college. I've had a couple years of income above the poverty line.  But I'm definitely not buying a house anytime soon, or getting married, or having a baby. And that's ok. Most of the time. Except when I get sucked into the believing the script that Western culture has written.  (There was one such meltdown this past week.)

And then I remember this: the Gospel has no script about milestones in your 20's. God does not say "And be fruitful and multiply before you are 30." Jesus does not send his disciples out to get married before they start discipling other people.  He does not require that they have a job. He calls the fishermen to leave their job and become "fishers of men" instead. He does not require that they own property. The Gospel is for anyone. The guidelines that Jesus sets up for those who believe the Gospel are to love God and love others. No mention of requirements related to degrees, marriage, buying property or child-bearing.

In the past few years, in large part because of the community with San Francisco Lighthouse church, I have slowly been centering my life around the mission of the Gospel. I've mentioned this before, but I am grateful for this community that does not look on the common milestones of life as categories for separating us into different groups. It's easier to remember when we're not separated, that we are all invited to the mission of the Gospel and that we are to work together.

So I'm not following the common cultural script of life. And I'm thankful for the Gospel that says, "that's ok."