Questions like these are ones that I typically run away from. This question is no exception. As with many people, a question that requires me to think ahead and to create a future perspective of an uncertain future of my life makes me uneasy and uncomfortable. In the first few weeks into these nine months, there have been words to confirm my previous suspicions that ‘perspective’ goes a long way into determining your ideas in retrospect and therefore shapes your visions for the future. In retrospect, I remember distinctly my frustration of responding to the Gotham application question, "What do you see yourself doing in five years and what are some of your overall life goals?"... My typical response to these questions is, ‘I don’t have a clear vision of the future except that I have an expectation that God is working and I want to be open to His will;’ a response that is neat, concise and proclaiming God’s sovereignty. However, it is also cowardly and lacks a boldness that has been exemplified in the actions and words of Paul and Peter.

What I had previously believed as putting my complete trust in God by ‘letting Him work’ and removing myself from goals and specific vision now seems to be superseded by the greater trust required from setting goals and drafting visions and watching God tear them apart or confirm them and bless them. For me now, the former is based on fear but the latter is based on fearing the Lord. What is at stake for approaching with a future perspective? At the least, there is action and movement toward God with my own ambitions and at best, my goals align with His will and the Spirit moves unabated by my typical tentative human approach, and thus create life transforming events.

Therefore, in nine months, I would like to have a greater boldness in my approach to my relationship with Christ, with a continued regimen of devotions and intentional prayer. I would like to have a greater boldness in my Christian actions and display what I believe with more confidence and conviction that will be evident to those around me. I want to be a leader in my professional career, informed by the studies during Gotham. In nine months I want to have established a five year goal for career and spiritual movement in my life. And during these nine months I still retain an expectation of God working and changing my life and the community in which I am involved. But I have this expectation now while I am meeting God with my own goals and works. It is not enough to sit back and enjoy (or lament) the ride, but one must pursue God as he pursues us; work toward and for Him, as He has done so for us. There is nothing to be gained from being complacent, and depending on ones ‘perspective’, there is much to gain by working forward in the next nine months and beyond. Simply, I would like to be working…