Five Years from Now

Ever have to answer the dreaded "Where do you see yourself in five years?" question during a job interview.

Way back when I was in the process of interviewing for jobs it was common for employers to ask this very question. I am sure there was a correct way to answer it. Though I am not sure exactly what that way was. Most of the time, I was a deer in headlights, wide-eyed and full of disbelief. Despite knowing the strong possibility of it being asked, I always thought: How could they ask me that question? Truth was, I didn't know where I would be and what I would be doing.

In someways, I still don't.

Lately, the question has been playing and re-playing in my mind.

Where do you see yourself in five years? ten years?

This can be hard to answer. After all, I don't know exactly where the Lord will be leading my husband and I to go in five years or ten years. Maybe we'll be thousands of miles away doing something completely different. Or we could be right where we are now geographically, but doing something different. Or maybe we'll be right where we are doing the very same things we are doing today.

The hardest possibility to swallow is the last. Would I want to be doing the same things?

I have always associated physical changes with progress. A move, job change, or new ministry, these I thought were progress. However, that really is not the case.

A closer walk, learning to trust Him more, leaning into Him during the harder times, these are changes with progress. None can be measured tangibly.

Inner growth isn't always reflected right away in outward expressions. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to surface.

Not to mention, being called to a lifetime of one ministry, one job, or one location is definitely not a bad thing. We each have a life's work to accomplish.

One thing is for sure. I know what stats, Lord willing, we'll have. In five years, we will have been married for almost 20 years, with two children in high school, one in middle school, and one in the upper elementary grades. By that time, both my husband and I will have officially crossed into the forties. 

All of this is hard to imagine. We have never been at these points. We don't know what we'll be like, what we'll be doing, or where we'll be.

Perhaps, that is the point.

Change will happen. In the next five years, we will experience some unknown to us changes, outwardly and inwardly.

Meanwhile, we are trusting the One who knows, following Him daily, and knowing He loves us too much to leave us the same.
~ Dorie