(upbeat music) - Today's question is about waiting when life seems to be aimless and going nowhere, specifically when it comes to a career and not finding energy or excitement in that career. But the implications cover really any kind of waiting. This specific question comes to us from Daniel who asks this, "Dear Pastor John, "I'm a recent college graduate and I feel directionless "as I try to figure out what this time of my life "is supposed to be about and what God has planned for me.

"In this transition from college into the working force, "I feel like I've lost my energy, "my purpose, and my direction. "I know that all that I do is for God's glory "and I know that my joy is supposed to be rooted in Christ "and not in my circumstances. "But my question is, how should Christians like me "handle this so-called quarter life crisis?" - Well, the first thing to say is that this season will pass.

But God intends for Daniel to engage in the kind of spiritual warfare that God will use to make it pass. That's the place to start, I think. And the first strategy in that warfare, that engagement, it seems to me Daniel has already pursued, namely the recognition that this condition of his mind and soul is a kind of crisis and needs to be, as he says, handled.

How can I handle this? One way to describe the crisis would be that it's perhaps like the well-known ancient spiritual condition called acedia, A-C-E-D-I-A. And that comes from the Greek word for neglect. But the term acedia came to refer, to use the words of one resource I read, to a state of listlessness or torpor, of not caring or not being concerned with one's position or condition in the world.

And they said it can lead to a state of being unable to perform one's duties in life. Its spiritual overtones make it related to, but arguably distinct from, depression. So this is like acedia, it sounds like what we're dealing with here. So the first strategy is to identify the crisis, look it full in the face, make no denials, identify its nature, and make plans for war.

Second strategy is to set one's face. Daniel should set his face for a patient, God-centered waiting upon the Lord. Not that the waiting will be inactive, but rather it will be a recognition that the victory may take time, and that in the meanwhile, we will not give in to despair.

So we go to Psalm 40, and we put the words of David on our tongue, I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me, heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction out of the miry bog. He set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. So we take heart that however long the waiting might have to be, David doesn't say, however long we may have to be in the pit or in the miry bog of acedia, listlessness, directionlessness, we will not despair, but we'll look expectantly to God to act in his time.

That's strategy number two. Number three, the third strategy, realize that genuine Christians often are marked by this kind of malaise. And you see it, for example, in 1 Thessalonians 5.14. We urge you, brothers, admonish the idle. That's an interesting word there, atactus. It's kind of the chaotic, the disordered, it feels like everything's out of whack.

Encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. So idle, faint-hearted, weak, that's not unlike what Daniel describes he's feeling these days. And Paul recognizes those folks are in the church. They need to be cared for. That's real Christian experience and real Christian warfare. And the fourth strategy is to put the word of God over against the particular losses that you are feeling.

And Daniel said, I feel like I've lost my energy, purpose and direction. Let me take those one at a time. Just put a word of God over against each one. The psalmist says, let's take energy. The psalmist says, the Lord is my strength and my shield. In him, my heart trusts and I am helped.

So the Lord himself is our strength. And the psalmist says that we experience that strength by trusting in him. And to be more specific, Nehemiah says, the joy of the Lord is your strength. So pursue the joy of the Lord and you will be pursuing your strength. There is a kind of paradox here.

When you feel energy, it's you who feel the energy. When you get up and act, it's you who are getting out of bed and acting. And yet the Bible says, the Lord is your strength. Sometimes you hear people say, God helps those who help themselves. Well, that's a kind of secular effort to express a biblical truth that secular people cannot understand and therefore they can't say it right.

What that is trying to say biblically is, God helps the weak and paralyzed and dead to help themselves so that in all our so-called self-help, God will get the glory because all our self-help turned out to be God help. That's what they're trying to say. That's the biblical truth.

And here's the way Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 15, 10. By the grace of God, I am what I am and his grace toward me is not in vain. But on the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

So Daniel, by all means, pursue your restored energy. Seek it in the Lord. Seek it in the joy of the Lord. And when you have sought it and trusted him for it, get out of bed and do the next thing that needs to be done. And then over against the sense of loss of direction, I would put 2 Thessalonians 3, 5, "May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ." And what that text shows is that the Lord himself is the great heart director.

When we need direction, we plead for our hearts to experience God's direction. It's precisely the heart that Daniel needs direction for, not just his head, not just his body. The heart is the great life director and behind the heart is the Lord. And so pray that God would direct the heart first to the love of God and then to the steadfastness of Christ.

And then in that love and in that steadfastness to the clarity you need for your life's work. And then lastly, Daniel says, he feels like he's lost purpose. And over against that, I want to put 1 Peter 2, 9, "You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that," and that's the purpose statement, "that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." Whatever else God has for you in life, this is crystal clear.

You exist to make the excellencies of God known, especially the excellencies by which he calls people from darkness to light. And it is a marvelous light, Daniel. As much listlessness as you may feel just now, you live in marvelous light and it's your purpose. God appointed purpose to see it, to savor it, and to make it known.

Put one more specific text over against that loss of purpose. 1 Peter 4, 10, "As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace." You, Daniel, like every Christian, have gifts from God. These gifts are peculiar to you, peculiar means by which only you can steward God's particular grace to you.

Your purpose in life is to use those gifts to steward that grace for the glory of God. So let me end with just this encouragement from Lamentations 3. Jeremiah was very low, as he wrote this, in his sense of helplessness as his beloved Jerusalem was being devastated. And he cries out, "My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me." And then he does battle with this crisis that he's in, and he says, "But this I call to mind." There you go, Daniel, that's what you do.

This you call to mind. "And therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will hope in him." So call God's promises to mind, Daniel.

Hope in him and move. God will, he will, as you move in his strength, he will restore the joyful sense of energy and direction and purpose. Amen, excellent words for Daniel and for anyone who faces this season of aimlessness in life. Thank you, Pastor John. And these are the types of life questions that we address here on the podcast.

And for more information about what we do or to search our archives of questions or to send us a concise question of your own or download the apps for your mobile devices, go to our online home at DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn. Well, I wanna stay on this topic of jobs and career for next time because good jobs can be very scarce.

So will God call us to work that we will not enjoy? How do we handle the calling question when it comes to work that seems unenjoyable? That's the question tomorrow. I'm your host, Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast with John Piper. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)