Note to My Younger Self

One day you will find yourself days away from a retirement of sorts. (Although I doubt the title will not really stick or slow you down.) You will look back on an amazing journey you could never have imagined.  

Your foundation of faith and community will be a mainstay.

Aside from a wellness check at the doctor’s office, your first visit outside the home will be to the local church. Different congregations will play into your life but this is where you will find extended family. Church buildings will be safe havens to grow, learn, sing, do crafts, and worship with a multi-generational and eventually diverse family. You will learn to serve by example. So many serendipitous experiences will guide you in the years to come.

Sin, Grace, and God’s Word

You will be a great church member, learn so much from great teachers, and listen to pastors multiple times a week. But as a teenager, you will come face to face with your personal sin and recognize the need for a Savior. As a high school sophomore, you will acknowledge your sin and find forgiveness and grace in Jesus. This one decision will impact everything you do going forward. At 21 years old, you will learn how to spend time in God’s Word and the impact of this daily infusion. The Bible will be your guide and comfort. Seasons of struggle will come, and you will be prone to wander. But you will find the underserved gift of grace more satisfying than the temporary pleasure of sin.   

Mentors will be key

Along the way, adults will invest in you. At first, you won’t see it and maybe they didn’t see it either but they will help guide you at critical points along the way. God will bring a wide range of personalities through the years just at the right time. Some will guide for a season and others for decades. Each one is a blessing. They will teach you to be a mentor for others.

A call and confirmation

You will hear God call you to ministry while attending YEC as a high school senior. I know, I know you are unsure, and do not tell anyone. God will work in your life allowing you to serve and grow but the confirmation will come clearly ten years later. The call was real. You share it with your pastor and the new church plant you are attending. You will leave your church, job, family, and hometown to embark on a new adventure. First to seminary then New England. God is so good.

You will spend over forty years alongside teenagers.

Starting as a nineteen-year-old you will connect with teenagers as a volunteer at church. This will move into a teaching role and after college, professionally as a mentor, counselor, and minister. The New England years (30+ and counting) will bring opportunities to develop and create opportunities for students to explore life with Jesus and serve like him. You will have more t-shirts from camps, winter conferences, and mission trips than can be counted. You will see lives changed and the next generation become leaders. God is so faithful.

See the world

Your first passport will come around the time you turn 40. But then you will see the world! You will travel to all the continents except Antarctica. You will have teenagers with you on most of these trips. You will see the beauty of God’s creation and at times the brokenness of a fallen world. What an adventure this will be. God will use these lessons learned back home and allow you to serve with a heart more like His.

All the bits and pieces of life will be used to create an amazing puzzle.

As you get older, you will see all the pieces fitting together. The hard lessons applied will bring greater wisdom and joy. You will find great happiness in seeing the big picture of God’s hand in your life. God will continue to surprise you and bring new faces that will become family. Travel lessons will lead to a better understanding of the people on your doorstep. So much joy will come from building relationships near and far.

Big God

You will always know God loves you. You will be blessed by a life of God sightings and serving Him. You will look forward to seeing Him face to face, hang on, eternity is coming!

”But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” - Acts 20:24

Allyson Clark currently serves as Next Generation Co-Director of Youth Ministries at the Baptist Churches of New England.