One day I called up an old friend of mine just to catch up with him. I’m notorious in my dislike of conversing over the phone, but I decided to clear such a trite hurdle for the sake of my comrade. As we spoke he told me something that surprised me.
“I’m dropping out of Bible college.”
We had just spoke about the subject the week prior, and had discussed the importance of finishing what you’ve started and all that other stuff that sounds right to say. Startled, I asked him why he changed his mind so suddenly.
He went on to tell me that it wasn’t making him happy, and he wanted to do something that HE WANTED to do, not something he felt HE SHOULD do. And that statement floored me. So often I just end up in the Christian routine of doing things I should do because I feel like I’m supposed to and that’s what God wants. But He has put desires in our hearts for a reason, and it would be wrong of us to forsake those desires out of some misguided sense of religiousity. So if there is something in your heart that excites you, pursue that! It is the very seeds of something divine planted in your heart from before you were made.
True, we shouldn’t do something simply because we feel obligated. That drains any real motivation or heart out of what we’re doing. But I was there once, balancing what I “wanted to do” vs. what “was right to do.” As soon as I got my priorities straight, it was much easier to make the turn back.
I don’t know the story of the one you’re writing about. Perhaps it was right for him to leave. In my experience, I’d have missed out on a lot had I left earlier.