God Will Do His Part When We Do Ours: By Diran Avagyan

It’s graduation season, usually marked by joy and a sense of emancipation, but at the same time accompanied by a certain degree of anxiety. As a parent whose son is graduating from high school and entering university, I feel the same and can empathize with those who are in the same shoes.

As we celebrate milestones and achievements, we are often anxious about the future. Besides financial arrangements, apartment hunting, safety concerns, and “separation grief,” there is also a looming concern about the future in general.

We are aware that everything can turn upside down in the blink of an eye. What we have today may be lost in the next moment. For a generation that lived through COVID-19, experienced the ensuing economic hardship, natural disasters, geopolitical turmoil, and military conflicts, the future has become less and less predictable. Naturally, when we lose a sense of control, we become fearful of the unknown.

So we worry about the future. Will the knowledge imparted by educational systems today be sufficient for tomorrow? How will professions evolve? What will the job market look like? With the rising cost of living, will it be possible to find jobs that pay adequately? How might outside influences, such as wars in different parts of the world, global warming, and the scarcity of natural resources, impact our lives?

I am sure the generation before us had concerns of their own. Yet, for the most part, they had a clearer path: school, college, career, family, retirement, and so on. In my observation, Baby Boomers had more control over their lives. They relied more on one another than on systems, whereas in our generation the opposite is often true. Much of our lives now depends on information technology systems, cloud servers, virtual banking, and digital markets. We are therefore more vulnerable and, consequently, more susceptible to outside disruptions, whether natural or human-induced.

During this time of uncertainty, the challenge before us is to build resilience today, and every day, little by little, so that we may embrace the future with greater confidence, better education, more refined skills, and less dependence on outside influences.

One thing that helps me manage my fear of the unknown is recognizing that the future is not something distant. The future is being designed and created today. If we participate in the architecture of the future and handle it well today, we stand a better chance of handling it better tomorrow. If we are unprepared today, we will be even more unprepared tomorrow.

The truth is that we cannot control everything. We cannot predict what is to happen. But we can prepare and brace ourselves with the faith and knowledge that God is with us. When we do our part, God does His. In His mercy, God always does His part even when we fail to do ours.