To: JuneMcrea@ustel.com
From: KellyTodd@linkmac.com

Dear Aunt June,

I'm stuck! This economy stinks. No one is hiring. I've sent out hundreds of resumes. If a company has a job opening, they want experience. How am I to get experience if I can't get a job? This is not how I envisioned life as a college grad.

I had two on-campus interviews, one with a graphic design firm in Indianapolis and one with a "mom and pop" firm in Jackson, but I haven't heard anything back yet. The future is one big question mark right now.

It's crazy at home too. I love my folks, but do I really have to tell them every time I go out where I'm going and when I'll get back? I've lived on my own for four years! Don't get me wrong. I'm thankful for a roof over my head, since I don't have a "real" job yet. I only make a few bucks working at the library part-time. I'd never be able to afford an apartment or gas, even though my parents bought me an old Chevy for graduation. It's not fancy, and I have to use WD-40 to spray the engine every time it rains and I hit a puddle. But at least I don't have to beg to borrow their car.

I sure get tired of people asking me if I got a job yet. Give me a break! If I had one, I'd post it on Facebook for everyone to see. And at church there's no one my age. There is a Sunday school for post-high kids, but most are just starting college. Many of my friends growing up now have jobs elsewhere, or they're married and starting families.

Sorry to unload on you, but I don't want to burden my mom and dad. They have enough to worry about. Just please—please pray for a job for me.

Your stuck-at-home niece,
Kelly

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To: KellyTodd@linkmac.com
From: JuneMcrea@ustel.com

Dear Kelly,

Wow! It sounds as if you are having good times back home in Little Creek. I know the community seems small after being part of a university for four years, but the people are as real there as back in school. Plus, it's more realistic. People aren't all the same age. You only get that in college or in a nursing home.

If God has placed you back at home for a season, make the most of it. I used to have an old needlework that said, "Bloom where you are planted." You might not love where you're at now, but don't give up on the people yet. At college you said you attended a fellowship group—all your own age. That's really a superficial view of God's kingdom. Don't forget, you are part of the body of Christ, which is made up of all sorts of people, including those with gray hair and those wearing diapers. We are all vital to the body and need to do our part in it. No one is dispensable.

Tonight when you're having devotions, read 1 Corinthians 12:14-15, 21: "For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,' that would not make it any less a part of the body.... The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' nor again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' "

You need all those people in church, and they need you, precisely as you are—a covenant child of the congregation without her dream job. If you don't have friends in church now, share your concerns with Pastor Dave. Get beyond the idea that friends mean people in a similar situation as you. When your mom was out of college, she had to live with our parents for a while to save up money to get her master's. Then she met your father and never left Little Creek. She used to go crazy at home too, especially when her little sister (I wonder who?) used to borrow her clothes without asking. Oh the stories we could tell!

In the meantime, while you are waiting for friends to show up, go to women's fellowship. You'll probably be the youngest one there, but you can glean lots from older women. And you could encourage them with your youthful enthusiasm and energy. If there's a church workday, show up and stay from start to finish. You aren't just in Little Creek to bide your time until you get your perfect job and life begins. You're in the midst of life right now, so don't audit what's going on at the church. Roll up your sleeves and volunteer to teach Sunday school or help with the church nursery or use your education and design a web page for the church. And in your free time, read a good book under the shade of your oak tree out back.

OK, school is over. Enough lecturing. I'll pray for you to get a job in your field and for fellowship. My kids say hi.

Much love,
Aunt June

This series of fictional e-mail correspondence is being written by three women in the OPC. New Horizons, July 2011.