I work a lot with graduate students and some clients who are in the “emerging adult” stage (defined as approximately 18-29). Many of them feel lost in their spiritual journey and are experiencing significant struggles. But this is not the whole picture. A significant number of emerging adults are spiritually mature for their age/stage and growing a lot during this time in their lives. This, in part, inspired a current, ongoing study I am conducting of spiritual exemplars in the emerging adult stage.

I would like to offer a few preliminary observations from this study to the emerging adults who feel lost on their spiritual journey, and invite those of you who are older leaders to “listen” in. These observations come from your peers—young adults who were nominated by mentors as spiritual exemplars for this study. While these young adults have their own struggles, I hope the common themes emerging from their vibrant spiritual lives will provide encouragement and direction for your spiritual journey.

Dear Graduates,

Excitement. Anticipation. Eagerness. Anxiety. Fear. My guess is that these emotions, and many more, are going through your heart and mind right now as you prepare to leave high school for the “real world.” Not too long ago I was in the same boat. I have since learned some powerful lessons I would like to share with you. Will you allow me to share some personal encouragement and insights to help you succeed in college? I want nothing more than to see my own students flourish as followers of Jesus in college. And I want the same for you. If you read this two-part series you will be miles ahead of many of your peers. Prayerfully take these words to heart and I believe they could make all the difference for you.

Yogi Berra is famous for creative one-liners. For example, he said, “You better go to other peoples’ funerals. Otherwise they won’t come to yours.” He also said, “When you come to the fork in the road, take it.” And one of my personal favorites: “There is a restaurant in L.A. that is so busy no one goes there anymore.” He once quipped, “If you don’t know where you are going you will probably end up somewhere else.” So true!

Several months ago, I had the pleasure of seeing Davis Guggenheim’s documentary about teaching called “Waiting For Superman” in theaters (Click here read the full review.) To summarize, I liked the film, but felt it had one or two shortcomings in its final message and was frustrated that Guggenheim stayed clearly on one side as opposed to being more objective.  Tomorrow, it hits DVD and BluRay for general release.  I had the chance to sit down with the film again and see what the total package offers.

There is a commentary on the film with Guggenheim and producer Lesley Chilcott.  Guggenheim is quite talkative and enjoyable to listen to while Chilcott chimes in as necessary.  He actually addresses some of my concerns right out of the gate – he says that he intentionally chose a side because his first documentary essentially follows teachers silently and lets the events play themselves out.  From that experience, Guggenheim said he wanted to make a strong statement.  The difficulty of course is actually calling the film a documentary when it is so strongly biased.  When does it become propaganda?