The student’s words unsettled me. We had been discussing the topic of courage, the letting go of our fears so that we could become a source of blessing and wisdom. Then we read together a quote, “We are able to live with this degree of courage, reflected in focus and passion, only if we are clear about who we are and what we have been called to do” (Smith 124). As she and I discussed what this quote meant for her life, she asked, “How can I live with this degree of courage? I kinda feel grown-up, but I really don’t know who I am and what I am supposed to be when I’m really grown-up.” Was I surprised by this heartfelt question? No, she was an emerging adult, in the midst of forming her identity and vocation. On the other hand, I was concerned. She was a Calvin College senior with a 3.91 GPA. Had we, as a community, failed to help her become a courageous person, failed to equip her to understand how to be an agent of renewal? Or was her question simply a common concern of the emerging adult stage of life?

In the field of developmental psychology, life stages provide a convenient framework by which psychologists can understand the behavior and mental processes of individuals of a particular age. Due to longer life expectancies, changes in societal norms, brain maturation, and higher educational achievement required for many careers, researchers have begun to identify a new stage between teenager and adult. Jeffrey Arnett proposed calling this the stage of emerging adulthood (469). Several traits are hallmarks of this stage: feeling in-between, living with instability, developing an identity, transforming one’s life and focusing on self.

Through my investigation of the research on emerging adulthood, my energies as a faculty member are engaged on several different levels. As a psychologist trained to carry out empirical research, I am involved in investigating this life stage, yet I am continually reminded that the very group that I am studying in my scholarship is the age group that I encounter in the classes I teach. Christian colleges educate individuals who are in the stage of emerging adulthood, and this challenges us to consider how a Christian worldview can provide a context to sustain emerging adults as they traverse this life stage. The more earnestly I explore these questions for my students, the more clearly I see that all Christians are like emerging adults because the hallmarks of emerging adulthood are hallmarks of the Christian’s life. It is essential for us as Christians, especially Christian college educators, to understand emerging adulthood. Let me explain.

Emerging adults have transitioned out of adolescence, but they have not yet established their life structure and do not yet have full adult roles and responsibilities. They are in-between. They are learning to act responsibly for themselves and beginning to make important decisions, despite the fact that they have not yet met the societal norms for adulthood. They live in a sense of “already and not yet.” When I teach about emerging adulthood in my development classes, I explore theoretical and societal perspectives with my students, but we also talk about their personal experiences of living in-between.

I discuss with my students how they desire to be free to make independent decisions, yet they depend on parents for significant financial and emotional resources. They express how important it is for them to be treated as adults, yet they desire to return upon occasion to the secure base of their homes and their relationships with parents. Emerging adults feel in-between, and this creates a sense of instability.

As I explore with my college students, I am often aware that the perception of living in a time that is “already and not yet” is also something we experience in the Christian life. Christ has paid for and set us free from our sins, but the fullness or culmination of God’s work has not come yet. We are in an “in-between” state; we anticipate the eschaton. Christianity is serious about eschatology; we are always looking forward and striving to move forward. In the process, we are transforming and restoring the present (Meeks xiii), but this means that we are in a state of flux. We are working in and through this sinful world for God’s earthly kingdom in hopes of the coming of his heavenly kingdom. There is an expectation for the future that is rooted in what has already happened in the past while living well in the present. This is a remarkable parallel to the experience of emerging adults, who come to college with their past experiences, their skills, abilities, and motivations, and then live in a Christian college community that is engaged in transforming them for the future God has planned.

The in-between time, “already and not yet,” produces tension. How do we as Christians live in this eschatological time, and how do emerging adults cope with the instability they feel? The theologian Oscar Cullmann has given us poignant language for understanding this tension (145). He suggests that Christians live their lives between D-day and V-day. D-day was Christ’s first coming, when Satan was defeated, and V-Day is his second coming, when Satan will finally surrender. This metaphor with images of war and battles with hope for a better future and ultimate victory is salient for many of us older adults who can frame the events of our lives in this figurative way. For emerging adults their struggles are more concrete. They are consumed with attaining a college degree, separating from parents, discovering their identity in a vocation and forming new relationships. The struggles are very real and very present.

As a Christian college community, we have the opportunity to help our students understand the tensions they feel in emerging adulthood as an example of what it means that Christians live in the in-between times. If we can harness this emerging adult instability and link it to our Reformed call to work in this in-between world, we will be preparing our students to live with the “already and not yet” tension that pervades Christian life as we seek to serve God in the earthly kingdom.

Basically, what we are saying to our college students is this: You know this tension you are currently feeling? You are not an adolescent, but you are not yet an adult. You have some adult like responsibilities, but you haven’t established your life structure. You are trying to figure out what kind of adult you will be. It seems as if adult responsibilities are a long way off, yet they seem so tantalizingly close. You feel like you have accomplished a lot by coming to college, but you know you have a long way to go. You are almost there, but not yet. This is your present life.

What you are experiencing is also the Christian life. Christ has accomplished a lot by his death on the cross, but the final victory has not yet come. We live in this in-between time of Christ’s first and second coming. We take joy in what Christ has already accomplished in our lives, just as you are appreciative of how your parents and teachers have brought you to this point. Yet as Christians, you and I live in this sinful world and struggle to restore this world for God’s kingdom. Likewise, you are struggling to determine God’s will for your life so that you can honor God with your work and relationships.

Thankfully, Christians do not struggle in the in-between time alone. God has given us the Holy Spirit, who helps us live our lives within this tension, providing the comfort and strength to sustain us in the struggle. Communities such as Christian colleges provide godly individuals such as advisors, professors, resident directors, and other staff members to help students discern God’s call. The tension and instability students feel as Christians is not a bad thing. They may find that this tension drives them forward; the sense of instability keeps them seeking God’s direction for a life of service to him. That tension needs to be a push. The tension and instability students feel in this in-between time is a good thing; it prods them toward becoming godly adults.

Many emerging adults expend a great deal of mental, emotional, physical and spiritual energy examining the self. Although it may be tempting to label this characteristic as selfish and sinful, in most cases it is not. In fact, we have an unprecedented opportunity at a Christian college to guide, direct, and speak words of insight into the lives of our self-focused students. Students are hungry to understand themselves and to comprehend how other people perceive them. Through their course work, students are offered a rich opportunity to examine themselves in the process of learning the concepts and theoretical approaches. Academic advising of students by faculty and staff can also be one of the highest honors of working with students in a Christian college. With advising, we have the privilege of engaging students in their stage of self-focus. With prayerful consideration, advisors can speak God’s words into the lives of students, pointing out where we see God has gifted them and what vocations those gifts are best suited for. On the other hand, perhaps this self-focused aspect of emerging adulthood could enlighten us as “older” adult Christians. We are often so busy with our adult responsibilities that we do not take the time for self-examination. Emerging adults as well as older adults need time for self-understanding centered on the fact that God designed us to reflect God, both back to God in worship but also to the rest of creation in stewardship (Wright 207).

What may be the least researched and least appreciated attribute of the emerging adult is the age of possibilities, the age of hope. This is the stage of life in which an individual has the greatest opportunity to explore life’s possibilities (Arnett 473). In working with students throughout their four years at Calvin College, I frequently notice the ebbing and flowing of possibilities and hope for the future. During their time in college, students discover numerous frameworks on which they could establish their life structure; the challenge is to discern where God is calling. As a professor, it is important to speak words of hope and encouragement, to assist in the discernment of vocation. Likewise, the Christian life is filled with hope. Hope should energize us as Christians to work for God’s kingdom in the present world. This cultural and liberation mandate, this hope, should enable us to pursue an increased mastery of this world to enrich it for human life, bringing shalom ever closer (Wolterstorff 72).

Identity formation is an integral component of emerging adulthood. Emerging adults try out different vocational identities through part-time jobs, internships, and volunteering. They also consider their identity with respect to relationships and what type of person would suit them best as a life partner. Both of these identity explorations, love and work, reflect life altering commitments and are laden with anxiety. As Christians, we are Christ’s new creation. But there is tension in our Christian identity between what we already possess as God’s children and what our future life as God’s children will hold (Hoekema 71). By faith, we may embrace this tension and live in hope. As St. Ignatius beautifully states:

Quite frequently we experience a time of alternating certainties and doubts, of exhilarating strength and debilitating weakness, of consolation and of desolation. As a matter of fact, this time is very privileged because the discernment of spirits which is called for is an entrance into understanding a language of God spoken within our very being (Quoted in Fleming 70).

The bigger system of religious communities also plays a vital role during the stage of emerging adulthood. Research on the psychological outcomes of religiosity in adolescents and emerging adults found that religiosity was even more important for emerging adults than adolescents (Yonker, Schnabelrauch, and Dehaan 309). This research points to the possibility that emerging adults have more freedom to choose to attend church because their choice is less dependent on parental expectation (Koenig, McGue, and Iacono 541), and that religious practice has more personal impact when it is freely chosen. What has been observed in church attendance may also apply to college choice; i.e., many students freely choose to attend a Christian college knowing that the emphasis will be Christian. Their choice is a profound opportunity for faculty and staff to partner with students as they discern who they are as God’s children.

In conclusion, the analogy of emerging adulthood as compared to the Christian life, while helpful, is flawed. The similarities stem from the challenges of the present life, however, the difference is found in the outcome, the end result. For the Christian, we live our lives in great expectation of the moment when God’s resurrection life and power will sweep through the world filling it with the glory of God (Wright 208). The emerging adult’s anticipation of a life structure in adulthood stands in sharp contrast to the completeness of the glory of God, clearly an insufficient analogy. Yet the analogy still has merit. My college students teach me a lot. Most importantly, they teach me that as a Christian, I am like them; already but not yet, living with tension, hopeful now for the future and designed with an identity to reflect God.

Works Cited

• Arnett, Jeffrey. “Emerging Adulthood: A Theory of Development from the Late Teens Through the Twenties.” American Psychologist 55.5 (2000): 469–580.
• Cullmann, Oscar. Christ and Time. Trans. Floyd V. Filson. Philadelphia: Westminster, 1950.
• Fleming, David. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, A Literal Translation and A Contemporary Reading. The Institute of Jesuit Sources, St. Louis: DoubleDay, 1978.
• Hoekema, Anthony. The Bible and the Future. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1979.
• Koenig, Laura, Matt McGue, and William Iacono. “Stability and change in religiousness during emerging adulthood.” Developmental Psychology 44.2 (2008): 532–43.
• Meeks, M. Douglas. Origins of the Theology of Hope. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1974.
• Smith, Gordon. Courage and Calling: Embracing Your God Given Potential. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999.
• Wolterstorff, Nicholas. Until Justice and Peace Embrace. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1983.
• Wright, N. T. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. New York: Harper-Collins, 2008.
• Yonker, Julie, Chelsea Schnabelrauch, and Laura DeHaan. “The Relationship between Spirituality and Religiosity on Psychological Outcomes in Adolescents and Emerging Adults: A Meta-analytic Review.” Journal of Adolescence 35.2 (2012): 299–314.