It’s graduation season. Although it has been a little more than two decades since I earned a diploma, I remember the uncertainty of knowing what I wanted to do with my life and questioning whether I had what it took to get there.

It didn’t help that in the first 12 years of my education, I had switched schools six times, which left me with glaring gaps and missing mortar in my academic foundation. My standardized test scores were nothing to brag about. But I had a passion for words and wanted to spend my life telling stories — mine and other people’s –— stories that would make a difference.

I’ve been blessed to spend the past two decades earning a living as a writer — not always with the level of success that I’d like, but enough to know that even if you haven’t yet reached your highest dreams, God welcomes dreamers.

You don’t have to get picked by the NBA to spend your life gainfully coaching, playing, or earning a living from basketball. If sports are your passion, pursue it to the highest ability God grants you. The same with art or music or any other discipline. Pursue whatever brings you the most joy while bringing the most joy to others.

Didn’t do so well in high school? Forget about test scores, how many awards or trophies you have or haven’t won, or what college you did or didn’t get into. Do your best, even when others overlook you. Chase your passion and build your skills while waiting to see what doors God opens.

At last month’s New England Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators conference in Springfield, I shared lunch with an illustrator who works as a graphic designer while pursuing new publishing opportunities. Across from us sat a budding author who doubles as an entertainment lawyer. In other words, support yourself, but keep growing and learning and dreaming while developing your gifts.

What you must not do is listen to the lying, hissing voice in your head that says, “You’re not good enough. You’ll never make it. Why bother?” Because here is something that our modern inflamed-with-fame culture won’t tell you: Local is not lesser. How many people praise you doesn’t matter. Neither does the size of your paycheck. That’s largely out of your control.

What is in your control is living your life fully engaged, sharing the gifts God gave you — whether others recognize them or not. Because at the end of the day, it is just you and God. You and him. So live a life that honors the gifts and abilities and godly desires he gave you. Live so that you feel most alive, creative, generous, and ultimately the most satisfied.

Or as the apostle Paul said, “Whatever you do, work at it wholeheartedly as though you were doing it for the Lord and not merely for people,” (Col. 3:23 ISV).

Only then is your reward guaranteed.

Meadow Rue Merrill writes and reflects on God’s presence in her ordinary life from the woods of Mid-coast Maine. Find her at www.meadowrue.com