Joyful Anticipation

Capital Fellows
Apr 16
4 min read

By LJ Phillips

The second semester has held a beautiful tension of looking toward the future, but yet enjoying the present. There is a restless excitement but anxiousness when discussing plans once the nine months are over. Questions fill my mind: Where will I work? Where will I live? What will the community look like on the other side of this? I don't take any of it for granted. Having mentors to guide me, space to breathe and reflect, and a community to process alongside has made all the difference. These questions deserve more than rushed answers, and I've been given the gift of exploring them well.

Bill Clark's class has opened a space of genuine self-discovery, a place to examine my story, explore my desires, and look honestly at the road ahead. For perhaps the first time, I've found myself sitting with the unresolved future while reflecting on the threats of my own life in new and unexpected ways. As I've reflected on my own life, I've found myself lingering in Scripture, sitting with the uncertainty that so many of God's people faced and finding deep comfort in how faithfully God met them in it.

This tension has become a tender reflection of the Christian's deepest reality, the already, not yet. There is a profound and stunning truth available to those who trust in Christ: that we can anchor our hope in the coming full restoration even while living in the complicated, broken, and beautiful present. For me, this can be hard to believe because it requires relinquishing my need for control.

And so, entering this next season, there is a strange and genuine freedom. The ability to rest in God's unbreakable promises while honestly wrestling with what remains uncertain. Out of that liberty comes something that defies explanation. There is a joy that exists not despite the circumstances, but somehow within them. This joyful anticipation becomes the rhythm of daily life, not a striving toward the future, but an unhurried rest in the one who holds it all.

“For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.” (2 Corinthians 4:17–18 ESV)

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:11–14 ESV)

LJ Phillips is a member of the Capital Fellows class of 2025-26. He is from Dover, DE, and is a graduate of Davidson College. This year, he is working at The Market Project in Alexandria, VA.

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About Capital Fellows. Capital Fellows is an advanced leadership and discipleship program for recent college graduates. Through graduate courses, a paid internship, one-on-one mentoring, and many leadership and community service opportunities, fellows develop and apply their gifts in real-world situations while learning to integrate a Christian worldview into all areas of life. Capital Fellows is a unique opportunity to live and work in the Washington DC area and to be an active member of a supportive community that seeks to serve the city with the love of Christ. It is also a unique opportunity to get hands-on experience in the workplace while deeply exploring God’s design for us as workers and contributors to human flourishing.

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