I followed the same route I did four years ago — past the Buster statue, into the SUB, down the hall, and into the admissions office — however, this time, I wasn’t trailing slightly behind my mom, hoping that I looked confident and nonchalant carrying my new student folder. Now, I was able to walk with true confidence into the office of Luke McCormack, assistant director of enrollment and the enrollment counselor for Middle Tennessee.
McCormack’s new office is not the most homey-looking place, with its empty walls and barren bookshelves; even the autumn Lofi video playing on one of his monitors failed to distract from its state of transition. McCormack had only been back at Union since Nov. 1, and hanging wall decorations was probably not on his first-week to-do list. Despite the lack of cozy knick-knacks, the office became welcoming the moment McCormack walked into it.
As I sat down and prepared to ask McCormack the questions scribbled in my notebook, I was slightly caught off guard when he began asking me about things that wouldn’t have been in my “file” — things he would only know by remembering our first meeting four years ago. As someone who still occasionally offers peanut butter cookies to my friend with a nut allergy, I was impressed. Within the span of a couple of minutes, McCormack had made me feel seen — just like he did when I was a new student.
“He is what I would call a gentleman’s gentleman,” Connie Teel, director for enrollment operations, said. “He loves people, and people love him. He’s just one of the kindest people that you will ever meet and is just so relational.”
McCormack graduated from Union University in 2017 and began working in the admissions department as the enrollment counselor for Middle Tennessee in 2018.
“I just absolutely fell in love with it,” McCormack said. “Every aspect of the position, from getting to go to schools and churches and meet new students and prospective families to getting to show them around this place that I love so much and getting to tell them more about the community that I grew up in and that I’ve been around for so long was just really special. There’s a lot of purpose in this work, and if you’re able to see that, then you may not ever want to leave.”
However, that wasn’t the case for McCormack. Despite clearly seeing the purpose in his work, after working as an enrollment counselor for five years, McCormack began feeling a pull from outside Union — not originating from any particular place but instead driven by growing pressures and a need for change. McCormack couldn’t shake the feeling that God might be calling him someplace other than Union, and he wondered if he had worked outside of Union long enough to be able to know that. Unfortunately, McCormack did not hear God’s booming voice telling him what to do or have an angel descend from heaven to give him a “Your Next Steps” pamphlet. McCormack wasn’t confident in his decision to look for opportunities outside of Union; however, he took a leap of faith because he didn’t want to ignore a possible calling from God.
“I was like, you know what, [Union] is special, and I know that, and I’m probably going to be kicking myself if I were to leave, but I feel like I need to at least entertain other things just because this may be the Lord kind of stirring that up,” McCormack said.
McCormack packed up his office and took a job working in logistics at a company in Bells, TN. He very quickly realized that it was not the job for him. It was just too impersonal. For someone who thrives on relationships and community, working someplace where the sole form of communication was email did not sit well with McCormack.
After about four months there, McCormack knew he needed a change and began working with his wife at an insurance agency. That change solved the impersonal problem, but there was still something missing.
“I felt like there was something missing. Felt like I was still lacking,” McCormack said. “I think the Lord just kept pushing me back to Union and was like, ‘I’m going to get you back there.’”
God answered McCormack’s prayer about a year later through Connie Teel, when a position became available in the admissions department at Union.
“God just kind of put him on my heart,” Teel said.
She pulled McCormack aside one Sunday after church and pitched him the idea of coming back to Union as an enrollment counselor and as the new assistant director.
“I got giddy inside,” McCormack said. “I know that this is where I’m supposed to be. I don’t know if that’s for the rest of my career. I don’t know if that’s for the next 10 years. But I just know that this place is special, and I wanted to be able to come back and serve and give back continuously to a place that poured so much into me over the years.”
God doesn’t give us a master plan that maps out the next 20 years of our lives; instead, we must try our best, in every phase of life, to follow God’s calling for us.
“I feel like for me, at least, when the Lord is calling you to do something, when he’s putting peace and a sense of importance in what you’re doing, wherever that may be, you may leave, and you may come back, but it’s all in the process. And the Lord is working in that process.” McCormack said. “He had me leave and had me come back for whatever reason. And I might not have figured it fully out yet, but sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.”
The next step may not always be what we expected or desired; it may feel like a complete detour, but whatever our next steps look like, they need to be in obedience. McCormack took the steps he believed God was calling him to take, even when he was unsure, and the path seemed confusing.
“For me, success is doing what the Lord is calling you to do and just being truly faithful and obedient to what that calling is. If the Lord calls you to move up the ladder and you’re being faithful and obedient to it, then you’re being successful. If the Lord calls you to stay where you are, and you do it, you’re being successful,” Teel said. “I feel like as long as you’re being obedient to what the Lord is calling you to do, you are being successful. And anything that you try to do outside of his will, that’s where failure is going to come in.”
