There is a confidence that comes with knowing who you are, why you are here and where you are going.
Have you ever asked yourself these questions?
Who am I?
Why am I here?
Where am I going?
I have.
I have arrived at a point in life where I want to live on purpose. I want to do what matters. No more just taking life as it comes. No more simply going through the motions.
At a business conference I recently attended, one of the sessions was about Identity, Purpose and Calling.
The exercise required us to do some deep introspection. I use the word “required” because I sense that 99.9 percent of us would never do this unless prompted. We live our lives without ever really considering our lives.
The facilitator instructed us to describe what we believe to be the talents and traits that make us unique. She also told us to write what we most want to achieve and most want to experience. In the mix of all of this, we also had to list our goals.
She then gave us connecting words to put all of these together. The result was a personal mission statement. When I read mine back to myself, I had chills. My personal mission statement was exactly what I had been feeling in my spirit for a long time…but, had yet to measure with words.
It also occurred to me how different my personal mission statement was now compared to what it would have been five years ago. I was a different person then. Five years ago, my aspirations were more worldly than heavenly.
My challenge to you is to take some time from your hectic schedule to do some serious introspection. Yes, we’re all busy. But, there is a great danger in busyness. Busyness leads to living without thinking. Busyness is the enemy of living with purpose.
Do you want to continue to live that way? I don’t.
Look back at the three questions at the top of this post. When you can answer those questions you will have much insight to, respectively, your Identity, Purpose and Calling.
What are you good at? What are your God-given abilities? Are you creative? Are you good at problem solving? Maybe you are good with your hands. Perhaps you have a great business mind.
Whatever your talents are, they will play a role in your Calling. God doesn’t equip us with abilities randomly. He does it intentionally. And, he does it with his eternal purpose in mind.
In the Bible, we read that:
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. (Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV)
Yes, God has set eternity in the human heart. Deep within you is a connection with the ever after. God placed it there when he made you. The call he has placed on your life flows from that connection.
God also made it so that you and I cannot begin to understand all that he has done nor will do. Only an incomparable God could make himself known in so many ways and in others remain a beautiful mystery. He is at once knowable and unsearchable.
I am beginning to understand what that means.
When I heard that God had a plan for me, I set about to find out what it is. I wanted to know everything in advance.
I have since learned that God doesn’t always accommodate our plans; his ways are not our ways. I wanted to orchestrate life experiences that fit the call on my life. Instead, God has used life experiences to reveal the call on my life.
And, to birth a dream in my heart.
The dream God has placed in my heart, the thing I felt but couldn’t quite put into words, became clearer during that workshop.
So, what is it you want to achieve? What do you want to experience? What are your goals? As you think about these, I urge you to also consider this:
If right now you were standing in heaven, in the company of Jesus and all of the angels, would your goals, the things you want to achieve, the things you want to experience—would any of them matter? Do they carry eternal significance?
One of the attendees said she left the business conference with a “quiet confidence.” I know exactly what she means. I did, too.
There is a confidence that comes with knowing who you are, why you are here and where you are going. And, when you have those answers, you become an unstoppable force for the Kingdom.
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