What were you put here to do?

This particular blog post may be too abstract. This is basically an existential question: What were you put here to do?

This implies that your life has a purpose.

Are you comfortable with that? The alternative is purposelessness. Can we just take that off the table? That’s not an option.

If you want to start with a basic physiological fact, here ya go: genetically, there is no one like you. We discussed that last week. There’s no one like you.

If you are unique – and you are – then you are filling a life space no one else can. You are fearfully and wonderfully made, remember?

So what were you put here to do? Assuredly, you have a role to fulfill.

It would be a sin to go through life without a reason for living. That’s why I constantly remind you that hopelessness is not an option.

Fact is, you’re here. You are breathing. You are reading my words.

There is a reason you aren’t dead yet. It’s because you haven’t accomplished what you were put here to do.

It’s okay not to have it all figured out. You may not know exactly where you’re going or where you will end up.
Just start somewhere. I’m not talking about vocation alone. Just show up, and see where God leads you.
Keep going, one step at a time.
When you are unsure of your calling, turn to the one who called you in the first place.

Here’s another way of thinking about all this: You have to be before you can do.

In our world, we put a huge emphasis on activity. We’re supposed to always be doing something. I’m not advocating laziness or inaction. But I would say that in order for us to understand what we were put here to do, we have to sit still.

Choosing to be still requires faith. It requires trust. It requires taking ourselves out of the center of everything and putting God there instead.

Today, try doing the single most counter-cultural thing you could do. Be still. Choose to declare that God is working in your life. He is doing the work. See how that takes the pressure off? Want to know what you were put here to do? It was to do what He wants you to do.

What an adventure. He is molding us and shaping us and using us. The weight is on Him. We merely get to join Him in the work as He sees fit.

I often try to rush God’s timing for me. When I want to know what I was put here to do, I want specifics. I want details.

I get annoyed with Him for “forgetting” about me because He hasn’t opened new doors in my life or answered my prayers in the way I wanted them answered. But if you look at Jesus’ life in the Bible, He never ran. He never rushed.

Maybe if we took the time to not get all freaked out because we don’t have the answers we want, things would become more clear to us. Even though it can feel like you’re “stuck” and even awkward at times because you don’t know what you’re supposed to be doing, take a breath. Slow the heck down. If we don’t worry so much about what we’re supposed to be doing, and wondering what we were put here to do, things will change. We won’t go into things that weren’t planned for us and we’ll end up landing gracefully where God wants us to be.