Are you doing what you were born to do?

What am I created to do?

This was a question that someone posed to me a couple months ago. I’ll be honest, at first I blew it off, thinking, “Does anyone really ever get to the place where they are doing what they were created to do?”  The cynicism from past difficulties in life has jaded my natural reaction a bit.

But these past couple weeks this question has been spurring me to rearrange my life and priorities and goals to begin to pursue what I believe the Lord is wanting me to be and do accomplish.  I’m tired of buying time while I wait for the right thing to miraculously drop into my lap.

The reason I post this is to ask you the same question, “Are you doing what you were created (by God) to do?” I have SO many friends that are working jobs that they absolutely hate or that are keeping them relatively content at the moment, but that even if there’s promise of advancement – they know in their heart it’s not really what they want to do or were created to do. It’s not the dream that God has for them.  And while it’s great to be thankful for a job and a paycheck, it’s also easy to get tangled in this level of mediocrity in which we never really accomplish what God intends for us. Too often we go day to day, trying to conjure up happiness in our next relationship, purchase, or outing.  After all the dates, guys, girls, new cars, new jobs, and new promotions subside, we are left with a lack of fulfillment and sense of emptiness.

Let me challenge you to do something. Take a few minutes alone today or at some point this weekend and ask God what His dream for your life is.  I’m serious.  Book a meeting with God.  Do it now. Put it on your cell phone or BlackBerry calendar. It could be 5, 10, 15 minutes, whatever.  Spend some time asking God for that dream that purpose and then listen. If you’re meant to go back to school, become a missionary, write a book, begin a different career path, whatever… begin moving in that direction.

I have a friend who just landed in Ethiopia a few days ago.  He was in my men’s small group this year.  Back in January, I remember him telling me, “I just wish I could hear the voice of God.  I want to start doing what God created me to do, but I am so unfulfilled inside.”  Well 8 months later, he literally resigned from a posh and good paying job, sold EVERYTHING he had on E-Bay, and headed to Ethiopia where he will be working with children who live on the streets and in sewers, and he couldn’t be MORE happy.

The difference is the JOY.  I’ve learned that you can have a dream job, be well paid, have a new car, great friends, and still have this longing in your heart for something more.  The U2 anthem “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” has become an internal prayer this year.  I want more.  I want to be more.  I want to do more.  And when one finds what God’s dream is for them and begins to walk in it, the JOY is overwhelming.

I challenge you to push past the comfy cozy living and pursue the fire that God has lit internally in your soul.  No matter what it is or how impossible it may seem to be, He can and will make it happen if you pursue it.

Jeremiah 29:11 is my life verse.  It says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” but those plans are nothing more than empty dreams, unless you and I begin chasing and pursuing those plans! Make that appointment happen, and pursue the dream the Lord has and will light in the torch of your spirit.

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