Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

passion

What Am I Supposed To Do With My Life?

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Are you fully utilizing your gifts? You have been uniquely equipped and created to accomplish specific tasks. Are you pursuing those tasks? I know one of the hardest questions people deal with is “what am I supposed to do with my life?” We spend countless hours, read book after book and even attend seminars to help us determine what we are to do with our life. After all, if we are created to accomplish specific tasks, how do we determine what those tasks actually are? It can seem very frustrating.

Regular readers know I’m not going to leave you hanging. You might even expect some new insight to help you determine what to do. But I have even better news… you already have within you the knowledge of what you are meant to do with your life! What are you passionate about? What is the one thing (or perhaps even multiple things) that you absolutely love to do? What is it that you could do all day and time would just fly by? These are your gifts. God has entrusted them to you that you might use them to further His mission. Every gift has a Kingdom purpose, a purpose that can be used by God to draw others to Him.

So if you’re with me so far, perhaps you have some idea of what your gifts are but you are probably still wondering how that relates to the work or tasks you were created to accomplish. I certainly don’t pretend to have any special insight into your life or circumstances, but I do know an undeniable truth: if you passionately practice the gifts God has given you, the tasks will become evident all on their own. By being available to be used and faithful to use your God-given gifts, the things you are meant to accomplish will simply become obvious. I know it sounds pretty simple compared to most of those books and seminars, but if you haven’t noticed, imperfect people (that would be folks like you and me) tend to overcomplicate the very simple message of Jesus.

There is no magic formula, no untapped fount of wisdom from which to draw out your life goals. God has already put everything you need inside of you. It is up to us to be faithful and use that with which He has blessed us. So take an accounting of your gifts. You more than likely are already aware of the things you are passionate about. Do those things, and do them often. Just as a musician must practice countless hours to hone his craft, we must practice to master the use of our gifts. We have been given the raw talent, and it is now up to us to use, refine and master that talent. Fortunately, God is a patient teacher and will always be by our side encouraging and instructing. As we become skilled at using our talents as we exercise our passions, God will undoubtedly use those very actions to glorify Himself. Don’t squelch your passions and in doing so waste your life. Practice your passion, use your gifts and live an extraordinary life of devotion to Jesus.

Take a Breath

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Take a breath.  What are you running from?  What are you running to?  What’s it all mean anyway?  We push ourselves to the limit day after day after day in search of some peace, finding some meaning or perhaps just a little bit of hope.  Why are we so obsessed with doing when the end result turns out that nothing is getting done?  Step back.  Take a breath.

Did you ever notice that Jesus never seemed to be in a hurry?  He always had time to touch the person in need, to play with little children or to speak to the outcast.  He never seemed to script His day; He just met needs as he found them.  He knew what He was about.  He understood His core mission.  Yet He never seemed overwhelmed by what we might call intrusions on His time.  He walked in perfect peace, knowing exactly where He was headed and knowing exactly what He was going to accomplish.  Jesus wasn’t perplexed by the unexpected roadblock or stressed by opposition to His plans.

So here we are claiming to model our lives after Christ.  Reality check:  our lives look absolutely nothing like that of Jesus.  We’re fooling ourselves.  We have gotten so good at being “Christian” that we no longer seem to be followers of the Way.  We claim His Lordship but fret over the pettiest of problems.  We claim to love others like He did but seize every opportunity to go along with hurtful words and gossip.  We rush and hurry and stress and rejoice when we take five minutes out of our day to pray.  Jesus regularly got alone with God to pray.  It was central to His life, not simply something he tacked on at the end of the day as an afterthought.

Jesus took time to breathe.  He left space around all His activities.  He wasn’t afraid to rest or withdraw from everything to keep perspective.  He breathed.  When was the last time you took a breath in your life?  When was the last time you remember being so on mission that you were unbothered by the mess the day threw at you?  Have you ever been that certain of your life, your purpose?  Or like most of us do you rush about doing something – anything – to prove you are moving forward?

Take a breath.  Withdraw from everything; get rid of the cell phone and the pager.  Sit in the presence of God and just… breathe.  Ask Him to give you a vision of what your life could look like if only He truly was Lord.  Ask Him what it would look like if you were a little less of a Christian and a little more a follower and lover of Him.  And then breathe.  Feel your lungs expand and release.  Move forward with a passion of purpose.  See, really see, the needs around you and minister to them as Christ did.  In this you will find the beautiful rhythm to life that you have always sought.

They Gave Up Everything

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As I was reading a familiar passage of Scripture today, I was struck anew by a thought: when Jesus called His first four disciples, they immediately gave up everything that they had and followed Him.  Peter, James and John left behind their fishing business and jobs and just followed.  They didn’t question Jesus, they didn’t plan how they would make a living or pay the bills; they simply followed.  If Jesus were to appear on the scene today, come to your place of work and tell you to follow Him, would you?  Would I?

It’s so easy to read through these Bible stories without pausing to reflect on what they are really saying.  “Wow, the disciples left everything and followed Him.  How cool were they?  They were such spiritual giants.  Next.”  Let the story sink in; apply it to yourself.  Honestly, ask yourself, if Jesus told me to give up everything, to leave it right then and there, would I?  This call to follow Christ is not for the faint of heart.  There’s no promise of monetary success or fame.  In fact, to the contrary, Jesus tells us straight up that we will probably not have as much as a place to sleep at night and that we’ll face hostility and persecution.  Cool.  This is exactly why I’d want to give up my current lifestyle.  Well, okay, not so much really.

Yet, this was the call to the first disciples and it remains the call of Christ to each of us today.  Will we give up everything?  Will we risk alienating our friends and family?  Will we endure embarrassment and persecution?  Would we even (gulp) be willing to die?  All this simply because He said to follow Him; How much do you love Him?  Can we honestly say that we would do for Him what He did for us?  Or is it more comfortable to just thank Him for what he did and then snuggle down in our warm beds to catch a good night’s sleep?  What are you willing to give up?  If it’s less than everything then that is simply not good enough.  Christ demands it all.  We call Him Lord yet refuse to honor Him as such.  Do you trust Him to care for your needs, trust Him enough to spit in the face of logic by giving up all that we possess? Do you trust Him with your life to the degree that you are willing to lay it down?

It’s easy to give a lip service answer to these questions.  Of course we love Him; of course we trust Him.  Why of course we’d die for Him!  But would we?  What would your neighborhood, your city and your state look like if all the Christians returned to the New Testament model for the church and we sold everything we had so we could care for the needs of those who had less than we do?  I’m not talking Socialism here; Jesus never advocated any political system.  But I am talking about love, something Jesus was adamant about providing.  Would we be willing to give up everything?  Are we willing to follow Him to dangerous places so we can demonstrate and apply His love?  If Jesus were to start all over today, would you be one of His first disciples?  Until you are willing to give up everything – everything and everyone – then that answer would have to be ‘no’.  Let us repent of our lack of belief and beg that God would give us the strength to follow Him at any cost.

Frustrated or Restless?

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I’m tired of watching life happen to me.  The best laid plans seem to always go astray.  The many desires I have to accomplish more and more crowd out any peace that should be in my head.  Where is the peace of Christ?  Why this frustration and restlessness?

Have you been there?  Welcome to life in the Western world.  Convenience is at our fingertips, achievement is ours to obtain.  We are free to pursue any and everything this world has to offer.  Stop for a moment and simply ask, “At what cost?”  What have we lost in our hurried, results-oriented culture?  Look around your neighborhood; observe the affluence regardless of income.  What have we become?

As Christians we are called to live differently, we are called to a life of humility and love.  We are called to peace and selflessness.  Does your life reflect these attributes?  I know I have a long way to go when measured against these core principles.  We are supposed to be a peculiar folk, but instead we have learned to blend right in.  We have become Americans (if you’re a U.S. reader, if not fill in your own nationality) at the cost of being Christians.  We have lost our first love, in fact I believe we’re in danger of losing love altogether.

Christianity was never meant to be proper people attending large brick buildings where they are entertained for an hour or two each week before going back into the day to day drudgery of the “real world”.   We are to be a people in community with one another every day, and every day we are to be about serving the needs of those in our cities and our world.  When was the last time we left our church buildings and immediately began planning how we were going to love and care for the sick, homeless, widowed and orphaned?  More likely we start planning the grocery list or what our jobs will require of us over the upcoming week or even worse, what football game we will watch that afternoon.  Christianity as a whole has become hypocritical and pharisaical.  I cringe at the thought of what Christ would say of my life in particular and the body of the Western church as a whole.  We have become complacent, self-centered and blinded to those around us.

So how do we stop reacting to what comes at us in life and instead start dictating what our life will look like?  How do we quell the restlessness in our souls?  We get back to being the church Christ called us to be.  We return to our first love, Christ, by imparting His love to everyone we meet.  It is virtually impossible to find yourself frustrated with life when you are walking in step with Christ, doing the things he has commanded us to do.  Are you frustrated?  Serve Christ by loving others.  Does life keep slamming into you?  Take a break and find someone to love.  Do you want to impact the world?  Look like Jesus and love your neighbor, serve their needs.  Are you sensing a theme?  Life is easy, we’ve made it difficult.  Love Christ, love others.  Nothing else matters.

God’s Will

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What is your purpose in life?  What is your mission?  Have you ever thought about big questions like these or are you content to simply take each day as it comes?  The Biblical answer to these questions is beautifully simple to discover yet maddeningly complex to implement!

For as long as I can remember I have heard Christians lament about the fact that they don’t know God’s will for their life, they don’t know what they were put on earth to do.  For those folks, I have great news: you can indeed know with 100% certainty what God’s will is for your life.  God’s will for your life is the same as it is for my life and for your neighbor’s life.  God’s will is that we would love him with an all consuming, passionate and unconditional love.  Not only this, but His will is that we love everyone with whom we come into contact with this same all consuming, passionate and unconditional love.  Show His glory to others by demonstrating His love at all times.  Tell others about Him with our words and actions.  That’s it; it really is no more and no less than this.  This is what Scripture teaches us is the will of God.

Still, we all want to know what this looks like on a more practical, day to day level.  What are we to do with our lives as it concerns our work, dreams and goals?  Beyond loving people, what else are we to do?  Should we not seek to do extravagant and amazing things for God?  Should we not seek to prosper so we might have more resources with which to serve the poor and hungry?  We know we are to love, but that doesn’t tell us what we should do for our vocation or if we should get married or if we should become a missionary in a foreign land or any of a hundred other questions!  How do we know what to do in these circumstances?

I submit to you that love is the answer here as well.  Go loves us more than we could ever possibly hope to imagine.  He has given each of us passions, dreams and talents.  All we have to do is determine how best to use our gifts to demonstrate His love.  Maybe it means staying in that dead end job so you can continue to love your co-workers.  Or maybe it means you leave that dead end job to give you time to drink more fully of His love so you can share more of it with even more people.

Whatever decision you face, look at the issue in terms of how you might best demonstrate the love of Christ.  Imagine all the ways you can serve Him if you decided to do plan A or plan B.  Which decision gives you the greatest opportunity to fulfill His will for your life?  Remember His will is simply that you love Him with all that you are, and you love everyone else in the same way.  Are you participating in activities, relationships or a job that is choking the amount of love you are able to show to others?  Are the things you are currently doing preventing you from fully serving and loving God?  If your answer is yes, then you are out of the will of God, and it is time to put aside anything that would hold you back from total love and devotion to the one we call Lord.  Decide today to walk in His way only.  Walk in love.