My girlfriend Melody and I were out together the other night, sipping Starbucks and causally wandering about in the warm evening weather outside. Somehow, through our thread of many different conversations, we got talking about the mysterious topic of “purpose”.
That word, purpose, has been a huge growing passion in my heart anyways, so we were just talking about various aspects of it... what it means to different people and how we are to live it out.
In our conversation, she said something that really struck a chord with me, that I haven’t been able to shake since. She shared this idea that she heard from Rob Bell about not thinking of what you want to do with your life in terms of asking yourself what you love... but instead, what you hate. In other words, what is it that appalls, hurts, and breaks you in the world? For her, it's human trafficking and slavery. I thought about it seriously myself, and decided for me, it's the thought of people wasting their lives. So in turn, taking those things we hate and see as complete injustices, we find however we can to live our life in a way that will impact and change that injustice or situation. I LOVE that way of looking at things!
Our purpose is simple. We're all called to love God and others. Period. But have you found what that looks like specifically in our lives is where it's gets a bit more complicated? That’s why I love this perspective. It can be so overwhelming when considering what we want to do with our lives and someone aks, “What do you love? What do you want to do?” Uhhhh... welll.... what if I love a LOT of things?? What if there’s a lot of things I COULD do? Now what??
Stop for a second and seriously consider this. What do you HATE?? I mean what truly, utterly, appalls you?
Got it?
Alright... here’s the cool part. Now flip it around. What can you do to solve it?Change it? Abolish it?
Any things coming to mind?
See the world has given us this twisted idea that “what we do with our lives” should be practical, comfortable, and mediocre. That way it’s “safe” and no one gets hurt.
ha, CLEARLY.
This lack of living is creating a walking dead.
So here it is: I HATE the thought of people wasting their lives. So I’m going for it. I am going to do anything I possibly can with my life to show people why they should live theirs. I feel like my PURPOSE, is to help other people find theirs. That’s what I want to do.
Whether you believe it or not... God has an AMAZING, passionate and fulfilling purpose for your life. You can take it or leave it.
For now... the questions stands. What do you hate? It just might be worth giving your life to.
3 comments:
May 28, 2009 at 5:48 AM
As I read this post, I was thinking about some of your other posts your user name ihateapathy. Even though you had just heard of it in this new perspecctive, you had already been going about it in that way. You may not have thought about it, but God had already been using you by using what you hate and trying to change it. Your post "from the shadows of death... to a life not wasted." is a great example that you have been going about it this way before ever hearing about the idea of doing it this way.
What I hate is people not EXPECTING God to do something during the service when they go to Church. It seems like every time I expect God to do somehting, He does, but on Sunday night, May 24, there was a message in tongues, but the person who God wanted to use to interpret it didn't do it. God had told me who it was supposed to be. Now I wish that I had talked to her about it after service. Since I didn't, next time God wants to use her, she may not be ready, or expecting Him to use her. Our new Pastor has been preaching on different things that relate to this, but last night he actually preached on how we need to be expecting Him to work through our services and through our service as God's children outside the Church.
Our new Pastor has also been used to heal those who did expect God to work in their lives. Several people had gone up for prayer, but not all were healed because not all expected. This couple, both were having back problems from working on the farm. Both of them were healed. Then the wife came back up a week or two later with shoulder problems. She was healed again. Someone came up with a cold. She wasn't healed. In fact she was still complaining about the cold the next Sunday. Someone else came forward with knee problems, but I don't know how she is. And last, but definately not least, someone came up a couple weeks ago with limes disease. Since them she has felt 100% better, except she was having morning pains. The story is she wasn't having any symptoms of limes anymore, but instead she is now pregnant. I belive that she was cured of an incurable disease. She hasn't seen the doctor to have him tell her she is healed yet, but we all believe that she is healed. She expected healing and that is exactly what she got. If only everyone in the Church would just expect God to do something like those who got healed, the Church today, as a whole, not just individual Churches, would see the Great Revival that is soon upon us. If you haven't read about the Azuza Street Revival about a hundred years ago, I encourage you to. During that time, two different people had prophecied sepperately that in about 100 years there would be another revival only it would be a much greater revival than any ever seen before. I believe that the revival that they were prophecying for this time is the "Latter Rain."
Before I get off topic any more, I will finish up here. Have a good day or evening.
Caleb
May 30, 2009 at 4:29 PM
Paige,
Thanks for the insight! I've been thinking alot about what I love and what God wants me to do. But now I realize I need to consider most what I hate.
A college rep group came to our school last week for chapel. They taught us a song "Complete in Thee". That is such an awesome thing to contemplate, because we really are COMPLETE in Jesus and only Him. Isn't it so sad that most people can't say that? Things would be alot easier for the tween and tennagers if they understood that concept. Considering that, I think your involvement with Ishine is pretty awesome! :)
Love you
-Delia
June 3, 2009 at 7:22 AM
Have fun this last weekend of tour. Only four more days of tour. It seems to go by very quickly. It seems like almost last week I was trying to get a tour spot around here. Well, have fun and don't forget to take pictures to post.
Post a Comment