God Never Blinks: Lesson 13

DON'T COMPARE YOUR LIFE TO OTHERS'. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THEIR JOURNEY IS.



Quotable Quote: "Life is like a poker hand. You don't get to choose the cards you are dealt, but it's entirely up to you how you play the hand."



In this lesson, the author talks about finding your purpose in life. Your purpose and not someone else's. Often we compare our lives to others, and think everyone else has it so much better. Someone else's job is so much easier, or more lucrative, or more rewarding. Or, if they happen to have the same job as you, then they do it so much better.


Some would describe "vocation" as the job you are required to do in order to pay the mortgage, cover the bills, and provide food and clothing for your family. Frederick Buechner defines the ultimate "vocation" as "the place God chose for you......it is the intersection where your greatest joy and the world's greatest need meet." If only that could be true for all of us. To know that what you are doing with your life is both a source of personal joy and a source of joy to those around you.

To find that purpose, I guess you ask yourself two questions

1. What brings me the greatest joy (apart from being a wife and mother)?
Looking back on my life, I tried to remember the activities I was involved in when I was most happy. As a child, I spent a lot of my free time reading books and writing stories, songs, and diary entries. In high school, my happiest times centered around performing in the Jazz Choir. In college, my favorite classes were Journalism/Literature and Psychology (I almost had enough credits in Psych. to get an AA degree). In my adult years, I've found joy in promoting adoption and orphan care, (trying) to decorate my home, and, well, writing this blog.
2. What need can I (or do I most desire to) meet in the world around me?
I entered college as a Social Work major. I was determined to work for Child Protective Services. Until someone who actually did work for CPS spoke in one of my classes. She told of how difficult the job was emotionally, how you had to be able to shut down your emotions at the end of the day or you would go crazy. She shared how you could do everything in your power to try and save an abused or neglected child, and the judge would just turn around and give them right back to their family. And you had to learn to be o.k. with that. I couldn't. So I switched my major to English my sophomore year. But my heart still hurts for the hurting child. The other need my heart is closest to is that of the orphan. There are 143 million orphans worldwide growing up without a family. Many or most of these children will end up on the streets as prostitutes, criminals, or drug addicts when they are turned away from the orphanage as teenagers. A large percentage of them will commit suicide. Here in America, foster children face similar statistics.

So, taking all of this information into account, it looks like my "vocation" would involve something in the area of music, writing, and meeting the needs of hurting children. I don't pretend to know exactly what that is yet, nor do I know if it's even possible to have a "vocation" when I am in the midst of raising my children and taking care of the needs of my household. But the words of Steven Curtis Chapman ring in my ears: "There's more to this life than living and dying, more than just trying to make it through the day." I'm anxious to start discovering that place God chose for me.....where my joy and the world's need meet. What greater goal could there be in life?