Living Life on Purpose

What course is your life set on? Based on your life’s current trajectory (the sum total of your actions and choices), where do you think you will be five or ten years from now. In one sense, it’s really rather easy to predict. But where do you want to be? The answer to those two questions could be worlds apart. If so, what changes are necessary to see the life you want, become a reality?

For many people the life they would like to live always seems elusive, just out of reach. Simply wanting something different rarely produces it. Here’s a profound truth: I am where I am today because I have planned to be here. Even more provocative, I am who I am today because I have planned to be. Think about it for a moment. No planning, by default, is a form of planning. It’s planning which approaches life in a “caesura, sera, sera, whatever will be will be”, kind of way. Granted, the future is not ours to see, but the future of our life is also inextricably linked to the choices, actions, and decisions we make every day.

God has created us with a significant role to play in the unfolding of our life and destiny. Part of what it means to be created in the image of God is exercising the freedom and ability, while assuming the responsibility granted us to “co-create” with him as it pertains to the unfolding of our life and its impact on others. Our lack of engagement in that partnership whether by unwillingness, lack of relationship or ignorance, has untold fallout for us and those our lives could potentially impact.

Granted, there will always be things that happen to us of which we have no direct control over. However, even our choices and actions in those circumstances play a role in the shaping of who we are and ultimately, in our destiny.

So, back to the question I asked at the start, “What trajectory is your life currently set on?” How intentional (proactive) are you being about the development of the kind of person you are or want to be? How intentional (proactive) are you being about discovering and apprehending your unique life purpose and destiny? Where do you want to be five, ten, fifteen years from now? If you continue down the track you are currently on, will it get you there? What would be the benefits to you and others if you were to become more intentional about your life?

What would being more intentional about your life look like for you? Who might you pull in along side of you that could help you clarify your intentions, develop a plan and help you maintain momentum along the way? All of us need the help of others at times. Who might you be able to lean on in this process?

Remember, life is a journey, a challenge, an adventure with outcomes that affect you and others in very dramatic ways. Engage it in such a way that the very best outcomes can be assured for the benefit of others and the glory of God.

The Gift of a Life of Substance

At what level do you find yourself living life most of the time? My guess is that the majority of us have come to live a large part of our lives on a rather shallow and superficial level. If we are in touch at all with the deeper thoughts, feelings and emotions of our heart, those things are probably rarely shared, if ever, with anyone else. Most of us have learned to either deny, ignore, dismiss, privatize, store, or compartmentalize those things that reside at the very core of our being. And the reasons we do so are varied yet common among us.

It is my conviction, however, this deeper level is the one from which we were meant to live, at least in some significant expression of our life. Connecting with another human being at this level is the essence of intimacy. It really is something we all hunger for.....something we were designed for. Without it, a very significant part of what it means to be human is missing.

That’s one reason why I find the Psalms in Scripture so fascinating on one hand and appealing on the other. Fascinating in the sense they appear so foreign to where many of us live our life…..appealing, because they strike a distant cord in our heart beckoning us to a deeper level of experience. Deep is calling to deep.

The Psalms were written by those who were in touch with the feelings and longings of their heart and were uninhibited in making them known. They wrote unabashedly about their fears, questions, inner wrestling and struggles, while at the same time revealed amazing insight into the nature, essence and goodness of God which could only come from first hand experience. These individuals knew what it meant to live life at a deeper level and as a result have passed down an incredible gift of substance for us who are beneficiaries of their writings.

From my angle, one reason we moderns tend to live life on the more superficial level is because we have buried the art of reflection in the busyness and noise of techno-laden, stimuli-filled modern living. There simply are too many things to distract, attract, entertain, and fill up every waking moment of our days. Hardly ever do we slow down long enough, or turn off the external stimuli to give much serious thought or attention to what’s going on inside, how we are doing, what might make our life more satisfying, or any other musing that could potentially drive us to a deeper level of living. And even if we are periodically successful at shutting off the exterior noise, the interior voices continue to rattle away uncensored.

One of the greatest gifts we can give to another person is a life of substance….one that is marked by a depth of content and character that has arisen out of a personal wrestling with the harder and more difficult questions of the heart and experiences of life. It is a life marked by an open hearted pursuit of God which has resulted in coming to know him intimately, not through a book, but in person. It is a life that has intentionally chosen to pursue life, and has found it, at a deeper level.

“Surely, you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place” Psalm 51:6

Self Fulfillment is Overrated

I’m a life coach. It’s my joy to sit down with another human being and help them figure out just what they’re on this planet for. One of the aims of life coaching is to see people realize their full potential and fulfill their unique life purpose. Explicitly, and implicitly, implied in coaching is the idea that personal fulfillment is at the end of the rainbow of realized potential and purpose.

Now, to a large extent this is true. However, when we make anything simply about us, personal fulfillment becomes a short lived, fleeting, and rather illusive experience. The simple attainment of goals is not all that satisfying, at least, not for very long. Something much more significant must be added to the equation for the results of realized goals to have their ultimate impact in the heart of an individual.

We humans have been hard wired to serve a purpose that is larger than ourselves. When the purpose we are pursuing becomes measurably shrunk down to the size of ourselves, we become gutted of that which was designed to grant us our sense of significance. Significance does not come from simply feeling good about myself and my accomplishments. It comes from a higher source.

We were made to make a difference in this world for the sake and benefit of others, and, ultimately, for the glory of God. A life well lived is one that has enabled others to live well. Our temptation is to grasp and run after personal fulfillment. In the end we lose it. But if, on the other hand, we give ourselves for a purpose that eclipses our own life, in the end we find it.

For whom are you living?

Image Is Everything

A number of years ago, now, Cannon put out a commercial with the catch line, "Image is everything". I remember thinking back then how that line captured the prevailing value of our culture. A few blogs back I wrote on how our American culture seems to be fixated on image - that outward or public view others have of us governed by the values of good looks, outstanding talent, noticeable accomplishments, wealth, etc., etc., often overlooking, or minimizing the issue of character. But there is another, far more positive, side to "image" I want to address.

In the book of Genesis, it is recorded that God made man and woman "in his own image". No other part of creation is mentioned as having this unique stamp. But what exactly is God's image? And, based on what we can know about God, in what ways were we created to be like him? Theologians have spilled a lot of ink attempting to answer those questions.

Now, before we become too pompous, on the one hand, or disillusioned on the other, one thing we can immediately put to rest is the idea that this image has anything to do with a physical resemblance. God is Spirit and does not possess the corporal or physical qualities of man.

In attempting to understand the image of the Divine we need look no further than the person of Jesus. Want a perfect picture of what God is like? Take a good long look at his Son. Jesus put it this way, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father". And as followers or apprentices of Jesus it is clear from scripture that we are in a process of being transformed into his likeness.

If Jesus is “the exact representation of his (God’s) being”, and, as his follower, I am being transformed into his likeness, it stands to reason, then, that the more I reflect Christ the more I am fulfilling God’s original intention and purpose for my life.

But, again, what did that original “likeness” entail, and in what ways or capacities is that image being restored in Christ? Most theologians agree that one of the most significant aspects of God’s image of which we were created has to do with a moral likeness.

Unfortunately, holiness and righteousness have, more often than not, received a bad rap due to misrepresentation. However, God's holiness is described as a form of beauty in scripture. God is actually adorned in holiness and righteousness. These attributes make him beautiful, attractive beyond words. When they are manifested in you and me, his, and thus our own beauty, is revealed.

Another way to understand God’s holiness and righteousness is to see it as that which is completely and utterly separate from and opposite to all that brings trouble, heartache, violence, misery, division, strife, and death to people and this planet. In other words, God’s holiness stands in direct contrast to all that makes life on this planet ugly.

But let’s break this down a little further. What actually goes into this moral likeness to God? When I think about this question my thoughts go back to Jesus. Descriptions come to mind like strong in character, capable of standing for what is right under opposition, courageous in speaking the truth, kind, compassionate, forgiving, powerful in doing good (that which truly benefits), clear sighted in terms of what’s really important, a man of his word (integrity), merciful, gracious, generous, powerful in word (speaks with the authority of first hand knowledge and experience), and loyal, just to mention a few.

Here’s the deal. The world is in desperate need of this kind of beauty. We were all created with the capacity for it. We’ve blown it, but Christ came to restore it. Now, in Christ that original beauty is being renewed. For those of us who have chosen to follow Christ, one primary purpose remains, to reflect his beauty in the world around us.

When we stop to think about it in these terms, image really is everything!