As somebody who coaches and mentors college students for a living, it’s so easy to get so busy with the daily responsibilities that you tend to ignore some of your own advice. I was thinking about that recently during a conversation with a student. In sharing my thoughts with him, I suggested that he take time to recharge and to figure out what really motivates him in life. What is it that moves him in any given direction? Is it beauty? Is it step-by-step instruction? I concluded that conversation with this point, “Whatever it is you do in life, make sure you do it on purpose. Don’t let life pass you by in such a way when, 10 years from now, you’re looking back and you have nothing substantial to show for it. Make plans. Set goals for yourself. Dream big. See if God has something out there for you that’s bigger than anything you believe you could accomplish on your own. Live with purpose!”
After that conversation, I began looking at my own life. Sure, I have some things figured out. At the tender age of 33, I’ve experienced quite a bit in my life, so I think I have a little bit of wisdom to pass along to others; however, isn’t it easy to get stuck in a rut?
As a follower of Jesus Christ, you believe that God has a plan for your life, and with that comes certain responsibilities…the first of which is providing for your own family. Let’s face it, if you’re unable to provide your own family with the things they need: food, shelter, clothes, love, support, encouragement, sacrifice, etc., then is there any point in pursuing much outside of that? Let’s use Billy Sunday, the noted “baseball evangelist” as an example. Here’s a guy that had a serious gift of evangelism. He would travel to many different towns preaching the gospel. Brewing companies resisted him because those that were coming to Christ at his meetings were no longer drinking at the local pubs. Whole towns would be cleaned up, morally speaking. The products these towns and factories produced were of a much better quality, simply due to the fact that people weren’t coming to work hungover. Yet with all this amazing work God was using Billy to accomplish, his three boys were not Christians. In fact, his eldest boy, George, committed suicide just two years prior to Billy’s own death. I look at an example like that and I just shake my head. As a husband and father, I do not want to go down a road like that, where I’m successful and loved everywhere I go, except in my own house; loved by my own children. So, how can I learn to balance those things? Living with purpose…dreaming big, yet meeting my responsibilities at home. While I have become much more detail-oriented over the past 10 years, organizational skills seem to be as unattainable as catching my own shadow. I know it’s possible; I’m just having a difficult time figuring out where to start. My ultimate model is the life of Christ as lived out in the gospels, but I also see the life of Joseph, once he became overseer of the land of Egypt, as an example of what God can do with one life who is wholly devoted and submitted to him: Genesis 41:33-57
Alas, I know there is hope for me.
