September 13, 2006

My purpose in life

Men go shopping the same way they go hunting—with a target in mind and distracted by nothing as they pursue their objective. On the other hand, women go shopping and may never purchase anything. We like to look, get a feel for what is out there. If we go with friends it becomes a social experience. While my husband understands and even tolerates my kind of shopping, he’d rather hit the store, hit the bull’s eye, and hit the road.

This helps me when I read verses like Acts 13:2-3. “While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off.”

Some women are “called” to the mission field, but it is often men who experience a special calling from God that involves a career and the rest of their life. Yet I’d like a “calling,” an anchor, a single sense of what God wants me to do with my life. Wouldn’t this be easier than getting up every morning to a to-do list that has to be prioritized, or wondering if I am in the will of God when I do this chore or visit with that person? Why don’t I have a “calling”? Or did God give me one but I wasn’t listening?

Gender differences offer some help. Most men focus on ‘doing’ (which is why they try to ‘fix’ our problems instead of just listening). Women focus on ‘being’ (the right person, a loving wife and mother, a good example, and so on).

Of course there are exceptions, but doesn’t God know each heart? Doesn’t He know that the best way to challenge and develop an easily distracted person like me is to give a general set of directions for life and say, “Now be like Christ in whatever situation you find yourself”?

Every day I set goals to accomplish tasks trying to be a doer, and every day the Lord puts before me things I could call distractions or opportunities, for instance, an ill-timed phone call. Will it bring out a sweet, gentle response, or will I resent being side-tracked and bark a “don’t bother me now”?

If I had a “calling” would if make those challenges any different? Maybe I’d not be side-tracked by peripheral matters and focus on that one thing, but there would still be interruptions.

Even as I write this I realize that God did give me a calling. It is just as I said, to be like Christ. For Him, every day involved seeking His Father’s will for that day. Every situation was taken to His Father, every challenge meant finding out what the Father wanted Him to do.

Jesus’ calling was to seek and save the lost, to die for sinners. If can’t do that because it’s already been done, but I can seek the will of God every day, like He did. And if His will means giving up what I’d prefer, then like Jesus, I can say, “Not my will but thine be done.”

I may not have a focused target, a mission to accomplish, but He did give me a purpose. He calls me to glorify Him by responding to life as Jesus did.

My goodness, why am I whining that I don’t have a calling? What He did give me is way more than I can handle.

No comments: