Sunday 10/19

Let’s jump ahead 27 years (dang!) and now I was going back to school to get my master’s degree in School Counseling; I had found my calling and my passion. I think

I must have read every single page of every single textbook I got. (Well, let’s just say every page of every counseling textbook, the education textbooks were really quite boring!). Knowing what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, really knowing, gave me an entirely new outlook on academics. I wasn’t here just to get my Master’s. I was here to learn how to be the best school counselor that I could be. This passion drove me to do my best every day. And if you haven’t guessed by now, yes, I finished my Master’s in School Counseling with a 4.0 G.P.A. and a notation on my diploma celebrating my graduation with “Highest

Distinction.” It meant a lot to me to get that 4.0, not just to prove to myself that I could, but it proved to me that this is where I belonged. This was indeed my passion and I had just proved it to myself. That was my motivation. What’s yours?

What is your motivation? Can you get 100% motivated to serve yourself? Possibly, but if we are comfortable where we are, do we really find the value sometimes in working hard, especially in those seasons where we are currently content? What about others? Can we find the motivation to give 100% commitment to others? Maybe. What do we get out of it? Is there a reward for me after all the effort I will put in? Do we think there may or may not be, but it’s probably a good thing to do anyway? Maybe it might make me feel better about myself. It might make others think that I am a good person. It might stroke my ego thinking that I was somehow better than the ones I was helping. Sure, I can probably go 75% “all-in”, that’s doable. I have other things going on in my life you know, 100%? That’s a bit much! I mean who has the time and the resources to go 100% “all-in” for anything? 

How about this, can you find the desire and motivation to go “all-in” for God? “Whoa! Easy there! Don’t go trying to lay some heavy guilt trip on me now!

So, if I say “No” does that make me a bad person? 100% “all-in” for anything is asking the near impossible. That’s everything you know! 100%! There isn’t any more left for me! Is there a huge reward at the end, and heck, why not this too, is there a huge reward –during- this journey?”

These are all normal questions and reactions many have when they are seeking growth and purpose and the discovery of where their destiny lies. We want to know there is a reward, and not just a ‘when it is all over’ or a ‘when it’s all said and done’ reward, but a reward for the journey itself. A journey that promises a reward at the end is a journey with a purpose, not just a meandering through who knows what. It is a journey with a plan. But, if it’s a God–led journey, it is also a noble, spirit-and-soul building journey. It is a journey full of apprehension, trials, joy, heartbreak, frustration, peace, struggle, triumph, contentment, and growing self-worth and self-actualization.

It is a journey so full, so challenging, so enriching and character developing, that you will wonder why you ever spent your time doing anything else. The journey will be one of self-discovery. Where has this person been all these years? Why wasn’t I trying to understand the ways in which God has gifted me long ago? I am finally enjoying what I do. Is it easy? Hardly. Many times, when I come home, I am emotionally drained. But I have the satisfaction of knowing that something I said or something I have done that day may have been just what someone needed to get them through a trial they could not get through on their own. I am enjoying what I am doing now because I am working my passion. And, truth be told, it doesn’t even feel like work. I feel it in my gut and I understand the reasons why I am where I am, and why I am doing what I am doing. I see how God has taken some of my past life events and life decisions has molded them to lead me to this place. 

I have made a core foundation of my life the Bible verse that says that God works all things for the good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). I now understand His purpose for my life during this current season. His purpose is to bless me as I praise and glorify Him. I can make mistake after mistake, and poor choice after poor choice. But, God’s love for me does not end at the start of my poor choices. I love God and He takes these poor choices and pulls good out of them and directs me toward the place of my passion; the place where my God given gifts can benefit me and others.

My message to a Christian friend when she was facing an uncertain decision:

 

Remember 8:28. It’s all gonna be ok. Better than ok. It’s all gonna work out for your

good! Whatever happens. Even if you don’t listen to Him, even if you are unsure of what you are exactly supposed to do, whatever happens, He’s got this!

 

 I understand and now know that the direction I was traveling presented me with difficulty and frustration because I was traveling the wrong path. I wasn’t traveling along my gifted pathway.

Let’s say for example I am a carpenter and I build houses for a living, because maybe that is what my father taught me to do. I don’t dislike my work, but it doesn’t excite me to come to work every day either. Yet every time I am putting up a wall, I can’t help but look at the mason and admire his creativity and workmanship. What if that stone wall bordering the driveway makes me want to give it a try? I may be a good carpenter, I may be a real good carpenter, but is life more of a struggle or more of a blessing? Do I wake in the morning looking forward to what the day will bring, or do I roll out of bed as I do every other day, uninspired? Do I wake up before my alarm and tell the day what I am going to accomplish, or does my alarm wake me up and tell me that I need to get going? I am not saying that the journey of our passion won’t have its ups and downs, or that overcoming challenges, or working harder at something won’t make us better at whatever we are seeking to accomplish. What I am trying to convey is that to be fulfilled you need to have that passion. You have to want to get up in the morning. You need to wake up before the alarm goes off.  You have to want to. You need to be saying to the day “Good morning! Let me show you how great I am going to make this day!” You don’t need the alarm to be jolting you out of bed and saying “Get up! Let me show you what you are going to be doing today! Like it or not!” You need to be the one that sets the course and the tone for the day. You need to be one that looks forward to the day. You need to have passion in your life.

You need to be excited to get out of bed and to have a day to look forward to. You need to be in love with your life!

For seventeen years, I worked as a UPS driver. Big Brown. Up and at ‘em. Let’s go. Move it out. Get in early. Hurry up. Work harder and faster. And oh yeah, be safe! (Maybe a little venting there!) I could probably count on one hand the number of days that I looked forward to going to work and not wanting to call in sick. I am not saying I had a bad attitude, because I didn’t; nor was I not fun to be around, because I was. I actually enjoyed 90% of the people I worked with and delivered to. But the job was exhausting. It just wasn’t where I was supposed to be. It was not my life’s passion. God did not birth me to drive a truck. People are called to any variety of profession and this is certainly not a judgment on whatever profession people may choose; this just wasn’t mine. And even then, after seventeen years I still wasn’t seeking my passion track when I left. I was just living day- to- day and week- to- week like the majority of people. I’ll write later on about my personal journey of discovery, but for now, I’d like to try to encourage you to be bold with your life. You only get one! Don’t you think you would enjoy life better if you spent it doing something you loved? 

Don’t get stuck in a job just because it pays the bills, is easy, convenient or secure. Though even after we finally discover that our passion lies elsewhere, we may not be able to just pick up and leave. More times than not, that is not an immediate option. Let’s be realistic. We have bills to pay. We have responsibilities. We may have a family to provide for or we may be ill-prepared either financially or educationally at the moment to just jump out of where we are into something else. But if we have taken the time to identify our gifting and our passion, we should begin to explore the steps we need to take to make this change happen. Where can we take this passion? What are the available opportunities? What are some opportunities I can make myself or get help making? What do I need to do to start this process? Do I need to go back to school and get a degree, and if so how do I pay for that? Do I need to work a couple of nights a week, or on the weekend with someone to learn a trade? Do I need to do the same with an organization to get my foot in the door? Do I need to network and make connections? Whatever we need to do, we need a vision for how this process works. We are never going to get where we are going without vision.