Maureen and I, along with several other couples, are going through Tom Stephen and Ginny Starkey’s devotional Fearless
Do you sense that God has a purpose for your life?
Are you willing to humble yourself and ask God to reveal that purpose to you?
Questions about purpose have bugged me for a long time now. Maybe this is just something that goes along with middle age. Like bad knees and hemorrhoids.
I’ve long had a nagging feeling, a compulsion perhaps, that I should be using my unique gifts, talents, and fairly specialized knowledge for a higher purpose. Yet every time I’ve answered a call to serve at church, my unique gifts seem to be as helpful as taking an accordian on a deer hunt.
I shared with the group that I’ve been asking God for clarity of mind and a specific direction for a long time. And I’ve reached the point where I don’t want to ask any more. As a matter of fact I’ve not only asked, but I’ve pleaded, prayed, fasted, wheedled, groaned, whined, bargained…everything short of offering God money. No, wait. I did that too.
No clear answer. Nothing.
Maybe this whole fascination with purpose-driven living is just a cultural hiccup, and maybe it misses the point.
John Eldredge, in his book Wild at Heart
The call of God can never be stated explicitly, it is implicit. The call of God is like the call of the sea, no one hears it but the one who has the nature of the sea in him. It cannot be stated definitely what the call of God is to, because his call is to be in comradeship with himself for his own purposes, and the test is to believe that God knows what he is after.
How would that look to be a comrade with God? God’s fellow, associate or…my favorite, drinking companion?