Do I Have to Analyze Everything?
Your purpose is not necessarily a goal that you work towards your entire life;
your purpose is the reason God breathes life into you every day.
Do I have to analyze everything? My answer to this question is slowly shifting. As a nine-year old fourth grader, I changed schools between the fall and spring semesters. This new school required a placement test to determine what grade I should finish the school year in based on my knowledge. With that said, I was placed in fifth grade for the remainder of the school year. The next year, I was able to skip sixth grade altogether. I was ten years old going into seventh grade. My family and I then moved to Texas, and I took yet another placement test, and I proved I was ready for eighth grade. I was a 12-year old freshmen, and I was a 16-year old high school graduate. I went on to graduate college and receive my Bachelor’s degree at 20 years old.
School is all I have ever known. Even though I participated in dance, gymnastics, cheerleading, and choir over the years, school was always my main priority. I was an extremely ambitious person, setting goals for myself and planning the next years of my life. I lived and breathed school because I genuinely enjoyed it. Education was my purpose. In college, and my first few years after graduation, I was a personal trainer. Education was my purpose. I am currently a homeschool teacher and tutor. Still, education is my purpose. Or so I have always thought. These words from James really changed my paradigm:
Come now, you who say, “today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
(James 4:13-15 NKJV)
I plan(ned) my life down to the minute. Productivity and perceived impact are my core. At twenty-five years old, I am beginning to realize a necessary truth: we are not guaranteed tomorrow. Though I have many precious memories as a child and young adult, I have felt a massive mindset shift into obsession with my future, so much so that I realized I wasn’t taking time to live the life God blessed me with.
For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your words, that my soul knows very well.
(Psalm 140:13-14 NKJV)
No matter how much I plan and try to control my life and my future, I understand that it is all in God’s hands.
It is important to take the steps necessary to ponder your purpose and create a plan of action without it consuming you. You must identify your purpose prayerfully. Take life a day at a time and live to share God’s love with the masses. Your daily purpose will build into your life’s purpose.
Reflection
Have you ever made a vision board or dream board? If yes, what items did you have on it? If not, take a moment to think about the kind of life you envision living. Write down the items you would put on your vision board.
Rate yourself on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 10 (strongly agree), do you think you’ve truly put life into your years? As you ponder this question, imagine a life where you listen to God’s voice to find His purpose in each day.
List a few dream launcher friends that can help you envision your future while still living for today. List friends and family members that are important to you. I would encourage you to reach out to these people.
Goals
What are three ways that you can shift your routine to-dos to bring more life into your days?
“Come now, you who say, “today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”
(James 4:13-15 NKJV)
For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your words, that my soul knows very well.
(Psalm 140:13-14 NKJV)