Searching for Purpose.

Many of us have lost things along the way. We have lost our phone, our wallet, our keys…our minds sometimes. And so we go looking for these items that have meaning to us. I have spoken to many people over my ministry career who have a feeling of lostness. They feel they are living everyday with no real compass. They don’t feel satisfied in the their life choices and direction. They want to know what is the meaning of their life? How do they discover their purpose?

King Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes 2 that he’s gone down every road available. He’s tried every earthly thing. He experienced pleasures of all kinds, had all the money and stuff he could aquire. He had so many relationships and sexual encounters. He used his creativity to build things that would outlast him, one of which was the temple in Jerusalem. He was an international celebrity and enjoyed being a house hold name for the world. And then King Solomon said that none of it mattered or brought him satisfaction or made a real difference in his life. He said it was like chasing the wind….all meaningless.

It is meaningless unless you have God in the priority position in your life. The only way you will satisfy the aching spot in your heart is to find your purpose in God and His story. So, how do I find my purpose in this life as it relates to God?

Paul told us in Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” We are reminded the same hands that created the universe…the same hands that knit you together in the womb of your mother are the same hands that want to show you your purpose. And in order to discover your purpose, you must hang out at the intersection. So you ask, “What intersection?”

There are four roads that lead to helping you answer the question of your purpose and if you stand at the intersection of those four roads, you’ll figure out your purpose.

The first road is answering the question, “What brings God glory?” John the Baptist said in John 3:30, “Jesus must become greater and I must become less.” Live life in such a way as to bring God glory every single day, not just on Sunday. How are you using your time, talent and resources to make more of God than you do yourself? Everything outside this idea Solomon says is hevel or meaningless. Paul tells us in Romans 11 that everything we have and all that we are flows from God and is for God. What are you doing to bring God glory?

The second road is discovering your gifts. Paul gives us a list of spiritual gifts in 1 Corinthians 12. He tells us that each of us have been given at least one gift by the Holy Spirit. And when you master that gift, desire to lean into the other gifts as well. God was deliberate when he saw you in your mother’s womb and knew just exactly what to give you as a gift. What is your gift and how are you using it in God’s story?

The third road is discovering your passion. What is the thing you are very passionate about? For me, it’s preaching and kids and teenagers. Another way to word this is what brings you joy? And you know it’s your passion when you discover it’s not being done and it creates an emotional response in you. So on mornings I’m not bringing the Word, I miss that piece of sharing God’s story. When I see children or teens being mistreated, it gets me agitated. So what are your passions and how are you using those in God’s story?

Finally, the fourth road is where are the open doors? Find the places available to do things you are passionate about. You’ll feel the Holy Spirit nudging you at your place of employment, in the places you live, play and worship. How are you using your gifts and passions for God’s glory in the places where there are open doors?

If you don’t know what your gifts are, ask someone close to you like a spouse or a close friend. I promise they will tell you what they see in you if you ask.

And you don’t need an army to accomplish living everyday into God’s story. What I see in the Bible is this formula: God + You = enough. When you surrender to God’s story the only power you need is the power of Almighty God.

So let the maker give you meaning. Once, I couldn’t get my Apple computer to do what I needed. After working with it half a day, I finally took it to the Apple Store and in about a second, they had it functioning at its full potential. So also, when we surrender to our Maker, he’ll help us function at our full potential.

You want to find purpose in life? Solomon tells us you won’t find it in anything the world is offering you. You’ll find purpose in God, our Maker at the intersection of God’s glory, your giftedness and passion, and open doors. But you must be brave enough to listen and then act. Blessings on your journey.

Finding Your Way

Ecclesiastes is the perfect book of the Bible for our current cultural times. King Solomon, the wisest man to ever live, is looking back on his life and offering sage advice for the people who are listening to him. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon will help all of us answer two questions that we all have: What’s the meaning of life? and What’s my purpose on earth?

Each of us get so caught up in the rat race of gathering “stuff”. We do things in our life that we think is going to fulfill us and satiate us. We amass money, relationships, sexual encounters. We get caught up in food, alcohol, pills. We think all of these things will satisfy us. Solomon says he’s tried all of that to the “nth” degree and all of that isn’t it.

Solomon was so rich and powerful, he had the ability to pursue every possibility to find joy and happiness in them. At the end of his life, with all of his life experiences, he lets us know as we are on life’s journey, we could do one of three things on the road we travel on.

If we are not careful, we could end up in the ditch of fatalism, believing nothing really matters. You can try to fill your life with money, sex, substance, or the party scene because you’ve resigned yourself to nothing really maters. But Solomon is telling us, he’s tried all of that and it’s like chasing the wind.

He says we could also wind up in the ditch of humanism which just makes everything about me. It’s an egocentric lifestyle that screams my weekends are about me, my relationships are about me and my goals are just about my self-fulfillment. This way of life says we are out to tantalize all five of our senses. It’s about self-actualization. But Solomon says God wants to get you off that hamster wheel.

Each of us have a God-shaped hole within us. That space draws us closer to God when we let it. And when we decide God’s call overrides what the world says, we begin walking on the road of faith.

Solomon is telling us, he’s tried everything and the only thing that brings joy and happiness, the only thing that satisfies, the only thing that affirms our purpose is God. No amount of money, sex, pleasure or prestige will ever amount to what God will do in our lives.

A.W. Tozer wrote in “The Pursuit of God”, “It is not what a person does that determines whether their work is sacred or secular. It is WHY they do it. The motive is everything. Let a person sanctify the Lord God in their heart and they can thereafter do no common act.”

You don’t have to have 14 degrees or a boat load of money to have purpose. You don’t need to find importance in your relationships or power in your sexual exploitations. You don’t need to be a king or president to find significance. You simply need to follow God.

It’s in God you’ll find purpose and meaning. It’s in him you’ll discover peace and a life that is satisfying. Don’t chase the wind but chase after the God who created you and loves you. Blessings on your journey.

Leading with Purpose.

As leaders, we face the dichotomy of leading and being vulnerable. When this happens, we can so quickly forget about trusting God. We feel like we are unable to be vulnerable because we are leaders. The irony! Our self-confidence slowly dwindles and we soon shrink into a state of isolation for fear of being identified as unfit to lead. By not trusting in God to provide for us we decide to honor ourselves rather than our Creator.

Our lack of confidence resides in our inability to trust in God. Our failure to trust Him stems from our fear of losing control. Control gives way to the very nature that leads us to impulsively steward our lives into a direction we often deem appropriate. Many times this course is way off, leading to frustration, doubt, and a misunderstanding of God’s provision and plan.

Our Perceived Purposes Are So Different From What He Intends.

Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

We can lead with utter self-assurance and perceive our success to stem from our own genius. Or we can be attune to His leading, aligning our lives with His purpose and receiving promised assurance of hope and peace as we are a part of leadership. The only way to do this is to stay in close communication with Him, always expecting to find His guidance in one way or another.

Make Your Plans, But Know that Ultimately They Are Futile.

Isaiah 5:10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater.”

Leading our congregations or teams should always be accompanied by clear goals and planning. Without a vision, we have no foresight. Without a goal, we have no purpose. Without planning, we inevitably set ourselves up for failure, as unexpected outcomes will arise. That said, our perception of planning should always be based on a desire to include God in it all. In our position of leadership, we have to rely on our Creator, who through His Word can and will show us how to best lead and prepare. Although we cannot predict the outcome, He already knows it!

A Calling With A Purpose.

Isaiah 55:11: “So will my word be that goes out from my mouth; it will not return to me empty, but it will accomplish that which I purpose, and will succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Our time as a leader is limited. Whether in church, at home, or at work. When we lose sight of why we were called to this position in the first place, we run the risk of failing to persevere until the end. Along the way, we miss out on countless opportunities to see God’s provision and leading first hand. When we look at our circumstances and get focused on outcomes, we fail to recognize the extent of our calling. By placing us in a leadership position, He also made a promise that his Word will go out and not return empty. He promised that He will accomplish what He set out to do. Leading from this understanding will give us so much perspective and help us to build confidence, not in ourselves, but in His ultimate plan.

So, whether you are leading in your family, in your workplace, in your community or in your church family, do so including God in all your plans. May God bless you on your journey.

Beating Depression.

Elijah was one of the greatest prophets in Israel’s history. He saw God work by providing water and food when he was hiding out. He saw a little boy resurrected. He saw fire from heaven which melted his altar. Elijah saw prayer answered in the moment when rain came after a three year drought.

But even when you see power, position, and praise in your life, it’s possible to slip into a disappointed and a depressed lifestyle. When you read the story of Elijah (1 Kings 17-19), you see God’s power clearly in his life, just as he did. But in 1 Kings 19, Elijah makes some mistakes that lead him into a depressed state. We can learn from his mistakes and intentionally move into a healthy state of mind.

There are four things that lead to a depressed life and the first is that you can wear yourself out. We live today with no margin in our life. We hit the ground running in the morning and don’t stop until we drop into bed late at night. Each of us have our own burdens to bear along with our friends and family who want us to walk with them through their own difficulties. We try to balance our lives and do everything possible to not be left out or behind.

Secondly, we can shut people out. Many of us keep our closest family and friends at arms length, saying things like, “You’ll never understand what I am experiencing”, “I can’t tell you what I’m going through.”

We also tend to focus on the negative. Like Elijah, many of us dwell in self-pity. And we know self-pity exaggerates reality. We say things like, “I’m never going to get better”, “I will always have this addiction”, “I’ll always be stuck in this lifestyle.” Which leads us in the direction of the final idea…

We can forget all that God has done for us. God had provided Elijah with water and food. With God’s power, he had raised the dead. Elijah had seen fire from heaven convict an entire nation. But in chapter 19, Elijah thinks God is not going to help him anymore and he finds himself running away.

So, what is God’s prescription for our depression?

When you read 1 Kings 19:5-16, we see everything as God wants us to see. The first thing God calls us to is to eat and rest. For some of us, the most spiritual thing we can do right now is rest. Jewish culture was built around the 10 Commandments and one of those was to keep the Sabbath. Americans do not practice rest. We run all day long, seven days a week. God calls us to build in rest into our weekly calendar. God calls us to rest in order to be at our healthiest.

Secondly, God replaces our lies with his truth. Elijah says that he’s the only one who is left for God and that is not true. 7000 Israelites had never bowed down to an idol. Elijah is taking on responsibility that was not his to take. For many of us, we hear the lies our enemy tells us everyday and speak them to ourselves as if they were truth.

But Scripture tells us that all things are possible with God! That if we have the faith of a mustard seed, we can move mountains. Paul reminds us to take every thought captive for Christ.

God had showed himself to Elijah through fire and miracles but suddenly God appears in a still, small voice. Sometimes when we are at our lowest, God speaks the softest. Many of us are hurting today. We experience relational hurt; the loss of a life companion; the shortness of a bank account; the hurtful words of a co-worker. And in those moments, God is saying quietly, “I’ll never leave you”, “I am right here”, “You are enough.”

Finally, God gives Elijah something to do. You see, we are people who need a purpose. God tells Elijah to go back and do what prophets do. God is calling you into purpose as well. Each of us has a gift or talent and we are called to use it in Kingdom work. Whether it’s patience or mentorship or kindness or love, use it to the glory of God.

We beat depression by resting, replacing our lies with God’s truth, listening to God’s voice even when it’s quiet and discovering what God has called us to do. Alone, we are powerless. But with God we can do anything. Blessings on the journey.

The Power of Prayer

Have you ever prayed for strength and power to be present in your life? My guess is most of us believe in the power of prayer but know we don’t nearly pray enough. There may be many reasons why we don’t. Maybe you’ve heard others pray eloquent prayers and thought you couldn’t possibly measure up. Other times, you start to pray but you’re ADD kicks in so the ding on your phone gets you off track and you don’t finish your prayer.

I do think we have two major mistakes when we pray. We pray way too small and way too general. It’s probably because we don’t want to be let down. I mean, what if I pray and God doesn’t grant my request. I don’t want to risk it so we keep everything generic.

But we serve a God who goes before us (Deuteronomy 31) and who levels our mountains (Isaiah 45). Jesus said it you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. Paul said we serve a God with whom all things are possible. I wonder if we are undercutting our God by praying too shallow.

Paul wrote the house church in Ephesus from a Roman prison cell in 60AD. In the first 3 chapters of Ephesians, Paul reminds us what God did for us. In the last 3 chapters, Paul reminds us the type of life practically that we are called to live because of what God did for us. Right in that transition in chapter 3, Paul prays for the church, and us, to be empowered with the incredible power of God and the indwelling of his strength.

Paul in Ephesus 3:14-20 reminds us that we have every possible resource from our God to accomplish what comes our way everyday. Paul also said in Philippians 4 that God would meet all our needs through His glorious riches. Yet, you and I pray as if we are impoverished children. God wants us to ask for the good things which He will give us as it falls into his plan.

In this section of Ephesians, Paul uses the word “power” multiple times. The Greek word Paul uses is the same word we get the English word “dynamite” from. It means we have access to the miraculous, explosive power of God through prayer.

Paul’s prayer reminds us to be rooted in love so that we may have the power that only comes from God. When we are rooted in Jesus, we are able to live into the power of His glorious riches so that we have the ability to love the unlovable, be patient with our coworkers, and stay calm while others are abrasive in their interactions with us. We can do that because the power of God lives within us.

Verse 20 Paul says that through Christ, God can do more than we can imagine in our life. So my prayer for you is that daily, you pray the power and strength of our God dwells in you. Be specific for what you pray. Be bold and ask for things that only God will do. I know prayer changes things. I have seen it in my own life. May you pray with passion and may the Spirit of God dwell in you. Blessings on the journey.

On Purpose!

We’ve all had those moments when we intended to do something but never got around to it. We meant to clean up the back yard but it was easier to sit on the couch and watch TV. We meant to send thank you cards but never got to the store to purchase them. We meant to get healthy but it was so easy just to go through the fast-food drive through for dinner.

Psychologists have a phrase for that kind of action. It’s called the intention-action gap. It’s the difference between what we say we will do and what we actually do. And if you are like me, I find myself living in the gap too many times.

There is a story about an eight-year old boy who becomes king of Judah. His name is Josiah. His story is found in 2 Kings 21-23. He had ever opportunity to live in the gap but chose to follow God. His grandfather, Manasseh, created idol worship throughout all of Judah. Then Josiah’s father carries on that ungodly legacy. But we find Josiah decided…intentionally…to follow God. He tore down and obliterated all the idols and idol worship in Judah and brought his people back to God. That kind of action doesn’t happen on accident.

As we live our lives, we may find we really do want to be in God’s Word every day. We really do want to have a meaningful prayer life. We really do want to surround ourselves with good, wholesome people. We really do want to dedicate our income and material possessions back to God. We really do want to serve people like Jesus served people. But all those things will not happen by accident. You and I have to be intentional if we want that kind of life. So what did Josiah do to turn it all around?

Well, one, he had a responsive heart for God. He heard the Word of God read for the first time at age 27. It changed his heart…led him toward God. He allowed God’s Word to sink into his soul. He was a different man almost immediately. That’s called conviction. Being in God’s Word everyday will allow us to be pulled toward God and the life He wants us to live.

But Josiah also humbled himself. That’s probably the hardest thing for any human to do. To de-throne yourself and say that someone else has a better idea than you takes resolve. Jesus says in Luke 18:14, “Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” So, if we are to move in this direction how do we get there?

We ask for help. Josiah asked his mentors and friends to go to bat for him. So equally, I have 5 guys in my life who I’ve given permission to ask me hard questions, to kick me in the seat of my pants when I’m not acting like Jesus, to journey with me through the good and hard times. They are men I could call at 2AM and they’d be right there. They don’t judge me but remind me that there’s a better way with Jesus.

Finally, Josiah tore his clothes and wept. That’s a physical representation of a changed heart. So too our lives should represent that we follow a risen Savior. Our lives should look like Jesus in the way we talk, treat other people, honor our spouse, discipline our kids, in our work ethic…the list goes on. The world should be able to look at your life and say, “There is something very different about that person in a great way.”

So get out of the gap and live on purpose. Be intentional about how you live your life, knowing we are here to lift up the name of Jesus. He is our hope and Savior. Blessings on your journey.

Beautifully together

I love watching “How It’s Made” on Discovery Channel. Learning how things work is interesting. Every part has it’s place. Without a given part, proper function cannot be achieved.

The church is the same. Each and every one of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus has been given a gift. Some of us have multiple gifts. Each of us are called to use our gift to build up the church and be a light on the hill, pointing people to Jesus.

Regretfully, some of us are content with sitting on the sideline, allowing other followers to do the work of making disciples and serving those around us. Paul tells us in Romans 12, “Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all BELONG to EACH OTHER.”

Paul continues this idea in 1 Corinthians 12 when he says, “a spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.” Did you hear that? Each of us should be serving one another in love. Each of us should be in the game. Each of us need one another. If you are simply showing up on Sunday morning and not involved in using your gifts in ministry then you aren’t fulfilling your calling through Christ.

If each of us buy in to the life Jesus has called us, then we have purpose and help those around us. So, what do you believe your gifts are? How do you think you can be involved in the story of God? Write down three things at which you believe you are good. Then, ask three close friends in your life to tell you what you are good at as well (only one of those three can be a family member). Compare your list. My guess is a least one of the things on all those lists will bubble to the top. Dig in and help tell the story of Jesus. Today is tomorrow. You can do it.