At the end of the school year, our grandson, River, who is nine years old, was asked to write about how he felt at the beginning of the year compared to his feelings at the end of the year.
The left side of the paper had a preprinted title “How I felt at the BEGINNING of the year”. The right side read “How I felt at the END of the year.”
On the right side, River wrote, “I wanted to leave.” On the left side, he wrote, “I wanted to leave, but more.”
Some probably find that answer sad. Not me. I found his response very humorous. In fact, I read it a few times and laughed every time. I’m laughing now! I thought he must take after me. The very best thing about every school year for me was that it came to an end! However, I was never clever enough to express my feelings about school as concisely as River. He nailed it!
The good news for River is that school days will eventually come to an end. The days, months, and years will then no longer drag on. As a matter of fact, after those slow school days, the years will fly by faster and faster the older he gets.
I’m not overly concerned about whether or not River likes attending school. He’s not the first kid who didn’t like school. The bigger concern is when he becomes an adult. Will he find a position in life he’s passionate about and enjoys? Will he be doing what it is God wants him to do? Will he find significance and purpose in life?
Significance and Purpose. Why am I here? What it is that I was born to do? For many people, this is elusive and never discovered.
Many years ago, I worked at John Deere in Dubuque, Iowa. I worked in the foundry. Most of the jobs there were hot and dirty. But don’t feel sorry for me. I paid my dues when I was first there. But then I got a position working in an air-conditioned office in the middle of the foundry. I enjoyed the job. Good pay. No thinking. Easy work. However, even though there was some significance and purpose to it such as feeding my family, I knew it wasn’t where God wanted me.
I’m fairly certain there were other guys, whom I worked with at JD, who were also not doing what they were put in this world to do. I suspect they never gave it much thought. But I do know some of them vocalized how much they hated their job and spoke often about retiring. If a person in his twenties, or even thirties, or forties, hates his job and is constantly looking ahead to the day he can retire, it seems to me he’s probably not doing what he was created to do.
How do we get to a point where we “don’t want to leave” and, as time goes on, “don’t want to leave more”? Here are a few things I've learned over the years.
First of all, we need to understand it’s not the same answer for everyone because none of us are the same.
Maybe you’ve heard it said that when God made you, He broke the mold. I don’t know that God has a mold He uses, but I do know each one of us is unique. One of the problems we have is thinking we have to be like everyone else. So people go out into life obtaining a cookie-cutter education, looking for that high-paying cookie-cutter occupation, so they can live in cookie-cutter habitation and drive around cookie-cutter transportation.
The fact is God doesn’t call us all to have the same schooling, employment, housing, or vehicle. God calls us to walk different journeys because He wants and needs people in every sector of life.
The Bible never says to follow the crowd and build up your little kingdom on earth. What the Bible does say is “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” and, also, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters”.
So in other words, if the Lord is your Lord, and the Lord is my Lord, then we’re all working for the same Boss.
• We don’t find our calling by comparing ourselves to other people.
we discover God’s call in our lives by listening to God.
Jesus said, “Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Matthew 13:9). God is still speaking to those who will listen. He speaks to us through the Bible. He speaks to us as we pray. He speaks to us through other people. He speaks to us in a small still voice. The Holy Spirit speaks to all of us who have a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
When I was a kid my mother would step out the back door and call my name when it was lunchtime. She would holler “FRE-E-E-E-E-D-Y” long and drawn out. I swear I could hear her voice from anywhere I was in our small town. One of the reasons I could hear her so well was because I was listening for her to call my name. I listened because I wanted to eat. And I listened because if I was late for the meal, I was in trouble.
“Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.” Hebrew 4:7
In order to find significance and purpose, you have to pay attention to God's voice. Don’t ignore it and don’t run the other way when God calls.
• If you want to hear God’s call, you have to be listening for His voice.
And then, finally, don’t let the world distract you.
What God calls you to might seem insignificant and without purpose. He might call you to some unknown corner of the world to serve Him without fanfare. He might call you away from familiar faces. He could call you there and keep you there until the very end of your time in this world. There will be those who think you are crazy. There will be those who will think your life didn’t count for much. There will be those who will forget about you when you go on the journey with God and never think of you again.
• If you’re where God wants you to be, doing what God wants you to do, your life will have significance and purpose regardless of what or where that calling leads.
1 Corinthians 1:27(LB) God has deliberately chosen to use ideas the world considers foolish and of little worth in order to shame those people considered by the world as wise and great.
I think it was Confusious who first said “Find a job you love doing and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” I’d restate it like this. “Find what God wants you to do with your life and you’ll be passionate about doing your job everyday for the rest of your life.”
Oh… and as for River, he seems to be enjoying his time off.
