My daughter has been doing a high school careers course. It is inspiring to watch her strive to understand her gifts and talents, and dream optimistically about her future. But how many of us have shared our dreams and been ridiculed or told “there’s no money in that”? How quickly we learn to hide our dreams deep in our heart, and settle for a practical, and sometimes soul-crushing, path!
God does not laugh at our dreams. Nothing delights God more than when we use our God-given gifts for God’s purpose. Whether our passion is for numbers or writing, building or art, counselling or cleaning, God wants us to use our talents to their fullest.
At each season of our lives we may take our shriveled dreams off the dusty shelf to revisit them – perhaps with regret, or perhaps with renewed resolve. For some a mid-life crisis may cause us to muster the courage to pursue our dream, having developed enough faith to step out into the fog, hand-in-hand with God, trusting that he will lead us safely in the right direction.
We may wish for a life-changing voice from the mountain top, and a clear view of our destination.
Chances are you have a copy of What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Nelson Bolles on your bookshelf. With ten million copies sold, you will find it in every bookstore and used book sale.
The exercises in his book will guide you through identifying your career direction and job search, but last chapter goes further. In my 2009 edition it is titled “Finding a Life that has Meaning and Purpose.” I commend it if you want to explore your mission on earth, God’s purpose for you.
And although we may wish for a life-changing voice from the mountain-top, it is more likely we will walk through the fog in faith, hand-in-hand with God.
As Bolles puts it:
When the question, ‘what is your mission in life,’ is first broached, and we have put our hand in God’s, […] we imagine that we will be taken up to some mountaintop, from which we can see far into the distance. And that we will hear a voice in our ear, saying ‘Look, look, see that distant city? That is the goal of your mission: that is where everything is leading, every step of your way.’
But instead of the mountaintop, we find ourself in the valley – wandering often in a fog. And the voice in our ear says something quite different from what we thought we would hear. It says ‘your mission is to take one step at a time, even when you don’t yet see where it is all leading, or what the Grand Plan is, or what your overall mission in life is. Trust me; I will lead you.’
Seeker of Wisdom 