Something Great

I’ve been thinking... Everyone is born with the desire to do something great. Right? This is a natural response to the fact that we are created by a loving God who has a specific purpose for each one of us. However, sin turned our original inclination to be great for Him into an aspiration to want to do something great for our own benefit. Now we believe greatness is about who we are, what we have and where we go with our lives. Greatness is based off personal success. Fame, fortune, position, power... 

How do we decide what is great? Who defines it? The world would say this depends on the individual and their talents. Each person chooses a career they deem most honorable and most rewarding. This, more or less, is how we seek to fulfill our inborn determination to be great. But why be great? Because deep within every person questions stir. Why am I here? Where am I going? Who am I? By having a meaningful vocation we believe we are giving something to society. This makes us accepted, appreciated... even needed! It makes us more than just another person. 

At nineteen I am constantly being asked, “Now what are you doing?”

“College.” 

“Oh, for what? What are you going to do?” 

What am I going to do? I don’t know. Oh God, I don’t know what I’m going to do! I’m nineteen! What will I do? Pleeeease help me figure this out. I’m ninteeen. 

Yeah, I’m nineteen and I don’t have a specific occupation picked out. Is it too late for me to be great? Some people act like it is. But don’t worry... Because I’m not worried about gaining position, possession or pleasures! What I want is to discover my God-given purpose in this life and carry it out. The reason I was created. When I achieve this I will experience real joy and fulfillment. 

Have you ever met a person who has discovered their God-given purpose? They are marked by determination and confidence in knowing who they are, what they are doing now, and where they will end up. This is what I want. 

So what I have to do now is not ask, what to be, but who to be. I have to better understand the value of time and how today will effect tomorrow. I need to be relentless in pursuit of God and His will for my life. 

Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God before ordained so we might walk in them.” I think this must mean before I was born He designated a series of works for ME to carry out. And I “walk in them.” Meaning as I finish one, the next opens up. I just have to trust Him.  Trust Him to open doors and open my eyes to see the open doors. 

I don’t want to set goals for my life with out God. I think when we do we set goals too low. Goals we know we can reach. I want goals I can’t reach without God. I want to always live completely dependent on Him because He promises that if I do He will give me the strength I need to get the job done. Yes please. 

Saint Francis of Assisi pretty well says it, “Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury; pardon. Where there is doubt; faith. Where there is despair; hope. Where there is darkness; light. And where there is sadness; joy.” 

Just how? As I walk in Him daily, I pray and trust He will reveal. 

This is where I am.