I'm alive!

I asked a friend of mine--a strong and talented brother in the Lord--what the next chapter was for him, as one is drawing to a close and a new one is opening. He responded, "I have no idea...but there are so many needs, I feel like I could go anywhere and do anything."

So often we look for the need that's around us and try to fit into that...and sometimes I think that's a good thing, but usually I don't think its enough just to meet a need. Even doing that can leave a person feeling empty or burned out or frustrated. Is there drive in just meeting a need? Is there love? Is there passion?

There is this one quote that I think of probably more than anything else I've ever heard...honestly, it has stuck with me for years. I read it in a book called the Sacred Romance by John Elderidge back in college. He got it from somewhere, so neither of us can really claim it as our own, but I think I've subsequently tried to own it because its just that profound.

It goes to the very heart of a person's desire. It digs past obligation and duty and religion into the realm of passionate pursuit--to the very things that bring us to tears, make us laugh, and expose the raw reality of the self. It's an idea that free us from what we think we should do and moves us into what we were created to do--what we were made for. It transcends personal preference and, instead, draws from the very image of God that still resides within each person. It's an idea that drives us to be as honest as possible and to glorify God with all we have.

Don't ask what the world needs, but ask what makes you come alive, because what the world needs are people who have come alive.

For so long we've been dead in our "duty"...we've been doing what we think we ought to do, ignoring the truest and deepest desires of our hearts. Scripture says that God gives us the desires of our heart, yet we so often ignore those, instead serving in ways that might be really good, but really not for us. We say yes because it seems no one else will. We do the things that other people think we'd be good at...and they might be right...but is that really your passion, your love, your desire?

So if you love hiking, hike for Jesus. If you love music, sing for Jesus. If you love kids, play for Jesus. If you love to act, act for Jesus. If you love to cook, cook for Jesus. If you love football, play or cheer or watch for Jesus. If you love people, be social for Jesus. If you love building, build for Jesus. If you draw or paint or sculpt or write, be creative for Jesus. If you love to make money, give for Jesus. If you love to sell, sell for Jesus. If you love to laugh, crack up for Jesus. If you love to teach, teach for Jesus. If you love to heal, doctor for Jesus...

And boast about these things...glory in them...live it up as you do them. LIVE...BE ALIVE! Why boast and glory and live? Because He bought these good things for us on the cross...He died that we might live, and He gives us the desire of our hearts so that we might live full, and He longs that we live full because it makes Him look so good, and He looks so good because He is so good.

So if you are starting to feel outrageously bored or seeking direction or wandering what the in the world is next for you, ask yourself what makes you come alive. The answer might surprise you...and how He uses that might just be the most amazing thing ever.