LIVE Life
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Photo by Tirachard Kumtanom
How do you live your life? What is important to you, what motivates you? I’m sure we would all like to say something grand like finding a cure for cancer or ending world hunger, but really think about it. What is it that motivates your daily life? How do you spend most of your time and what do you think about most often? It takes money to make the world go round so most of us will include a work week in the answer, but even the amount of time you spend working can be a hint at what really motivates you or drives you. Perhaps the fear of failure keeps you working long hours to ensure your success. Or maybe it’s keeping up with the Joneses that has you working so much overtime that you lose all life balance. On the other hand, maybe you’ve given up on your career dream and settled into a job that does nothing but provide a pay check.
This isn’t about careers. It’s about really honestly considering the way we live our lives. We all get one life to live and we each get to choose how we’re going to live it. I hope this blog inspires us to not feel pressure but to be excited about life and realize that we can make a difference for the better. We are each unique and fearfully and wonderfully made by God. There are no two people exactly alike. God has prepared “good works” for us in advance which means before we were born. This means that we each have God given purpose for living in this world and that God created us with the giftings and abilities to fulfill our purpose.
Photo by Danica Tanjutco
One of the Life Coaching Certifications I earned was through Gallup. Gallup offers an assessment that evaluates a person’s top five God given talents. These talents can be developed and become strengths. These strengths can guide us towards our passions. My results absolutely lined up with what I’m passionate about; my faith and relationships. I’ve always journaled and 9 times out of 10 the subject was relationships and or faith. Hence this Simply Grace venture of mine.
I read a difficult article this week. It was written by a terminally ill 24 year old man. He communicated regret in the fact that he hadn’t lived his life in a manner that he felt made much of an impact on this world. It was his hope that in penning his message, every person who read it would consider his words and potentially live their lives differently, that we would at least consider the fact that the way we live matters. It was his hope that in this way he would leave a legacy that would change the world for the better. I want to honor his life and request by doing just that, living in a way that impacts this world for good and I challenge you to do the same.
Colossians 3:2 (NIV) instructs us to “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”
There are some people I’ve encountered in life that are “so heavenly minded they’re of no earthly good”. They are convinced this world is going to hell in a handbasket so they hunker down, play it safe, wait for heaven, and become very critical and negative. What a tragic loss of purpose. Or there are those who live with a false humility even though they may be unaware, and refuse the greatness they were made to live. And by the way, we are all called to greatness. That statement itself is scary for me, I’ll be honest. I’m a little afraid of that and it has no doubt affected my choices in life. At age 51 I can longer afford to play it safe and I’m choosing courage which is, doing it afraid. It’s not the absence of fear, but doing it in the presence of fear.
Tim Tebow recently wrote a book called This Is The Day. He says this, “There is something inside of all of us that pushes us to be great. While some will try to put these callings away because it elevates the self, if one realizes that these are God given dreams, and they exist to propel us to do great things for the Kingdom of God, then everything falls into its proper place.”
Photo by Jeremy Dorrough
The main message of the book is that this is the day to live your life. Stop saying “one day I’ll take that risk”. Do it now, do it today, because tomorrow is not guaranteed. I find it interesting that the day I am writing this particular blog post is the three year anniversary of the death of a beautiful young 16 year old boy John DeReggi, who was taken way to soon as far as this world is concerned. It’s a sober reminder that we do not know the day or the hour that we will leave this world and pass into the next. And like this 24 year old whose name I don’t even know, I honor John’s life by committing to live a life of impact and purpose in the way that God calls me to.
“For your heart will always pursue what you value as your treasure.”
Kris Vallotton is the Senior Associate Leader of Bethel Church and he shared about this same topic. He says, “When you were little, you knew you were born to be amazing. Think about what kids say when you ask what they want to be when they grow up--a princess, Spiderman, and the president are a few answers that come to mind. So what happens to us when we grow up? Why are we so afraid of being so big? You are not going to figure out who God created you to be in the comfort zone.”
If you watch America’s Got Talent you’ll recognize the video clip he shared as an incredible illustration. You HAVE to check it out.
Courtney was obviously very nervous but she faced her fear, stepped out of her comfort zone and revealed to the world that music and performing are in her bones. God gifted her with this talent and the passion exhibited during performance could not be more evident. We must follow Courtney’s lead and face our fear, not allowing it to rule our lives and keep us small. GET OUT OF THE COMFORT ZONE! What would it look like in our lives if we chose courage just like Courtney and shared ourselves, our purpose, our giftings with the world?
I dare you!
Photo by Kamil Pietrzak