What We Were Made For

 “A flower never wonders what it’s supposed to do…it simply looks beautiful, it provides nectar and it receives pollen…that’s what it does. A bee does not wake up in the morning and say, ‘You know, this whole honey making business is just not very life-giving for me anymore. I really just feel like, maybe I should be doing something else. Maybe I’ll take a class on spinning webs so that I can catch insects…

A bee never asks that question. A bee simply wakes up in the morning and knows that it’s purpose is simply to pollinate that flower, extract that nectar and make honey. ‘That’s what I do, that’s what I was made for, I don’t question it, I don’t doubt it and it was never a mystery to me, I just knew it all along.’”

Why is it that lower forms of creation get the blueprint? They do exactly what they’re supposed to do with no need to be told. They just know and then they act. Yet for us high forms of creation, humans made in the image of God, there exists the need to be told what we’re supposed to do.

(Hipps, S., 2010)

 

Throughout scripture, there is a repeated theme: “the Lord came to and He said go”

 

• “The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.” Genesis 12vs 1

 

• “So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt." Exodus 3 vs 10 and then in vs 12 “And God said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain." Exodus 3 vs 4

 

• “After the death of Moses the servant of the LORD, the LORD said to Joshua son of Nun, Moses' aide: ² "Moses my servant is dead. Now then, you and all these people, get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I am about to give to them—to the Israelites.” Joshua 1vs 1-2

 

• “The word of the LORD came to me: ² Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:
  'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown” Jeramiah 2vs 1-2

 

• The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: ² "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." Jonah 1vs1

 

• “Jesus said to them follow me and I will make you fish for people.” Matthew 4:19-20

 

• “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, get up and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do.” Acts 9:5-6

We’re born with the freedom to do two particular things:

We have the freedom to discover what we were called to do and the freedom to not do that which we are called to do.

Why doesn’t God save me the angst and energy and just tell me what I am made to do?

It’s because of love.

God loves me, and love is about freedom.

Love has no strings attached. Love has no investment in the outcome. Love delights in the joy of my discovering something I didn’t already know. It’s like when a child discovers an Easter egg on Easter. Surely the joy would be far less if we told them where to find the eggs before they went to find them. There would be no joy in their discovery.

God works the same way.

He loves me. He wants me to be filled with joy when I discover what I’m made to do.

The part of this Easter egg metaphor that can’t be translated to me discovering what God created me to do is this: It assumes that God is hiding the eggs. It assumes that God is hiding our calling from us.

He’s not.

My sense of purpose is in me. It’s been there since the day I was born. Its part of who I am. Part of my uniqueness. And it is ALWAYS calling. But I am too distracted to actually hear it and respond to its call.

The ultimate problem is not that I don’t have a calling, because the truth if it all is that God would not have spent any time breathing life into a clump of dirt for no reason. There is a purpose. The problem is that the voice that is calling me is camouflaged and lost in life’s distractions.

For me, its pressure, its society, its culture, its the media, and it’s my own fears, my own internal voices asking if I am good enough.

I confuse these external voices with the real, true internal voice that I should be listening for. I am confused as to what the actual truth is.

The true voice, is always speaking, and it resides in the heart. Its language is far more distinct than the others.

The trick for hearing my calling: learn to discern between the external voices that seep into my mind, and the one true internal voice in my heart. Some of these distractions will always remain, some will be easier to get rid of.. 

It takes intention. It takes me setting my course. It takes time. Its not automatic. And I will get there.

God doesn’t need us to do any of this, though. He doesn’t need me to find my calling, He wouldn’t be upset if I didn’t. Why does He want me to do the things that I was made to do? Because He thinks I will enjoy it. He loves to see me happy.

What if we used a guitar as a wiffle ball bat. A guitar works just fine as a wiffle ball bat. It has a wide body, it’s light (enough), and the ball does what it was made to do- it sails through the air. The guitar and the ball are just fine interacting this way.

But, what if:

Instead of using the guitar as a wiffle ball bat, you placed it in the hands of someone who knew what it was made for and knew how to use it.

You can use a guitar for a lot of things…but there is one thing it was made for. Similarly, God can use me for a lot of things, but there are specific things that I was made for. When I find what I’m supposed to do, I’ll find the most beautiful song I’ve ever heard. It’ll be a brand new song, it’ll be my song. It will be perfect. The only reason for it will be to experience joy.

Maybe this new path will bring me money, maybe it wont. Maybe I’ll become significant; maybe I’ll become very insignificant. It won’t matter. Either way, I’ll be coming from a place of joy and gratitude. The song is playing, and it is beautiful.

I am totally searching. C.S. Lewis says: “What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.”I don’t really know where to go from here, except to be very open and honest and take one step at a time. I want to listen and look for opportunities where God can really use me to do something that benefits more than me, something to serve others with great fervor.

Cheers to the first step.

 

Hipps, S (2010). Wiffle Guitar. Mars Hill Church. Podcast [online]. [Accessed 08.2010]. Available from the World Wide Web: < http://marshill.org/teaching/2010/06/27/wiffle-guitar/>