DEAR BOUNDLESS ANSWERS
How do I find out what God wants me to do with my life?
REPLY
As I said in my previous entry, there are three parts to
answering your question, and you might visualize them as three
levels of a triangle. At the bottom, the foundation is this:
generally, what does God want from every person? Moving up
one level, and more specifically, what does God uniquely want
from males (at least in your case)? And at the top, and very
specifically, what does God want from you as an individual? This
top level is like your fingerprint, something specific to you as an
individual, a person uniquely crafted and gifted by God to
perform meaningful tasks of service to Him and to others.
In my first entry I addressed the foundation, God's call for
all people; in my third and last entry I'll explore a few tips for
discovering your unique giftings as an individual. But now let's
tackle level two, what does God want from you as a male?
Excuse the cliché of a sports analogy, but I really
think this'll be helpful. Think of your life as a football game. The
first 20 years could be thought of as your warm-ups —
you're getting ready for the game. The second 20 years is the
first half of play. During your 40's you make a few halftime
adjustments, so that your second half — 50 and beyond
— is strong and powerful. As a male (as is the case with
females too), in each stage of the game, you've been given
unique responsibilities, and you wrestle with unique challenges.
A man must avoid the two extremes — "boyhood" on one
side (immature and irresponsible) and what I call "achievatron"
on the other side (robotic, lifeless, working, bill-paying machine)
— and climb to the higher ground of manhood, marked
by responsibility and adventure.
What God wants you to do with your life as a male is found
in neither boyhood nor dead-man walking, but in a life lived
with "the end" (eternity, God first) in mind. This includes
accepting the responsibility of leading a family (rooted in a
marriage you actively nurture), leaving a godly legacy, and
having a great time in the process. He wants you to believe in
and fight for a noble cause bigger than yourself, and to
proactively craft your life adventure, rather than merely wander
through life, even as a so-called "success."
During the warm-ups you're going through a few motions,
getting a feel for what lies ahead, trying out a few habits, skills
and values that will come into play in the first half — such
things as purity, work ethic, leadership, service and the
importance of faith — while still under the safety,
protection and "inspection" of home. During the warm-ups you
gradually move out of boyhood and adolescence, typically
marked negatively by passivity and irresponsibility, and move
into manhood.
In the first half, which is where you are, you should begin
thinking more and more with "the end" (eternity) in mind, rather
than the "short-term" thinking of adolescence. It's when you
prepare for a vocation and/or ministry that will utilize your
God-given skills. It's where you pursue and become one with a
wife and begin leading a family in a great adventure.
God wants you to leave boyhood, reject passivity and accept
the responsibility of manhood, while guarding against the trap
of becoming a robotic, bored (and boring), bill-paying
achievatron, ground down by responsibility and deadlines.
The theme for the male life is being proactive —
proactive in nurturing your faith, in your pursuit of and intimacy
with a wife, in starting and leading a family, in living with
eternity in mind, in creating fun-filled adventures for you and
your wife and family, in pursuing a noble cause, and in leaving a
godly legacy that utilizes your unique design and giftings. I'll
explore this more in my next column.
Blessings,
JOHN THOMAS
* * *
If you have a question you'd like John to consider for
this column, please send it to editor@boundless.org. Please note that all
questions selected for "Boundless Answers" may be edited for
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