Hello Friends,
Happy Saturday. Here’s your permission slip to follow the compulsions or forces that grab your heart and seem to move you in Divine-like ways.
Much love and let’s go drink more coffee,
Glenn || PATREON / BUY ME A COFFEE
The word "purpose" and "calling" are words that make my skin crawl.
I grew up in the Evangelical world where we took "spiritual gift" tests to determine what sort of gifts God had wired into our DNA, a world where we spent hours reading books (ex. Rick Warren's, "The Purpose Driven Life"), attending conferences, and listening to sermons and teachings and lectures that aimed to inspire us to figure out what our God-given purpose is on this earth.
There's nothing wrong with these things, I guess. I mean, it's good to have a sense of purpose in our lives and it's good to set up goals and things around those purposes along with the gifts and talents we have.
The problem with them, though, is that they can become too limiting.
Right?
I remember one time in seminary we were in a class and the professor challenged us to discover our purpose and to stick to it so much so that we said YES to every opportunity that revolved around that purpose and NO to anything that wouldn't help us advance that purpose in our lives and in our world.
"Some opportunities", he said, "will be good opportunities, but if they don't fall in line with your life purpose, then they aren't GREAT opportunities. Say no to the good ones, yes to the great ones."
A simple philosophy.
And I get the idea behind that, right? We only have so many years on this earth and we only have so much time to do the things the universe or God or whatever has for us to do. We can't say YES to every opportunity that comes our way because if we did we'd never really accomplish anything at all and will likely go the grave having done so many things that we really did nothing at all.
And so my point isn't that we should ditch the idea of purpose and just do everything that comes our way, but that we should consider following the things that grab our hearts in the moment even if they don't fall in line with what we think our purpose may be.
Has this ever happened to you?
For the longest time I insisted that my purpose on this earth was to be a pastor. Countless people told me that this was my purpose (because they could clearly see it in me) and deep down in my gut I knew that this was the reason God put me on this earth.
And so ...
I went to Bible College and got my degree in Youth Ministry.
I went to seminary and got a Master's in Church Development.
I did internships.
I went to conferences.
I earned a Preaching Scholarship in seminary.
At 26 I got a job as a Senior Pastor.
At 33 we started a church in our garage.
I was a guest preacher at a bunch of different churches.
I volunteered my time here, there, and everywhere.
... I thought being a pastor was the thing I was going to do with my life forever and ever and that I just needed to find that church or that ministry or that unique staff position where I would finally drop my wheels and land the plane for a good portion of my life.
But then one day I had an itch to start the What If Project podcast.
I was working on my dissertation which was about how THE CHURCH (I was set on being involved in the church in some way, shape, or form) could use social media and technology to connect with people and connect those people to God ... and I had this idea to start the podcast. My faith was evolving and changing inside and I felt like it would be a good outlet to flex some of my research and also give me a place to sort through some of my evolving ideas.
I thought about it.
I "prayed" about it.
I asked people about it.
... And, truth be told, I tried to push it to the back of my brain because it didn't feel like real "pastor" work.
"My purpose is to be a pastor, to be involved in church work - to preach, to teach, to do all the things. A podcast is a good idea ... but is it a great idea? Is it a lasting idea? Everyone around me in school is pastoring churches or leading denominations, they dress in suits and nice pants every day ... and I'm thinking of starting ... a podcast? What a loser idea."
I tried my best to discard the idea because I thought that maybe something better or greater would come along, but the idea grabbed me.
And continued to grab me.
And grabbed me more.
And more.
And more.
It was like a compulsion or an energy or a force that just wouldn't let me go.
I just had to do it.
And so I did; and 175 episodes and 3 years later - here we are. I've quit my job at Apple after 11 years of thinking it was just "temporary" until I got another church job and I now spend my days hanging out with Dana and Jordan, working on the What If Project, and helping other people with their social media presence.
(** Heck, some may say I'm still flexing the "pastor" muscle with what we do here. Maybe I am. I don't know. It's just not something I ever thought I would do and didn't fall in line with what I thought my real "purpose" was in the church and in the world.)
What I wanted to encourage you with today is not to get bogged down with trying to figure out what your "purpose" in life is and to (instead) be aware of the things that grab the attention of your heart and run with those things. Whether it be art or music or writing or mowing the lawn or cooking or spending more time with your family ... or whatever - follow the itch, let the energy and forces that you feel within push you and prod you into directions you may not go if you were to just stick with whatever you think or have been told is "the purpose" of your life.
I think those compulsions are God or the Spirit or the Divine, and I believe they are good for us and good for the world.
Do them.