03/05/2021
“FINDING YOUR LIFE” 🔎 by Yolind Gangerdine Noel
Matthew 16:25… But whoever loses His life because of Me will find it.
One of the key questions that drives us as humans, in our quest for belonging and identity, is that of purpose. What is the significance of my life? Why did God place me on this earth? What value does my life add? From the moment we are born, perhaps even conceived, there is much speculation about who we will become, what great thing we will do, which unique space we will fill. Throughout our lives, from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood, this becomes the motivation behind our efforts, energy and activity. Throughout our schooling, post-schooling and working years- the fixation is on this core thing- WHO AM I BECOMING?
I am in no way different to anyone in this regard as my entire life up to this point has revolved around the pursuit of discovering who God made me to be and more importantly, what He made me to do. Most of us want to know what our strengths are, where our gifts lie and what value we have to offer as we are desperately determined to carve out a niche for ourselves in society- a space where we are significant and dare I say indispensable. We crave belonging and spend years of our lives seeking our ‘tribe’ – the people who will recognize our greatness and celebrate our existence! More than anything, we want to live a meaningful, purposeful life that others deem important.
When I was in school, I had a very clear picture of who I wanted to become and much of it was based on apparent areas of strength that myself and others had identified in me. What others saw in me framed the picture I saw of myself. I worked hard to preserve the elements that I felt were good and to hide the areas that I thought would be unappealing. I performed well academically and derived great pleasure out of the recognition of my achievements, using these early indicators of success and strength to forecast the direction of my life and career.
We get so fixated on building a life of significance that we completely miss the essence of finding the significance of our lives.
Jesus demonstrates perfectly for us, the art to purposeful living- SURRENDER. It was in His obedient surrender to the predestined purpose of His life, that Christ assumed His ultimate role in the earth. He said, Lord if you are willing let this cup pass me by, nevertheless not my will but your will be done. Jesus expressed His preference for a different path in His life, yet He perceived that the One Who sent Him held the wisdom to reveal the best life for Him. It was a difficult path, to say the least. It was filled with opposition, persecution and trouble. But it was what He was designed for. He had the God-given capacity to thrive in His assignment despite the seemingly unfavourable environment. In fact, it was the unfavourable environment that He was destined to change!
I am learning more and more that we were not placed on this earth to be fixated on seeking out our purpose or striving continually to build a life of significance. Instead, we were sent here, to assume the roles that He predestined for us to fill. So often, our apparent gifts, talents, strengths and past victories present us with an obvious path towards our destiny. Yet the ultimate revelation of our calling lies in our preference for God’s choices for us. When we go directly to God to find out what He placed inside of us for the benefit of this world, we surrender the fragile plans for our lives that we have gathered from the speculation of outsiders. When we prefer Him, we prefer His wisdom, we prefer His plan. It is in laying down my preferences for the life I desire and opening my heart to receive His instruction, that the discovery of my true purpose lies.
How about you, friend? Does your life display your choices and who you have always believed yourself to be? Or have you been to the Father for your blueprint?
Ephesians 1: 11-12 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.
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