08
April
You've Got More!
There is a time and season for everyone under God's sun, by the Authority of His Son.(Ecclesiastes 3)
Think about that statement...that is powerful. Every person on earth has a reason to be here. Without a reason there is little direction or determination to prevail upon the heart to pursue, anything. We all want to be happy, but happy is a state of mind and an attitude and has little to do with our circumstances. I've known in my life the richest of people and I have also known the poorest of people. I have known vastly happy, contented people in both ends of the financial spectrum. I have also known miserable people of both extremes. God's Grace, kindness, healing and restorative power is available to both. Just like our attitude, it is our choice to choose.
Everyone has a purpose, a reason, but not all truly know what it is. I speak about purpose a lot, but it is because I find it foundational. It is a key that unlocks the door to so many things in life. Without it, we find ourselves feeling idle or useless, even if we are accomplishing much.
- Reason is a key for happiness, for we are not truly happy unless we are abiding in our purpose.
- Purpose is God given, whether or not each man acknowledges Gods role in the process is another matter. Still, He is there.
- Purpose is a key to direction. When we have a purpose it shapes and sharpens our goals, commitments, expectations (of ourselves) and our choices. We can avoid time wasted on futile activities that do not sharpen our focus and direct us to our objectives when we know our reason.
- When we know our reason it grants us greater Vision. Vision is the "dream" the "goal" the task we set ourselves to accomplish.
I am a very task driven individual. This can be both a blessing and a curse, for I must focus to maintain the delicate balance of contentment in the process, but enough discontentment so I propel myself forward, working toward a goal (I like to check things off of my list!). I am also a visionary. My mind is always ahead to the future. I know that every day is an action step toward what I see in my minds eye. I have purpose, but I did not always know my purpose.
When I was a young woman, in college, I recall on many ocassion being deep in thought as I drove my car down the highway. I would ask myself thought provoking questions (a by product of being a very analytical thinker). A frequently reocurring question I would ask myself is, "what is the point? Why am I here and why should I care?" I really wanted to know the answer. I already knew and believed in God, but going to church and being a good person wasn't a deep enough "reason" for me. I had a good life, but something inside me was vastly discontent and this question perplexed me. I knew something down deep demanded an answer. Going to school, getting good grades, being "good", getting married, having kids...all good ideas, great ideas, but they didn't drive me. These typical activities of American life were things I knew I would do, but I wasn't content with the idea that that's all there was to "Nicole". I craved more, something deeper, something greater. I knew there had to be something greater still. It wasn't about being rich or famous, I am not easily impressed by such things. It was about significance. I wanted to do something that was going to make a difference, not only in my own life, but in the lives of others. I wanted to help people.
I did not discover the answer to this question over night. It was a journey full of puzzle pieces that slowly came together over time, until one day God hit me over the head with a two by four (not literally, that was an analogy) and I knew. I knew like I knew nothing else. I was born to heal. What that meant I didn't know, but every aspect of my life to that point began to make sense. Everything we encounter in life happens for a reason. Ultimately, all experiences, people, and relationships are meant to shape us and teach us, to prepare us and then for God to use us. We never arrive, we always learn and grow. I pray I never think I have arrived! I pray I would never become proud or haughty. Anything we do or achieve is because of the Love and Grace of God in His Tender Mercy. Every fruitful effort is by God's design because He had to bless it for the effort to be a success.
Here is what I know, God has allowed me to endure many things that lead me to ask, "why?". I now know why. I have had plenty and I have been left wanting. I have tasted abundance and I have had to dwell in poverty. I have experienced an entire gammet of unusual things. For each and every experience, I am grateful. Not because I had to walk through it, but because of what I learned from it. Some lessons are bitter sweet, but they are sometimes the most valuable lessons of all. Through it all, the value I have come to appreciate in my experiences is that I can relate to a broad spectrum of people from all varied backgrounds. A personal experience will always give greater compassion and empathy because "understanding" is there. When you walk through an experience (both good or bad) you gain experience and hands on knowledge. This is how God gives us "territory", an area that we can help others overcome or walk through their similar experience with loving comfort. Does this make sense? In the good and in the bad, God is there and He has purpose. Do not forget this...
God has purpose for you. You are greater still. Greater still! Just when you think you have nothing left and can do no more, God is right behind you saying, "I'm your number one fan and I tell you, You've Got More!"
God has a purpose and place for each person. Each has a design on their life to achieve something that only each individual has been hand crafted to do; their own identity that extends beyond a name. We are all in this together...Life. Unity is the glue of God's choice to hold us all together. I believe it makes the Lord's heart glad when we take the experiences of life, learn from them and then allow God to use it to glean deeper Passion, Compassion and stronger Witness. That by our experiences we learn to love each other harder and longer. To be committed one to another, never quitting or giving up on one another. There are things I didn't understand in my life, until I had to walk through it. I did not allow it to harden me, I allowed God to move into my heart more deeply and pull a few weeds out. We all have weeds, no one is perfect. Only Jesus walked a blameless life. So, knowing this, I can say with the utmost conviction:
God's love is for the poor man....I will not judge him.
God's love is for the homeless man...I will not abhor him.
God's love is for the rich man...He has heartaches, too. (sometimes my heart aches even more for the tangibly comfortable for they are many times very miserable of heart but don't know they have a need).
God's love is for everyman, so I will take Gods love with me everywhere I go and I will love on others until it hurts (and sometimes it does), but it is my purpose. Just like food is something every human being needs; it is something we have in common. So too, it is with love, we may not all have it, understand it, interpret it correctly...but we all need it.
Love is truly the only thing that can heal anything.
I believe that with all of my heart. We may not always get it right, or communicate love in the way someone understands/feels it best, but we can try, with all our heart, to make a positive difference in another's life. That's a purpose worth living for all of us. For me, there is nothing so rewarding as to cheer another on, help another, and then see them shine like a star and achieve more than they believed they could on their own. People are altogether lovely.
I feel compelled to share that I am not sure why I wrote this blog today. I just sat down and began to write. This too, had a purpose. Maybe it was for you? Be encouraged, if you do not know your purpose or reason, I pray you find it. Seek God, He will guide your path. You are His shooting star, meant to be a beam of light that illuminates the darkness that surrounds another so they can too break forth in dawn's immeasurable Light.
Greater Still...
~Nicole