I’ve been wearing corrective lenses for over 20 years (I realized I needed them when, as a 12-year old, I could no longer see the signals a catcher was putting down when I pitched. You kinda need to be able to see to play baseball), and one of the most helpful things I immediately discovered was how much sharper everything around me was. In fact, the first time I wore contacts it felt wildly unnatural because everything was just so…clear.
The great thing about clarity? You can actually see things you couldn’t before. You notice details that you never knew were there. And you can actually know what pitch you should throw instead of guessing!
Many of us needed contacts or glasses to correct our eyesight- but we also need a corrective lens of sorts placed over our own lives. Here’s what I mean.
Last Sunday we talked about one of the ways to stop being miserable is to stop trying to do everything, and one of the questions that helps is “What would I quit today if I could?”
The follow question to that is this: “What should I quit today?”
But that’s not even the question at the root of the issue that will identify what we need to let go of. It gets us closer- but not quite to the core.
The question that brings what we need to stop doing into total focus is this:
What’s my “why”- my reason for existing?
Of course, for a follower of Jesus we exist to give God glory (1 Corinthians 10:31); however, God has wired each of us to do that in a very unique way. Not only that, He’s also placed us in unique life circumstances that inform how exactly we can do that. For example: I’ve discovered that God has wired me to communicate ideas and develop people. As a result, I want to leverage what I do towards that end, starting with the most important relationships in my life- my wife and my son. After that comes doing that with our elders, our staff team, and our church as a whole.
There are a lot of other really good things I could do- and would even enjoy doing them. But knowing that I exist to glorify God through communicating ideas and developing people brings what I should be doing into pretty clear focus.
So let me ask you this: have you ever taken the time to really get to know yourself and how God has wired you? Have you ever taken the time to figure out how you’re wired and what God has uniquely made you for?
Better yet: have you taken the time to let God bring to the surface how He has wired you? We’re actually commanded to do that:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!”- Psalm 139:23 (ESV)
To be perfectly honest, until earlier on this year, I had not done this. At least not in a way that really honed in on the question of what my “why” was and forced me to sit down and consider this question in great detail while letting God direct the process.
And it was a process. It didn’t become clear in an afternoon. It became clear over several months and through much prayer and conversations with others. But it’s been so worth it in figuring out the things that I should be doing- and the things I should let go of.
I want to encourage you as the year ends: engage in this process. It will take time- probably a significant amount of time. But once you know your “why” as God has uniquely wired you, you can begin leveraging that towards not just doing good things, but doing the right things.
And that will exponentially increase your impact.