Where are you going? Where Have you been?

If failure was not an option and money was no problem, what would you do with the rest of your life?

Deep down inside, there lies a hidden desire which is stuffed away because we are afraid to even think about it - let alone go for it. We have so suppressed it that we often do not even remember that we ever had the desire. 

We bury these desires for a number of reasons: We are convinced that it was only a childish dream, it is too incredible to even consider, or we are afraid to hope because we are might fail. We do not want to be disappointed again,. People will laugh at us. 

So we stuff the dream and convince ourselves it was mere foolishness to even hope. We say to ourself, “Get a life and find a real career.”\

The dream dims and eventually dies. It is shoved so deep that we totally forget about it and go on with our lives. 

Unfortunately, we may have missed God's purpose for our life.

That abandoned dream that you just remembered may be the Lord calling you into your destiny.

God prepared you from the very beginning. He has been steering you toward your destiny. It is God who wants to give you the desires of your heart. He is the one who put them there originally. It could prove informative to look back at your life and see how the Lord has been steering you and what He has already accomplished in you.

Landmarks

Jeremiah 31:21 (NKJV) "Set up signposts, Make landmarks; Set your heart toward the highway, The way in which you went.

The literal translation of the word “landmarks” means to pile up rocks or stones to make a landmark. After Joshua led the Hebrews across the Jordan River, the Lord commanded them to take rocks from the river and put them in a pile to commemorate that important event in their history.

Landmarks of our lives represent places we have been and the experiences we have had which have affected our lives. As we look back on our lives and identify specific events that have affected our progress, we will find signposts pointing us toward God’s purpose for our lives.

What has God been doing in your life?

Answering this question requires serious and objective analysis of your life up to now to see where the Lord has taken you.

Realize that you have been on a spiritual journey, sometimes programmed by God and sometimes going your own way. You will want to identify landmarks that show where you have traveled.

Try this Activity

Draw your spiritual timeline highlighting experiences when you felt exceptionally close to God, when you heard from Him, and the times you felt that you had a particular sense of His power.

List the period and the event. It may be helpful to find someone with whom you can share your spiritual walk.

Who Stole Your Identity?

A few years ago my heart rate slowed significantly, so my local General Practitioner sent me to my heart doctor who explained that there are two kinds of heart doctors - plumbers and electricians.  He - a plumber - said I needed an electrician. The electrician rewired my heart and installed a pacemaker. Now my heart beats at a stable sixty two beats per minute. 

This incident caused me to think, “What is our world coming to?” We live in an age of specialization, but specialization can be carried to the extreme. A generalist knows a little bit about a lot of things, while a specialist knows a lot about a few things. Specialization - taken to its extreme - can lead to one who knows absolutely everything about nothing. On the other side of the spectrum is the one who knows nothing about everything. People get a lot of their personal identity from their areas of specialization.

A few days after the pacemaker installation - thinking about specialization - a thought arose that I had not considered in years. “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Finding my true identity has always been a goal. What you desire to become is all about your true identity. 

• Do you have a specialty – something that you are far better at than anything else in your life? 
• What is it that you are far better at than most of those around you? You might call it your identity?
• Do you know what God created you for? Each person alive today has a unique combination of skills, talents, attitudes and personalities which were given to him or her to fulfill their role here on earth.

If you are not rooted properly in your personal identity, it can be a fleeting thing. Psychologists explain that our identity comes to us from the people around us. They are like little mirrors reflecting back to us an image of our identity.

Well-meaning friends, family, and teachers will cause us to lose our God-given identity as they try to impose a new identity on us. As a high school sophomore, the school superintendent told me I would make a great electrical engineer. That became my identity and it was confirmed by others. So I bought into it and went to an engineering school, but was never totally sold on the idea. Well-meaning people will often impose their ideas on us. 

If we lack confidence in who we are, we see ourselves as others see us. These others are often identity thieves. They can steal our identity. 

Who are they?

• ·         Well-meaning friends and family who encourage us to seek the wrong career because they think you will be good at it.
• ·         Music teachers who tell a second grader they cannot sing.
• ·         Parents who try to mold their child into their own likeness
• ·         Politicians who define people as victims
• ·         Etc.

Identity theft is a huge thing today with literally billions of dollars being lost through identity theft. Even more devastating is the theft of one’s personal identity which has been the cause of illness, suicide and emotional damage.

How do we get our identity back? An old story illustrates our point.

A master artist created a portrait masterpiece. It was so perfect that it was placed in a museum for all to see. Then the masterpiece was stolen and lost for many years. One day, as an old mansion was being torn down, the painting was discovered. It was no longer a masterpiece. Now it was covered with dirt, ripped in a few places, and its colors were faded.

The artist’s signature was intact so people realized it was that lost masterpiece, but none could remember what it had looked like. Several restoration experts attempted to bring forth its original beauty, but all failed. It was then the master artist, the one who had created the painting in the first place, came forward and transformed the ugly wreck of a painting, back to its original state.

Obviously God is the master artist Who created us. He is the only one who can clean us up and restore us to the person we were created to be.

Our identity comes from Him.

How have you discovered God's call on your life? Send us a comment.

Who Am I?

I blog, but I am not a blogger.

I teach, but I am not a teacher.

I lead, but I am not a leader.

I minister, but I am not a minister.

So who am I?

That question has plagued me most of my life. A few years ago, I finally got the point. Now I knew who I was. But over the years the question comes back for some unknown reason. I know who I am intellectually but that realization had left my heart. That deep down knowing had escaped with the years and was replaced by the inevitable question. Who am I?

Our identity, or how we see ourselves, will often determine our destiny. How we see ourselves is mostly determined by how others see and respond to us. It is as if everyone we encounter has a mirror on their forehead. As we look at them we see ourselves reflected back. The image we see is what that person thinks of us. So everyone we meet provides some input to our identity. And the more significant that person is to me the more of an impact he has on who I am.

As children we get our identity from their parents or those who take care of our needs. If there is love and acceptance their identity is positive and they are free to risk failure. If that love is conditional and the parent is critical, their identity will be negative and they will fear failure so they will often under achieve. As the child grows up, the parent’s expectations will influence their identity, because that is how they perceive their child. Later in life friends and associates form our identity as they may become more significant than our parents.

Is the answer to the question, “I am who others see in me?” It is when we allow that to happen. It is if they are the most significant ones in our life.

There is an alternative. When other people are most significant to you, they control who you think you are and who you will become. But when you make God first in your life, you are who The Lord sees in you. Your identity comes not from human sources with imperfect eyesight, but from the one who created you in the first place. He created you for a purpose. Many years ago, I realized that I was a son of the almighty God and that was my identity. When I dedicated my life to serving Him, the question persisted, “How do I best serve Him.”

When our identity comes from how others perceive us, we spend our time trying to please them. When our identity comes from God, we want to please Him.

I am a child of the living God and a follower of Jesus Christ. My role is to follow Him where ever He leads – whatever that is and wherever that may lead. I no longer live to please men.

Galatians 1:10 (NIV) Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.