Second, I've experienced new starts and am in the middle of one right now. Some years ago a good friend of mine sat across from me in the same restaurant where I'm writing this. After really listening to me talk about the struggles of my job he looked at me and said, "you really are driven to prove something aren't you?"
The question stopped me in my tracks.
I hadn't said anything about proving anything to anyone. I was relatively successful in my field with responsibility for running a potentially influential organization in my community. I had done the big things my bosses had asked of me and was on my way to building something.
But, as I thought about his question/accusation I realized it was true. There was some driving force in me that screamed that I better show the world something OR ELSE.
I hadn't said anything about proving anything to anyone. I was relatively successful in my field with responsibility for running a potentially influential organization in my community. I had done the big things my bosses had asked of me and was on my way to building something.
But, as I thought about his question/accusation I realized it was true. There was some driving force in me that screamed that I better show the world something OR ELSE.
Our identity is an odd animal. Too often it gets directed by "voices" that speak into our lives and take us outside what we were originally created to be. My drivenness was an example of me listening to one voice in my life without thinking about the consequences. As I tried to follow it I found myself further away from what brings me life and increasingly miserable.
Eventually I came to the conclusion that I could stay on that path to misery, or jump into what I thought my heart was saying. It's funny how unhappiness can convince you to venture a little risk. It was the scary unknown that comes when you're at the end of yourself and decide to really step out in faith and trust.
The result has been a grand adventure. I get to help people find their true vocational passions and sometimes confront their own misleading "voices" just about every day. The profit Jeremiah quotes God as saying "My plan is to give you a future and hope" (my translation). Even in my own life I've sometimes wondered if these 2 things really existed for me.
Now I'm in a different place and the great joy of my life is sharing a future and hope that people might not have imagined. It's a great gift I've been given, this new start.
