Who Are You? Do You Have a Purpose?

I don't have a job.  Not to say I don't work, but no taxes are taken out of my income and if I were to collect my Social Security payment now, it would cover only my utilities.  I've had numerous jobs in my lifetime, but apparently when you average out that income over the years that I haven't had a paying job, the numbers aren't in my favor.

The most important work that I've done in my life, to date, was raising my daughters and being a part of my amazing family.  Have you done that?  Have you placed value on your contribution to your family - your spouse, kids, parents, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandchildren, nieces and nephews?  Building people is the foundation of everything else that is built, discovered, and invented.  If you haven't worked outside the home - never say, "I was just a homemaker" or "I was just a stay-at-home-mom" with apology in your voice - look around at all the kids today who would love to come home to their mom every day instead of a daycare or babysitter.  Building children is a very hard job and many parents today aren't up to the task, or haven't had the luxury (oh, it was anything BUT luxurious at times, I know) of being a full time parent. The extended family is that much more important to the lives of those children. 

My daughters are grown, my husband has risen to a position that emotionally exhausts him, but makes an income that covers what we need and want.  I've dabbled a bit, with several businesses of my own, but a couple years ago, I closed my book selling business in order to devote some time to important events in our family and it just never seemed the right time to start it up again.  So, I've grand parented some, spent excessive amounts of time on the telephone talking with the women in my family - up generations and down generations, kept the home fires burning (literally - we heat with wood to a large extent), the dogs fed - trained - walked, contributed to my veterinarian moving up into a higher tax bracket - my animals like to go visit the vet on Sundays - in a very fast car - this usually involves porcupines or vomiting or bleeding.  I take responsibility for making sure my husband is fed healthy meals, pay our bills, run all the errands, plant the gardens, harvest the gardens, volunteer here and there, and I work hard to give my husband a home and wife that feel good to retreat to after his hectic work days. Not having a paying job that demands my time elsewhere allows me to be and do all of that, and I feel blessed to have the opportunity.

But it's a time for change in my life.  A shifting of responsibilities to allow time for a different "purpose".

I've known for decades that I need to write.  I don't know what I'm supposed to write (this makes for some rambling rough drafts) but I know that I need to write.  I don't know what the end result is supposed to be, but I figure I'll just keep writing until I satisfy the purpose in it.  It may have nothing to do with the reader and everything to do with me.  I'm trusting God to make sense and purpose of it, as I ramble onward.

What do you need to do?  What is your purpose?  What is your passion?  I think the mundane can anesthetize us into a life on autopilot.  We handle problems as they arise, we go to work, we pay our bills, we get the car fixed, we eat our dinners, we procrastinate our fitness programs, we buy new stuff, and then fall back to regroup before handling those steps of daily life again.  Is that living?  It seems more like one of those car rides at the amusement park - you can press the gas or the brake and steer - as long as you don't veer too far from that metal rail down the center... you don't really choose a direction or path of your own.

I would love to hear replies to these questions - not because I need to hear them, but because you need to acknowledge that you know the answers.  Who Are You?  What is your passion?  What is your purpose?  How do you impact the world?  I can't think of more fascinating comments to read.  It's exhilarating to be in the presence of a person with purpose.

Maybe you've never asked these questions of yourself.  Perhaps you think it's a selfish endeavor, but I assure you, it isn't.  Imagine if the great minds of our society refused to use their natural, (I believe God-given) talents because it felt self centered to focus on their own genius and allow it to expand and grow.  Someone in this world is counting on YOUR talents.  One day, at your funeral service, He or She could stand up and give gratitude for the significance you had in his/her life simply because of your selfless use of your distinctive and inherent You-ness. 

It would seem selfish for you to decline to use the gifts, opportunities and access that you alone have to be a person of impact, wouldn't it?