Sunday, April 15, 2012

Deep thought post with pictures

Today the pastor talked about searching for God's will for your life. Of course, Pastor Peter said that to know this answer we need to continue reading the Bible and praying about God's plan for our lives, but he also went a step further and gave 3 practical questions (borrowed from the book From Good to Great by Jim Collins) that can get you closer to seeing how God's plan for your life might look.

These questions are as follows:

1. What are you genetically gifted to be the best in the world at?
(Basically, you're good at this talent. Real Good!)

2. What are you most passionate about?
(He talked about the curse of competency that some of us have. We can do the task just fine, but we have no passion to do it.)

3. What skills or actions bring in the greatest revenue or fruitfulness?
(This is the practical component of God's plan for your life. You are going to need revenue; you are going to feel the blessings from fruitfulness.)

The next step is to answer these 3 questions and look for the places where the answers overlap. This is kind of your "God idea" for life. You hopefully can see some common or compatible answers that include your gifts, talents, and passions.

I wrote in my journal for a bit this afternoon and answered the questions. I was surprised to see that the things I am good at are not necessarily things I am passionate about. Likewise, the things I am passionate about are not necessarily the things that are fruitful or bring in revenue for me. Nonetheless, there were some common, overlapping factors that I think have me pointed in a good direction. I am encouraged.


And then I saw these ducks.

Can you believe this is a real place not a mile from where I live?

2 comments:

Erica T said...

Portia, I've been thinking about this lately (except for the ducks). I've been frustrated because for me, I feel like I'm in a place where those three things don't line up for me. For me, an ideal place of ministry is where it flows naturally from me and results in joy. I know exactly what type of ministry I fit in, and I am not in a place right now where I can do that. I've been missing something like that for quite awhile--4 years, actually. I had a bit of a revelation the other day, though, as I realized I was making an idol of the ease of that type of ministry, lazy in not having to turn over my emotions to Him on a regular basis. I certainly don't think it's wrong when we have "the perfect fit", nor do I think it's necessarily wrong to pursue it, but I also think there are plenty of times when God purposely puts us in a place that's not a great fit so we rely on Him more, so we're refined, so we see His faithfulness even in the face of things we don't like/enjoy. I know that's not a popular message in our "follow your heart" society and I know how much I fight against it. I'm trying to learn, but it's hard!

Unknown said...

Points worthy of thought. (And action?)