Life experiences, combined with your personality type, spiritual gifts, and natural abilities, can also lead you to your purpose and passion.
YOUR PASSIONATE PURSUITS: WHO WILL BE THE RECIPIENTS OF YOUR BLOOMS?
… we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. Romans 8:28 (MSG)
What is it that you LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to do?
What makes you cry with compassion or get angry with righteous indignation?
Who, or what cause, do you sense that God is leading you to get involved with?
What experiences have you gone through that have brought you to a place in which you want to help others going through the same?
The needs of this world are many. We can’t be involved in helping everyone or every cause. God will put on each heart who, or what, He has designed you to pour out your life and gifts in service to.
Often it is our own experiences in life that will help define our passion, our cause.
“He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, He brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us“ (2 Corinthians 1:4 MSG)
God uses the problems and struggles of our lives so that we can compassionately and empathetically help others going through similar circumstances.
We long to walk alongside them, to give them the shoulder to lean on, the ears to listen, the cheerleaders for their goals—small or big.
Drawing from our own experience, we want to let them know we really do understand what they are going through and that they can survive, and to, yes, move on to live lives of purpose—and even find joy again.
An example of a tragedy turned to purpose is that of Candy Lightner. I think we all know about the organization MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving). It was started by Candy. On May 3, 1980, Lightner’s 13-year-old daughter, Cari, was killed by a hit-and-run drunk driver. The light sentence given to the repeat offender of driving while intoxicated outraged Lightner. Out of her grief and anger, and her determination that no other parent would suffer as she had, she organized MADD.
Lightner transformed a tragedy into a remarkable effort to educate, inform and change society. She headed MADD for eight years.
Today, through many groups, the outreaching impact of MADD has reached all fifty states and many international affiliates. Its goals are to educate, prevent, deter and punish. It has caused judicial reforms throughout the United States.
Lightner’s outreach was felt then, as it is now, through her lectures, speeches, writings and personal appearances. She speaks about, and for, survivors of alcohol-related crashes, victim’s rights, legislative advocacy, grass roots organizations, and the need to recognize the contributions of women and children. She has been heard often on radio and television educating people about drunk driving.*
I’m also thinking about Joni Eareckson Tada. Probably most of you know her story. How at the age of 17 (now in her 60s) she dove into shallow water and fractured her spine resulting in her becoming a quadriplegic. While in rehabilitation for 2 years, she suffered depression, suicidal thoughts, and extreme doubts about God. { Understandably so. }
But she went on with her life and inspired multitudes of others in all walks of life—many who, like her, can’t physically walk.
She learned to do pastel drawings by holding a brush in her mouth. She sings and has recorded a number of musical albums. To date she has written about 40 books! And she became a strong encourager and advocate for the disabled. She founded Joni and Friends in 1979, an organization to “accelerate Christian ministry in the disability community” throughout the world.
Though this is certainly not how she planned for her life to go, God used the tragedy to help so many through her.
It isn’t always personal tragedy that drives our passion and purpose.
Sometimes we discover our passion at a very young age after coming in contact with various ministries and vocations—and just living life!
We may find we have a passion for animals (another one of mine—to care for and rescue the innocent), the arts, the medical profession, food preparation, raising children, or helping the deaf or blind.
Or we can be driven by our desire to help those in dire need after our exposure to their plight—such as when we go on a missions trip to a third-world country where we see poverty or orphans on the streets.
We may have a desire to help children and adults learn how to read.
Or we can want to help others grow closer to God.
We may feel compassion for the needs of senior citizens who are so often neglected and overlooked. (I also have a heart for seniors…)
Your heart may cry out and be deeply moved for the more excruciatingly painful situations in this life such as sex trafficking victims, child abuse, or orphans and starving children. (Please go to the bottom of this writing to see some recommended Christian ministries in these areas of great need.**)
The list really does seem nearly endless. I could never even begin to write everything down.
But YOU know.
You know what hits a nerve.
What brings you to your knees in sobs and intercessions.
What thrills your soul.
What drives and motivates you to act!
You know where your passion and COMpassion lies.
You may have temporarily lost sight of it, or you just don’t talk about it anymore because you feel you can’t pursue it due to being stuck in a life or situation that seems impossible to get out of.
A good exercise to unearth your passions is to quickly write down 1-5 causes that deeply move you—causes you would like to be involved in—-to devote your life to.
This can help you narrow it down, define it, name it.
There are categories of needs: Spiritual, physical, relational, educational, and vocational.
Your passionate purpose will fit under at least one of those categories.
Ask yourself these questions:
- When was the last time you felt passionate about an experience?
- What were the circumstances?
- What gifts did you use?
- What does this experience perhaps tell you about your passion and purpose in life?
- What is my greatest fear concerning how I live my life and how I will feel at the end of my life?
- What is my greatest motivator?
- How do I define success?
- What would I regret not trying?
There is a song by Sara Groves that I have on my mp3 player and whenever I hear it I’m deeply moved. It’s because I can tell that something deeply moved HER when she wrote the song—a life experience—and it comes through.
Hear are the lyrics (and link):
“I Saw What I Saw”
I saw what I saw and I can’t forget it
I heard what I heard and I can’t go back
I know what I know and I can’t deny it
Something on the road, cut me to the soul
Your pain has changed me
your dream inspires
your face a memory
your hope a fire
your courage asks me what I’m afraid of
(vs. 2 —what I am made of)
and what I know of love
we’ve done what we’ve done and we can’t erase it
we are who we are and it’s more than enough
we have what we have but it’s no substitution
Something on the road, touched my very soul
I say what I say with no hesitation
I have what I have and I’m giving it up
I do what I do with deep conviction
Something on the road, changed my world
I think that many of us have defining moments such as Sara obviously did. It changed her. Changed her choices. Changed the course of her life.
Name your passion.
Where do you want to devote your time and love?
Who do you want to help?
Let your answers change the course of YOUR life.
Let them be what frames your life choices.
Then each step you take will move you closer to walking out yours and God’s passionate purpose for your life.
* Brief biography of Candy Lightner was found on the Women’s International Center website. I did heavy editing.
** Danita’s Children https://danitaschildren.org/ This is an AWESOME ministry for orphans in Haiti that we have watched and supported since Danita started with literally NOTHING but a dream and heart of compassion in the year 2000. Watch her video that tells her story. You will be INSPIRED at what one person with a great passion can do.
**Compassion International https://www.compassion.com/ For over 30 years we sponsored needy, poor children through this ministry. For only $38 a month you will be providing a child medical checkups, which often save lives; nutritious food; health and hygiene training; educational assistance; access to special services like surgeries and disaster relief; mentoring to help children discover their incredible value as God’s children; and most important of all, the sponsored child will hear about Jesus Christ and be encouraged to develop a lifelong relationship with God. This not only helps the child but the entire family. You also can write letters to the children, which I did, to encourage and share your love and God’s love with them.
** International Justice Mission https://www.ijm.org/ This is the ministry that Sara Groves (singer mentioned above) supports for the work against sex trafficking. I do not have personal experience with this ministry but it certainly looks like they are doing amazing work and I’ve read other people highly recommending support for them.
**Destiny Rescue https://www.destinyrescue.org/us/ This is another ministry that rescues victims of sex trafficking. We learned of this courageous group of rescuers through our Christian health cost sharing group—Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM)—who personally checked out and spoke with (and I believe met) the head of the ministry. We have supported this ministry. You can “adopt” one of three homes with rescue girls living in them. The girls are counseled and are taught a trade. You can get personally involved through letters and, of course financial support…
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS:
“You Were Born for This: Seven Keys to a Life of Predictable Miracles” ~ Bruce Wilkinson
LINK: Your People
LINK: Damage (if you haven’t taken the “baggage” journey and would like to. or know that you should…)