Ok… so you’ve got your big dream. One question I got was, “what if I don’t know what to dream of?” What if you don’t have a big dream? Then just keep walking with God and follow the next step in this focusing program which is to define…
Who Is God Asking Me To Be?
Often I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about what roles (relationships) God has entrusted me with in my life. Often I take the roles I have for granted while I wish I had other, more meaningful roles. But God asks us to faithfully perform the tasks he has already entrusted to us.
Live creatively, friends… Make a careful exploration of who you are and the work you have been given, and then sink yourself into that… Each of you must take responsibility for doing the creative best you can with your own life. Galatians 6:1-5 (MES)
But how do we do that? How do we make a careful exploration of who we are and the work we’ve been given? How can we do the creative best we can with the life God has given us?
I’m glad you asked (you’re always so helpful to ask the questions that will lead me to my next point). This is where the “Roles Exercise” comes in. Get out a piece of paper and write down (remember how powerful writing things is) all of your Roles. Be exhaustive! Speaking for myself, I have many roles that God has assigned me:
- Child of God
- Husband
- Dad
- Self (I have to take care of myself or I won’t have what I need to take care of anyone else)
- Pastor
- Family Member
- Friend
- Community Member
- American Citizen
- Neighbor
- Pet Owner (I have two cats)
- Small Business Owner (I have a smelly small business)
- Blogger Extrordinaire (ok… that one’s a stretch)
I could probably think of more but you get the point. If you look closely at that list you’ll see that all my roles are not of equal importance. I consider my relationship with God to be the most important role in my inventory of relationships. Sometimes people will take issue with that and ask why my family isn’t number one. I may not know it all, but one thing I have learned is that if I put anything or anyone ahead of my relationship with God everything is going to suffer. But if I make God my priority my family never suffers for it.
That’s not to say that in the past some people have hurt their families and put the blame on God… but please. Don’t blame God for something somebody did or said in His name.
Anyways… back to my list. For me God is on top, then I have to make sure I take care of myself or I can’t care for Judy & Jonathan the way they need. This sounds like selfishness sometimes but I’m not talking about getting everything I want at their expense (although there have been days when that’s exactly what I’ve tried to do)… I’m talking about lovingly caring for myself so I will have the wherewithal to take care of them. Jesus said in Matthew 22:39 that the second most important command was to “love your neighbor as you love yourself”. We often think of this as only one command (to love others) but I heard Judy say once (I wish I had thought of it but I’m stealing it from her) that there is an implicit third command in that verse. The command to love yourself. If you don’t you can’t really love others.
Ok… back to the list (I’m all over the place tonight). First God, then myself and I guess I’d put Judy and Jonathan as 2-a & 2-b. After that my job/calling as the Pastor of Riverside Community Church. My family, friends, and on it goes.
So that’s my list… now you make yours. Figure out all the roles you play in your life and write them down. Then rank them in order of importance. Once you’ve done then we’ll spend tomorrow putting some real focus into them that will help you decide how (and with whom) you will spend your time… which is another very important part of focusing your life.
Peace.
Ed
Fascinating Comments!