A month away from home capped off by four days on the road has given me plenty of time to ponder my purpose - not figure it out, mind you, but ponder it. I know, I know, my purpose is to serve and glorify God through worship and obedience. That's everyone's purpose. I want details. How exactly am I supposed to be accomplishing this?
Apparently I'm not the only one who wants me to discover my purpose. In the past few days I've been bombarded with messages about this very thing.
The other day I started reading a book I've had for months but had not yet touched. I first picked up best-selling author Debbie Macomber's Knit Together: Discover God's Pattern for Your Life because I saw it in a display of knitting books. I love knitting...well, I love the idea of knitting. I inherited my dear departed mother's innate ability to buy yarn and begin projects. Upon my death Genny may well be presented with a huge plastic tub of unfinished needlework, as was I....but I digress. Saw the book in the window. Thought, "Oh, isn't that neat? She knits. She's a Christian. I'll take it." (and this and this and this... but that's beside the point) Really didn't expect much. I'd read a couple of her books and found them a little too fluffy for my taste. OK, perhaps, for an occasional, feel-good diversion, but that's about it. Fast forward a few months. I finally get around to starting the book, and find it's anything but fluffy. It's as if every word was written just for me, right now. In fact, I find myself having to put it down and only read a bit at a time because, what might some other time be no more than a nice little bit of encouragement, is so powerful and convicting and personal to me.
So yesterday while I was sitting on the beach taking a break from attempting to discover my specific purpose, I studied a couple of my scripture memory verses, including Jeremiah 29:11, which I repeated over and over. When I was ready for more of the book, I plunged back in and what did I read on the very next page?
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11And yes, I typed that from memory ;-) (except for the punctuation!) Anyway, this is good. God knows his plans for me. Awesome. But if I could just have a little hint, Lord...
Well, here we are at today, and the verse I had planned on using for my scripture memory didn't really sit right with me for some reason. I visited the Liberty Bell earlier this month and thought it might be neat to memorize Leviticus 25:10, a portion of which is inscribed on the bell. But when I looked up the whole verse it just didn't seem pertinent or inspiring. (One of Beth Moore's hints for scripture memorization is that you choose a verse you need so it's meaningful and nourishing as you meditate on it and commit it to memory.) So I logged on to the LPM blog kind of aimlessly hoping for something to pop out at me that I'd be inspired to memorize. Sure enough, there's Beth quoting Psalm 57:2 and telling me how God always fulfills his purpose for me. OK, I hear you, Lord...
So for now I'll rest with that. I may not be clear on my purpose, but God is, so I'll cling to him, hoping for a glimpse and knowing that His purpose for me is way beyond anything I can imagine on my own.
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