A Roadmap to Resetting Your Vision

It might be the first important question any of us are ever asked.

Most of the questions of childhood are mundane: “Would you like more milk?” or “Have you brushed your teeth?”

But there is a formative moment in all of our childhoods when we are asked, usually by a sweet aunt, grandmother, or parent, a question with a century of implications.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

Over the course of our life the question will come in many other forms.

“Where do you work? Where did you go to college? What do you do for a living?”

Questions about our job, future, vocational identity litter our life.

Yet, if we are being honest, we would admit that in different seasons we are unhappy with our job, uncertain about future, and less than fulfilled with our vocational identity. We just feel like we were made for something more!

It’s a rumbling in your soul that suggests this can’t be it!

Through the lens of Scripture, you will that these same questions are as old as time. Many of the faithful throughout Christian history have asked the same questions about purpose and identity. Wilderness wanderings and leadership challenges have forced many of those heroes of our biblical story to answer tough questions about what is next.

In fact, these seasons of change are so prevalent in the Bible that we have created a unique term to define this decision: CALLING.

Calling, for the purposes of this discussion is “the desire to know clearly how my gifts and talents align with my passions for this season’s contribution.”

Notice it doesn’t include the word work or vocation.

That is important.

While your gifts and passions MIGHT be the fuel for your work, it is completely okay if it is not. Connecting vocational compensation as the source of the value of your calling is dangerous. But, more on that later!

Let’s begin this journey with this core belief: new beginnings are possible.

It is not too late to reset your vision for your life.

I often reflect on the Abraham story as a source of hope when I feel stuck.

When God called Abram and Sarai to leave Ur of the Chaldees from Shechem in Canaan he was 75 years old. 75 YEARS OLD!

That is a lot of years. The average life span of an American man is 78 years. Abram had lived a full life, never knowing that his true destiny was still ahead of him.

He hit the reset button. God led him to hit the reset button. And, it changed his story forever.

It is never too late to reset your roadmap into the future.

New beginnings are possible.

That’s the setup for all that is to come. Where you are isn’t where you have to finish. Things can change. Your purpose can be defined and redefined. Your story’s last chapter hasn’t been written.

Let’s consider that together this week and commit to continue on this journey together.

Here is what I hope will happen in the coming months…

Through a deep investigation of the biblical narrative, we will journey together to create a clear theological foundation for understanding God’s role in history, principles for guiding our role in God’s story and an innovative framework for discovering our call through the noise of life.

Next week this series will explore the unique distinction between gifts and talents and how a deeper understanding of those two will provide a deeper understanding of your own purpose.

Until then…journey on.