Tears sprang to my eyes when I heard God speak again the same thing He’s told me dozens of times.

“Speak” isn’t the right word. In that holy moment, I felt like the Holy Spirit downloaded the information straight to my heart.

He confirmed to me again my purpose–to be a voice to the Church.

If you think Moses was pathetic the way he sidestepped God’s calling for decades, even arguing with him on the matter, then you don’t want to hear my story.

If I’m good at one thing, it’s dodging God’s call out of fear.

But that day, God reconfirmed my purpose, and ya’ll I didn’t doubt it. Instead I prayed John Lennon’s words.

“Let it be.”

Just kidding. I prayed Mary’s words when she found out she was pregnant with the Son of God. “Let it be according to your Word.”

It’s one thing to know your purpose. It’s quite another to center your life around it and say no to all the good things that will sway you from it.

It’s easier to live up to an ideal set by culture than to follow Jesus on the specific path of our purpose.

It feels risky and we like the safety of the crowd, but Jesus isn’t taking us all along the same path. He sets a different course for each of us.

Your destination isn’t my destination, and we must accept this.

We are born original, but so many of us die a copy. In this age of social media, this truism plays out every day.

Every time we compare our paths to that of others, we face distraction from our true purpose.

As Christians, we recognize that God has custom designed us for a specific calling, and there are no generic callings like there are no generic people.

The Japanese have a word for living your God-given purpose—ikigai. Ikigai is the reason for waking up in the morning. It’s the passion that drives us toward one goal even when the task is difficult.

The Greek philosophers spoke of this idea and used the word euthymia, which translates as “tranquility” in English.

I’m writing a book about finding peace in seasons of anxiety. You know what I’m learning? So many of us are anxious because we’re doing too much of the things that don’t matter and not enough of the important things.

We’re spread so thin and we’re ignoring the still small voice that reveals our true purpose. We’re trying to do it all and have it all, and it’s making us crazy.

It takes a humble faith to decide to do one thing–and one thing well. 

Until we find the courage to live out our God-given purposes, we won’t know the deep sense of peace and tranquility that come from not only knowing your purpose—but living it.

I would love to know your purpose. What has God called you to do? Are you doing it?

 

For a couple months one Bible verse seemed to be stalking me.

It was uncanny that way it popped up in random places: greeting cards, articles, artwork, and even on the cover of a journal my friend gave me.

I told my niece about it and we began to laugh every time we would see occurrences of Ps. 46:10 pop up.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the directive, “Be still and know that I am God.” I just don’t like to follow the instructions.

Be still? Who’s got time for that? I homeschool three kids, year round. (Yes, we’re still in school.)

Maybe you’re like me and you like the idea of being still and contemplating God, but it falls on your “will do it later” list.

This is a verse I love to procrastinate. Like maybe when I’m 80 and sitting in a rocking chair I’ll finally have time for to “be still.”

When that verse started chasing me around, it seemed clear that God was sending me a message. He wants me to practice stillness and meditate on who He is right now–in the midst of chaos.

In the midst of the oh so long hours of motherhood, He was inviting me to Himself. All those little messages were His unwavering attempt to draw me.

The nonfiction book I’m writing is called The Peaceful Place: A Woman’s Guide to Biblical Meditation. It’s about finding peace in the middle of an anxious culture.

But peace isn’t a place; it’s a person.

In the stillness of God we find our equilibrium. He restores our rest and gives us stamina for our days. He instills courage to wayward hearts and changes the countenance of the insecure.

“Be still and know that I am God,” isn’t just a Christian platitude. It’s the very key to our relationship with Jesus.

Our frenetic culture pushes us to go and do, to hustle and produce. Jesus, though, gently beckons us saying “I have been. I have done. I am.”

When we’re racing through life, we miss the panorama of Jesus’ accomplishments. We forget that He’s our substitute. We forget that “from him and through him and to him are all things” (Rom. 11:36).

The chance to be still is the chance to remember that Jesus is our past, present, and future. We forget how our “real life is hidden in Christ in God” (Col. 3:3).

After weeks of laughing every time I saw Ps. 46:10, I began to take God’s hint. Yes, I need to slow down so I can remember how Jesus is enough.

All those other things I thought I needed to make me happy? Uh-uh. They mean diddly squat. Funny how five minutes sitting at His feet helps correct our upside down perspective.  

All I need is Jesus. Take the whole world. Just give me Jesus. . .