Icon of Christ
In my last post in this series on calling and purpose, I talked about an active listening process which I have used to help develop a sense of kingdom focused purpose for my life. However I realize that using a process like this is only effective if we take the next step and use our calling statement as a basis for developing goals in every area of life. Our purpose is not to feel good about who we are but to provide foundations for the transformation of our lives.
However we do need to be realistic as we set goals. So often I find that people set goals in life and ministry as though they are isolated individuals with no boundaries on what they do. Sometimes their goals are very self serving. Remember God’s call is to be other centred not self centred.
Another trap in setting goals is try to bite off more than we can chew. Setting small incremental goals that we revisit frequently to readjust and renew is far better than trying to take mammoth impossible steps. So often we start by feeling we want to save the world and jump into impossible situations that set us up for failure.
So before you set goals for you life consider the boundaries God has placed on you life. Be realistic about responsibilities to your family, church & community and the limitations these place on your possible responses. Families and faith communities matter and should always be taken into consideration when we make decisions about the future.
Be realistic about restrictions placed by health, disability, and emotional problems you may struggle with. When I developed chronic fatigue syndrome 20 years ago, I needed to set new limits for myself in terms of afternoon siestas, diet and exercise. Ignoring these limitations meant I became ill again. Accepting my limits led me into new and exciting opportunities for my life.
Be realistic about financial consideration like school debts, credit card bills and other financial obligations. God’s call on our lives does mean we can run away from our financial irresponsibility to family, governments or to institutions.
Be realistic about your own talents and resources and the most effective way to use these. Perhaps your first step will be to get additional education which will equip you to more effectively accomplish what God has placed on your heart.
I suggest that you write down the boundaries that will constrain how your sense of calling can be fulfilled at your present stage of life and then find a mentor to share these with. Wise counselors and help us determine realistic limits and boundaries these set on your life in terms of relocation or vocation. Share your sense of calling with them and work together to establish goals that can help you effectively journey into God’s call on your life. Enlist their help in developing daily & weekly time schedule to help discipline your use of time within the boundaries and limitations you face.
Finally, remember that God calls us to abundant life not to burnt out or stressed out living. God is not a hard task master. Those rhythms that provide balance between community and solitude, work and rest, secular and spirituality should be reflected in the goals we set. So often we concentrate on ministry but need to take just as much time to set goals for relationships, celebration, relaxation & rest.
When I first started taking regular prayer retreats to refocus my life I sat down and worked out a list of areas in which I felt I needed to set goals regularly. You might find this list helpful for you too.
SPIRITUAL LIFE
- Personal prayer, meditation & Bible study
- times for spiritual refreshment, retreat & renewal
- Christian fellowship & small group involvement
- evaluate the daily, weekly and yearly rituals that give your life a spiritual rhythm
- develop a liturgy for all of life
VOCATION AND CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
- Evaluate involvement in Christian ministry either as a full-time vocation or in your free time
- Evaluate your church and local mission involvement
- Evaluate involvement in global mission & world need
JOB RESPONSIBILITIES
- Evaluate work responsibilities – “I love my work” No excuse for ignoring other commitments
- learn to concentrate on God’s essentials
- Realistically evaluate household responsibilities & chores
- Take note of children’s school & extracurricular activities
IMPORTANT RELATIONSHIPS
- Marriage & family
- Friendships – both Christian & non-Christian
- Community involvement & neighbours
HOSPITALITY AND CELEBRATION
- Celebrate events on Christian calendar
- celebrate significant “rites of passage” and events of the past
- invent new Christian celebrations
- entertain friends & strangers
PHYSICAL DISCIPLINES
- Diet & state of health
- Exercise routine – set goals consistent with your physical health
REST AND RELAXATION
- Sabbath observance
- days off & vacation
- sleep
CREATIVITY
- involvement in arts & music
- hobbies & other creative interests
FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP & — USE OF GOD’S RESOURCES
- consumerism & lifestyle level – how much is enough
- Care & stewardship of God’s creation
- Generosity & Christian giving & sharing
Check out the other posts in this series:
Finding God’s Purpose without Getting Burned Out
Find Your Purpose – An Active Listening Process
You might also like to check out
As many of you know I love to revisit prayers that I have written on a regular basis. This is one that I find helpful when I am facing a new decision where I struggle with the tension between my own desires and God’s ways. Always good ro remind me of God’s focus and priorities.
The joy of journalling
The following is an active listening process which we develop some years ago to help us gain a clear sense of God’s purpose for our lives. I used it to write my own personal calling statement which I keep at the front of the journal I use when I go on retreat. It is a wonderful reminder of God’s priorities for my lives and helps me to set kingdom focused goals for the upcoming months.
Active Listening Process.
- Write down your earliest memories of a sense of the call of God on your life
- How has God been speaking to you through scripture – write down significant scriptures that give you a sense of God’s call on our life
- How has God been speaking to you through prayer – write down those things that you feel called to pray for on a regular basis
- How has God been speaking to you through the needs of others – Write down the areas of human need, suffering and pain that most make you want to respond
- How has God been speaking to you through community? – write down the ways that God has spoken to you through the advice & counsel of others
- Make a list of your own gifts & talents –
- spiritual:
- physical or intellectual:
- creative:
- In what ways have your educational opportunities helped to develop these gifts?
- How could these contribute to your sense of Christian calling:
- Write down your broken areas – God often uses our weaknesses to change the world
- What are your dreams & hopes for the future. Write these down – even our self centred dreams may hold elements of God’s purposes for our lives:
WRITING YOUR OWN MISSION STATEMENT
- Look back over all that you have written in the active listening process – prayerfully consider ways in which these could come together in a beginning mission statement that flows out of your sense of Biblical purpose.
- Incorporate scripture where possible or write the scripture that has inspired your mission statement beside your mission statement
- Make short, concise and easy enough to memorize
- Make inspirational – this statement is meant to fill you with enthusiasm for the future that God has planned for your life
- Examples of good mission statements –
- “To be a voice for the voiceless and bring glimpses of God’s shalom Kingdom into peoples’ lives” Prov 31:8,9“
- To be a mediator of reconciliation between God and people with broken hearts, bringing them to growth and maturity in Jesus Christ” Eph 4:11,12
- “To be an expression of God’s Jubilee in my community and throughout the world” Lev 26:10-13
- “To be an instrument of God’s healing bringing restoration to the land and to people’s lives” Is 58:6-9
Use your imagination & creativity to bring all the steps from the active listening process together in your own beginning mission statement:
Check out the other posts in this series:
Today’s post is the third in a series on helping us to prioritize our lives. I chose the photo above by Phillipino artist Emmanuel Garibay to represent this post because it makes me think of someone who has no focus or sense of purpose.
In my post two days ago I commented: God doesn’t intend us to live overburdened, stressed out lives yet so many Christians I know commit themselves to far more than they can possibly handle and as a consequence many end up burning out. Some reject their faith or walk away from their faith communities because they cannot cope with these extra pressures on their lives.
So how do we avoid this? Looking at the life of Jesus I notice several characteristics that we could well adopt and I strongly encourage all of us to spend time as I am currently doing, reflecting on scripture and our sense of purpose in order to be more effective followers of Christ.
Jesus had a clear, and very precise sense of what God had called him to do. – Lk 4:17-19 – Jesus came announcing the Kingdom of God – All of Jesus actions demonstrated to his disciples & followers what God’s eternal shalom Kingdom was meant to look like. As a result of that focus He knew exactly how to allocate His time & resources, He know when to say yes and he knew when to say no to what he was asked to do. As a result, his life seems to flow to a rhythm that attracted all who knew Him
I think our lives need to be as focused as Jesus’ was. Like him we need to have a very clear sense of what God is calling us to do and when to say no to what does not fit within those boundaries. A good starting place is to revisit the clear overarching calling statement Jesus gave to all human kind. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and love your neighbour as yourself. Or you might like to do some study on the values and culture of the kingdom of God. Living into these values should be the central passion of all followers of Christ.
Out of this foundation we need to use Jesus priorities & life example to develop our own kingdom focused personal or family calling statement. A statement like this can help us shape not only our work priorities but all of our commitments.
A calling statement is a short phrase or sentence that provides an individual or group of people with a sense of purpose for their lives. It expresses what we see as the reason for our existence and defines the focus for all we are and do.
Biblically based calling statements begin with scripture study and an understanding of God’s shalom purposes for our lives as a foundation for defining that focus. They are centred on our relationship to God not on our personal happiness, dreams or ambitions. They are outwardly focused on care for others not inwardly on our own needs They are clear, concise & easy to memorize. Such a statement should have broad enough wording to incorporate every area of life. Make it purposeful & inspirational – A sense of meaning that wakes you up in the morning and sends you striding enthusiastically into the day ahead.
Stay with us tomorrow for the next post in this series on an active listening process for developing your own personal calling statement.
Check out the previous posts:
chapel painting at CMU Winnipeg by Ray Dirks
This is the second post in this series on setting priorities and refocusing our lives. It is not the first time I have written about this topic and you may like to check out my earlier post Did Jesus Lead A Balanced Life where I talk about the need that all of us have for a balance between solitude and community, work and rest, spiritual and secular. To this in recent years I have added the need for balance between feasting and fasting.
Today as I think about this however I am coming from a slightly different angle. As I travel I am reading Strangers to the City: Reflections on the Beliefs and Values of the Rule of Saint Benedict by Michael Casey a Monk of Tarrawarra Abbey here in Australia. What caught my attention this morning is his comment
The purpose of a quiet life needs to be clear: It is to facilitate a quiet mind in which spiritual priorities become progressively more dominant. Nor is this withdrawal an invitation to isolation and introspection. It is, rather, a matter of providing the opportunity of entering more deeply into reality and of living from the heart. (25).
He goes on to suggest that living from the heart can only come from a heart that has tasted how good the Lord is and how energizing it can be to be still before the Lord.
I find that my own heart aches for this kind of priority. I have indeed tasted how good the Lord is and want spiritual priorities to become progressively more dominant, but when I am busy I must confess that this does not happen. Work not God so easily becomes my priority.
Reminding myself that my ultimate goal in life is to both draw near to Jesus, the lover of my soul and model the same priorities and values he displayed is an important regular discipline for me. None of us can hope to change if we do not intentionally discipline our lives to accept the need for change and work rigourously to see that change occur.
I have no intention of becoming a monk, but I do realize there is much I can learn from the disciplines they practice. Listening to the whispers of the inner voice that is only heard when I step away from external distractions, even from external excitement and seek only for the inner peace and contentment of a soul that has indeed tasted and seen that the Lord is not only good but more to be desired than anything else.
Lord God Almighty,
May I learn to live from my heart.
In times of quiet may I still my soul
That I might taste and see how good you are.
Lord God Almighty,
May I desire your presence above all else.
May I find my strength in being still
Before the one who is the lover of my soul.
As you know I am currently on vacation in Australia, having a great time with family and friends but also taking time to refocus and rethink where I am at and what I want to accomplish in the coming years. I thought that some of you might appreciate the process I am going through and encourage you to consider a similar evaluation on your own life every few years.
I have started with the following questions:
- What’s driving you? What are the major stresses in my life and how does this compare to 5 years ago? There is pressure on all of us to work harder and longer than we have in the past and I must confess I often succumb to this pressure. There is even greater pressure to stay connected no matter where we are and what we are doing.
- How do I control these pressures rather than letting them control me? It is easy to assume that life pressures are unavoidable and we often do little to overcome them. Intentionality and discipline are the two words that come to my mind, Oh and that little word NO too. Often we face unnecessary stress because we are unwilling to say no to the good things we are asked to do that are not really part of God’s plan for us.
- What sets the rhythm of my life? At least once a year I like to sit down and go over my daily, weekly and yearly schedule trying to determine what sets the patten of my life and time commitments. Being away from my usual routine as I am now is an ideal time to do this. I find that in the demands of my busy world God’s priorities can easily get pushed to the margins without my even noticing. Spending time with God becomes less important than doing things for God.
- What kind of rhythms does God intend for my life? As I start on this reflective exercise it is always good to remind myself that God does not intend me to lead an overburdened and stressed out life. I love to meditate on Matthew 11:28-30 as my starting place and want to suggest you spend time reflecting on these words too.. Listen to how it is translated in The Message
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Over the next few days I intend to look at the life of Jesus and how he set his priorities. If as these verses imply, Jesus does not give us heavy burdens to carry, where do our heavy burdens come from? He carried the weight of the world on his shoulders yet rarely seemed stressed out and over busy. He had time for prayer. He had time for friends. And he had time for all that God called him to do. Perhaps we really can learn to live freely and lightly jsut as he did.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s pot, Tom and I are now in Australia. We arrived just in time to celebrate my 63rd birthday. It is the first birthday celebration I have had in Australia for almost 40 years. Significant in the timing of God I don’t know, but definitely for me a sense of new beginnings as I negotiate this trip without my mother’s presence.
Yesterday we had a wonderful birthday lunch with two of my brothers, my niece, one of my nephews and his wife. As you can imagine we started with a lot of reminiscing about our childhood, stories about Mum and our interactions together. Then we started talking about our family history.
My father was Greek but it is probable that my maiden name Aroney originated in the Middle east, a rendition of Aaron. Perhaps way back we have Jewish blood in us. My ancestors migrated to Constantinople, then to Spain and finally to the island of Kithera off the southern coast of Greece. Then in the early 1900s many headed for Australia. Blue eyed Greeks, maybe mixed with Viking blood, no one is sure, but we all wonder and speculate. We want to know where we come from. We want to know where we belong.
My mother’s family is harder to trace. Her parents migrated from Scotland in the early 1900s, her mother from Aberdeen, her father from Keith. Her maiden name was Milne, a common Scottish name and her Dad’s family probably goes back a long way in Scotland. But Mum’s mother’s name was Cato. Is it Spanish, Italian? Again no one knows but we can speculate. Her family was part of the aristocracy and the Scottish nobility had close ties to the Spanish Court.
These discussions have been very important for me. Knowing where we come from and where we belong is important for all of us. When we have no sense of rootedness we feel like souls without anchors.
For us as followers of Christ, our rootedness is meant to be in the story of God and our sense of belonging is meant to tie us to the kingdom of God. It culture, its values, its way of looking at the world transcends the cultures in which we grew up and from which we draw our stories. Living into this culture with its emphasis on love, peace, and generosity is meant to anchor us in ways that the stories of our birth families never can.
But just as I have had to make a deliberate effort to travel back to Australia to reconnect to my family and to my culture, so we need to make a deliberate effort to “travel” regularly into the land of God’s kingdom and immerse ourselves in God’s culture. Only then will be really find the anchors that our souls need to hold us through all the ups and downs of life. So in the midst of my family times I find myself asking a question I would like to challenge all of us with:
What am I currently doing to anchor my life, my values and my world view in the kingdom of God?
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