I’ve been reading Will Mancini’s new book “YOUNIQUE: Designing the Life that God Dreamed for you” and it has been just rich with some great instruction. Here are a few thoughts I felt would be good as we are at the front end of the “Roaring 20’s.”

Parker Palmer, in his book Let Your Life Speak, makes this statement as he recounts evaluating his life around mid-life: “I realized that I was doing an incredibly noble job of living someone else’s life.” Those words are haunting. For far too many of us, those words name exactly what we sense to be true deep inside. Who we have become and who God designed us to be are two very different people. With all the best intentions in the world, we have nobly become someone we are not.

Professor Howard Hendricks (who has done more for Christian education than just about any other person over the past 100 years and was Professor of Christian Leadership at Dallas Theological Seminary) knew just how easy it was to become someone you’re not. So to help his students think about their lives, he would draw a funnel on the chalkboard. At the top of the funnel he would draw several Xs and tell his students, “These are all the things you can do. ” Then he would draw one large X at the bottom of the funnel and say, “This X is the one thing you must do.”

After Professor Hendricks let the diagram sink in, he delivered his lesson. “The more successes you have in your life, the more can-dos fill up the top of your funnel. But most opportunities are distractions in disguise. If you’re not careful, you will spend your entire life doing all the things you can do and never find the one thing you must do. So what’s the one thing you must do?”

What burns within you that you can’t deny? What lives in you that you must let out?

Mark Twain is quoted as saying, “The two most important days in life are the day you were born and the day you find out why.”

So, if calling is about what you can’t help but do, then your convictions are the things you can’t do without. Calling answers the “what” question of our lives: what am I called to do? Convictions, also called “values,” answer the “why” question of our lives: why am I called to it? Your calling and convictions name the essence of your unique identity. Without these things, life is numb— we exist but we don’t truly live. The fire shut up in our bones ultimately consumes us. We live lesser lives and become a lesser version of ourselves.

I don’t know about you, but as I head into this decade (and it may be my last of serving in this capacity) I can’t afford to be a lesser version of who God created me to be. I want to be EVERYTHING He created me to be! The ONE THING I MUST DO? BE THE DISCIPLE OF JESUS HE CREATED ME TO BE...as a father, grandfather, friend, and Barnabas (son of Encouragement). That means LIVING, LOVING, and SERVING like Jesus. No time for the things I CAN DO, but all my focus has to be on the ONE THING I MUST DO! How about you?

Your Lead Follower, 

 Jim