Discovering my niche
No, I didn't misspell the title. I’m
referring to my God-given “ROLE” in life—my purpose, my destiny at this
particular time in my life cycle. The question presupposes that God has a plan
for the entire sweep of my life. I wholeheartedly accept that faith premise! These are introspective thoughts: I direct the following
questions to myself in what is realistically the final season of my life.
Do I know what my role or life-niche
is right now? I may have known what it was at other stages of my life when it
was more clearly defined. Now it is not that easy to perceive. Do I know why I’m
still here on earth and what God means for me to be and do before I have
finished my task on earth? Who am I in Christ and what is my place in His Body,
the Church, in His Kingdom?
It is absurd to imagine that the
Lord has abandoned His plan for me and the calling on my life just because I
have reached a certain chronological age. What is there about “I will never
leave you or forsake you” that I don’t understand and trust? God is eternal and
views all things in the eternal present. He is “God our help in ages past, our
hope for years to come” as the hymn writer declares. “Ages” can be thought of in
the sense of personal chronological ages as well as ages of history.
What’s around me right now? Who is around me now? That’s what and who I’m
responsible to share Christ with. Have I found my present niche, the place and
the life to which He called me? It may be considerably less public than before,
even hidden. If it happens to be a restricted one, even relegated to relative
inactivity, that is still the sphere in which He intends that I live and serve
Him. Am I walking in it faithfully and to the best of my understanding and ability?
My sphere
in life at whatever the season of life I’m in evolves and changes according to
God’s working in my life and my circumstances. It is determined by my openness
to God’s will for my life or my resistance to it.
Am I
influencing my culture and circumstances, or do they squeeze me into their mold
and stifle me? Do I resist where it seems that God has planted me? Do I think
He made a mistake? Do I think He abandoned me in my advanced years? Would I
rather be elsewhere and with other people under different circumstances? If I
harbor that attitude, I am the temporal, mortal clay pot questioning the wisdom
of the Infinite Potter.
It is as if
I’m standing at the center, the hub, of a people wheel. I’m not standing there alone
but with Christ. He means me to reach out to the people in my circumference with
my hands and heart as if with His hands being the spokes of the wheel
“In all your ways acknowledge Him.” “My ways” are my present circumstances where
I’m to express His Lordship. God has put enough instruction in inspired, sacred
Scripture to help me ascertain whether I’m in the will of God and how to find
my niche and serve there with His enabling. IT IS SIMPLY UP TO ME TO DO IT.
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