What Should I Do With My Life?

What should I do with my life? That is a tremendous question than many of us never answer. We just move, or are pushed, from event to event. We feel more like a helpless person who has fallen out of their kayak into a Class 5 river than someone in control of their destiny.

Why is that? Most of us have been unwilling to pay our dues. That is, most of us have been unwilling to spend the time in prayer to ask God to show himself to us. We are unwilling to ask him what we should do with our lives. Those are the two key elements to having direction and purpose in our lives. First, experiencing God. And, second, finding in dialogue with God what we are supposed to do in our lives.

I think the reason we shun paying the price to experience God is that we know, even without thinking it, that experiencing God means giving up our lives. We want to be in control, to live our lives the way we want. If we experience God we fear that will change. We fear that we will lose our lives if we experience God. Yet the words of Jesus hit the mark dead center: Whoever tries to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it. (Luke 17:33)

We are all seeking happiness. And there is no happiness without experiencing God vibrantly. So we stumble through life, shunning the experience that will bring us happiness out of the fear that we will be unhappy if we follow God's will for us! How ironic and pathetic.

As a counselor, I have found that people who are seeking happiness without making the effort to know God are never satisfied. I almost feel it is futile to try to help them because they are refusing the very experience that will complete them; the experience of God. And let me be clear about this. It is not the belief in God but the experience of God that brings happiness. The belief in God is often the source of unhappiness because it is merely a self-constructed idea, not a vibrant experience. The vibrant experience of God is what brings happiness.

Yet that is not enough. God has a purpose for the world, a purpose of each of our lives. If we stop with just experiencing God, enjoying the love and joy that comes in waves over us, we have only come half way. God is creating the Kingdom of God on the earth. Each of us has a part to play in that magnificent project. What is that part?

Finding that answer is the next task. While in the vibrant experience of God, we need to dialogue. That's right. Dialogue. We can dialog with God. Ask questions. Listen for answers. Through that dialogue we will find the path God has prepared for us.

What questions should we ask God? To ask the correct questions, which is the only way we can get the correct answers, we must know the time we live in. Each of us is born with gifts. The time we live in determines the gifts we need to develop. Which gifts will be most helpful during this time to bring the Kingdom of God on the earth?

Each age is defined by challenges. We need to know the challenges of our time to know which gifts we should develop and which goals we should establish. We have several serious challenges in our time.

1. Defeat radical militant religious fundamentalism.
2. Defeat atheism's and materialism's grip on culture.
3. Bring people of all faiths into one community of God. There is only one God, after all. That includes creating Peace Cities throughout the world.
4. Create a viable world government on the model of the United States, with a federal government and state nations.
5. Use science to create a way of life in harmony with nature.
6. Develop a global economy that brings everyone into mutual prosperity. In the wake of that prosperity will come proper nutrition, universal education, and universal health care.
7. What have I forgotten? Oh, yes! Create new ways to have fun together and enjoy this marvelous Garden of Eden!

Now is a marvelous time to be alive. Especially for babies. They have a life time of exciting challenges and opportunities. As parents, the best thing we can do to prepare them for the challenges of this century is to create an environment in which they will want to know God. Rather than dictate to them what God believes, raise them to dialogue with God. Then they will know what to do with their lives.