Understanding This Is Critical To Finding And Fulfilling Your Calling

There’s a saying in architecture: Form follows function.

What that means is if you don’t get the function right (if the building’s strength, integrity, and usefulness are shaky), then it doesn’t matter how pretty the building is (what form it takes).

But when it comes to you and finding your life’s calling, the opposite is true:

Function follows form.

In other words, the form of you should determine the function of you. Lemme ‘splain.

Your unique “wiring” is something that (ideally) gives direction to your life. Along with your experiences, relationships, and opportunities, your wiring is like a built-in GPS meant to direct you toward your biggest impact in the world and greatest satisfaction with life.

It’s a guide that wants to help you get from where you are to where you most want to go.

That’s why it’s critically important to understand and own all of your unique form. You need to be able to identify why you do what you do, and how the way you do it is unique to you. That insight will help you find and follow your life’s calling.

But when we don’t understand the qualities that make us uniquely us, we tend to take on forms that are not ours. We try to “put on” someone else’s idea of the form we should have. We’re David in King Saul’s armor, awkward, weighted down, and not much good for anything.

Taking on forms that are not ours leads us into all kinds of disaster: paralyzing confusion, dead ends, unnecessary loneliness, and unrealized dreams. Nothing will take us in an unhelpful direction faster than trying to copy someone else’s form.

Now, let’s get biblical, y’all.

In the beginning, when God creates everything from nothing, the Bible says things were “without form.” Then God gave them form, and voila! Planets! Oceans! Starbucks! And when he took a good look at all those forms he’d made, God “saw that it was good.

With that in mind, try this: imagine God (or your idea of the divine) taking a good look at the utterly unique person you are. Then he pauses and says this about you: “It is goooooooood.”

In other words, your “form” is good for you and good for those around you.

Function follows form. So the next time you’re feeling lost, confused about your life’s purpose, or paralyzed with indecision while the clock ticks away, try doing the same:

Listen to what your form is telling you about what to do next.

Questions to think/talk/journal about:

  1. What other “forms” are you taking these days ? Can you see yourself as distinct from your parent’s form? Your pastor’s? Your employer’s? Your teacher’s? Your significant other’s?
  2. The only way to wholeheartedness (the Hebrew word is “shalom”) is by owning all of you. How can you more fully accept ALL of you? Are there parts being left out that need to be faced and embraced? Who can help you do that work?

WANT TO INFLUENCE A CROWD? TRY THIS.

Looking Cool Is Optional

I often have the chance to speak to an audience at a church or a conference, maybe at a college or a retreat.

I love speaking. I love getting to interact with a group of people that are hungry to learn and grow. Every cell in my body buzzes with electricity. My mind clears and I’m fully engaged in way I’m not with most other activities. I jump at every chance I get to do it.

And without fail, one of the first things I think about as I’m preparing to speak is, “I hope they think I’m cool.”

I’m halfway through life and I’m still worried about looking cool. Seriously??

God knows this about me, and I think he often smiles at my desire to show off. The same way I smile when one of my boys finds himself with an audience and wants them to know how he can do a somersault or climb a little higher in a tree than he did last week.

God gets it: I often look to others for validation and approval. And I don’t think he faults me for it.

But He also knows the stakes are much higher now that I’m a grown man. And that he wants to use me to help others become all that He wants them to be. And that maybe there are more important things than having people think I’m cool.

There’s a very short prayer he gave me a while back that I use every time I’m preparing and delivering some kind of message (even a blog post):

God, help me care more about what they think of You than what they think of me.

 God knows I want people to like me. He knows I care about their opinion of me. This little prayer helps me acknowledge that, to own it without being shamed.

But He wants more for me than I want for myself. And He wants more for others than I want for them. And He knows the only way we’ll all end up getting more – more life, more hope, more healing, more direction – is when He’s allowed to shine through me. When He’s not blocked by my very real concern about what others think.

That little prayer – God, help me care more about they think of you than what they think of me – has been tremendously helpful over the years.

It’s helpful when giving speeches, sure, but I’ve also found it helpful when meeting with someone I care about. Or when visiting a new place or entering a new context. Or when trying a new activity. It works anytime I run into my desire to look cool in front of someone, anytime I want to influence a person or a crowd.

Because I’ll probably still hope to look cool when I’m 80 (I won’t – I haven’t looked cool since the fourth grade). And God knows that. And he smiles at me. And he says, Jesse, I’ve got a lot more for you and others if you’ll let me shine brighter than you.

So Jesus, today, help me care more about what people think of You than what they think of me.

The Secret Power Of Selfies

How To Make Them Matter

I recently preached at my favorite church. The topic? Selfies.

To illustrate the topic, I borrowed a friend’s selfie stick. Because I obviously don’t own a selfie stick.

Anymore.

Since mine broke from overuse.

I held my phone close to my face – you know, one of those phones that you can also use to call people, if that’s something you still do. I said, from this distance, all you can really see in the frame is me.

And to be honest, it doesn’t make for a very interesting picture.

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