What’s more important in life, your gifts or your passions? If you had to choose between living a life doing something you were passionate about or a life doing something you were good at what would you do? And I think the deeper question is, what are the standards you should use in making a choice like this?
Happiness: I know for a lot of people, the ultimate standard in life is happiness. “Do what makes you happy” “Just follow your heart” and all the other clichés that follow. However I have a couple problems with happiness. First, happiness is a moving target. Our standards change from day to day. What we thought would make us happy; once we have it often leaves us just as empty as we were before. It seems like a pretty big gamble to base your life on what makes you happy without having to spend all your energy chasing the next high or pleasure. The second problem I have with happiness is it seems like a pretty cheap standard to have as the base of your life. Why is being happy the most important thing? Look throughout history and most of the great people wouldn’t have been great if they were seeking happiness. In fact most of them had to give up happiness for the sake of something greater.
Purpose: “The purpose of life is a life of purpose” – Robert Byrne. I’m inclined to believe that purpose lies much closer to the center of our standards than does happiness. However my question is how do you use this as a standard in making decisions? What is a life of purpose? Does a stay at home mom live any less of a purpose filled life than does the president? And who is to say whether your life will have more purpose if you follow your passions or serve in your giftedness? It seems to me that living a purposed filled life lies more in who you ‘are” rather than what you ‘do.’ Live selflessly, love others and give yourself to what you believe and you are living a life of purpose; no matter what you ‘do.’
God’s will: Then as a good Christian I can always spiritualize things and say, “just follow God’s will.” But I think other then “love” no idea is more misunderstood or misused than “God’s will.” Talk to five different theologians and you’ll get five different answers to what the will of God is and how far it extends. Most agree that God has a general will but what about His specific will? Should I just love Him and then do what I want? Or should I have prayed this morning because God had a will of what I would wear? Many say God’s will is just a good feeling, an understanding in your heart that ‘this is what God wants.’ But I’ve seen this fail soooooo many times can it really be a good standard to follow? “I know it’s God’s will for us to get married, never mind now God changed his mind.” I’ve even seen people convinced that it was God’s will for them to do something that was a sin. Apart from an audible voice from God I’m going to be very weary of doing a specific thing because I believe it is the will of God. Does that show a lack of faith? I don’t know but look at the millions if not billions of people in the world doing contradictory things all believing they are following the will of God. For me it needs to be more than a feeling, it needs to be founded in something concrete. (Maybe I’ll follow up someday on my view of faith but for now I’ll say it falls a lot closer to C.S. Lewis’ intellectual accent than a blind leap.)
So how do you make life’s big decisions? Or even life’s small decisions? What is the standard you use as the foundation of your life? Do you just take the path of least resistance or least pain? Maybe you just procrastinate until all your options are taken away and you’re left with just one (one of my temptations in life). Or maybe our old roommate Sarah had it right when she just puts all her options in a hat, pulled one and dedicated herself to that path.
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