I spent the better part of my young-adulthood just wading through things. I've done things I've always wanted to try (like phlebotomy) and I've done things that have landed in my lap (Medical Assisting, Trades of Hope and Photography).
At church I've answered phones, greeted people, answered questions for new-comers, worked with babies, toddlers, preschoolers, Jr. Highers and High Schooler's. I've served dinner for our mid-week service, I've done sign language, drama and scripture readings. I've organized and stapled papers, put books on shelves and filed odds and ends.
I've attended retreats, women's events, Bible studies, Sunday School classes, church services, camps, missions trips, concerts and speakers.
Why? Because that's what growing up in the church looked like. You go, you do these things and you plug in.
Most people do that their entire lives. They go, plug in and stay there. Or they go, plug in, get bored, change it up and repeat that for the rest of their lives.
They like kids, so they plug into children's ministry. They like the behind the scenes so they do the camera or video. They like details so they do that weird detailed stuff.
Sometimes the things we like may not be what we are best at. Sometimes we are doing life, in ministry and outside of ministry, that is pretty stale and boring and we don't even know it.
I don't go to Bible Studies anymore (Pastor's Wife Shocker). Kinda got tired of just talking about it all, and not going and doing it. My husband calls it "feeding fat sheep". We know it. We get it and then we sit and consume more and more and get fatter and fatter and don't actually go out and do all the things we know to do. We are just consumers. That's what Bible Study started to feel like to me. (Bible study isn't bad- that's not what I'm saying)
I study the Bible. I pray. I meet with friends weekly. We pray. We do life. We challenge one another. Bible Doing is kinda where I'm at.
I decided I didn't want to just do ministry for the sake of ministry- I wanted to find out what I was really supposed to be doing. I wanted to know what my life has shaped me for, what God has created in me and what my gifting and talents were. All of those things create a unique person with unique gifting for specific things. I don't want to be 60 years old still serving someplace to fill a hole when I could have been living in the exact spot I was created to live in.
What does that look like? It looks a little like this and this mixed together. It looks like dissecting your life. It looks like being vulnerable in front of people you trust- asking them what they see. It looks like taking this and this (or something similar) and then adding it to the other stuff. It looks like prayer. It looks like being intentional about my life and not just wading through the waters.
It looks like knowing there is more to life than a job, then money, then a house or retirement and being fully ready to dive in to what God has for me- because that is far greater than anything tangible I can hold on to.
It's good- to look at yourself and find out who you really are...for His purpose.
I feel like I'm actually growing up now, owning myself and my faith and being intentional about it.
What do you do after you're done? You stop doing all the things you've been doing that aren't what you should be doing (even things you had no idea you weren't supposed to do) and you start doing the things He's crafted you to do.
You go be awesome.
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