The Twelve Days of Purpose Lesson #2

The Twelve Days of Purpose

Coffee Hour @ Chicklit Power...

I hope you are enjoying this amazing time of year. There’s something kind of beautiful that comes out in most of us, something that only this season seems to bring out and it can either be positive or negative. Grab your coffee and let’s talk about that for a few.
Have you ever gone to the mall at Christmastime and watched people shop? Like anything else, it can either be a positive experience or a negative, depending on what you make it. But it would be kind of interesting to see how many people are truly enjoying their shopping experience versus how many are rushing, tired, cranky and frustrated. Oh, to find purpose for all we do.
Come on. Let’s talk about the next type of purpose.
Another noun definition for purpose is work, as in labor. This is the definition that is used the most for “purpose” and is used to refer to our professions, in other words, what we do for a living. Let’s stop there and process this for a little bit.
Some of us are “just paying the bills” with our jobs and while that is important, because God speaks to us about laboring to eat and provide, and it is a blessing to be able to do that, I just don’t believe that that type of work is our God-given purpose. Call me idealistic, a Pollyanna, but I have discovered, though much later than some, that we can honestly accomplish both “purposes” with the same “purpose.” I know, that was about as clear as mud so let’s see if I can bring a couple real-time examples to the table.
A job is a vocation and I’ve always thought that a vocation was a calling and I truly felt called to court reporting. When I was just twelve years old, there are several days of that year that stand out in my mind as if they were yesterday, but the three days that I spent in court testifying about things that shouldn’t have been happening to us vividly paint the trail that led me to court reporting. See, my first day on the stand, I looked over at the court reporter and said, “When I grow up, I want to be just like her.” I even went up and talked to her!
It took me sixteen years to get back to that calling, but I finally did and I’ve been a Court Reporter for twenty-two years. I thought that was my purpose . . . that is until God used my elbow and my wrist to get to my heart and peel some more layers away so I could begin walking in my avocation, which is His purpose for my life!
How about you? Have you combined your vocation with your avocation that His purpose for your life would be complete in you? Oh, friend, it’s so much easier said than done, but maybe you could begin praying about that today! He’d love to walk you to your purpose!

Purposefully,
Evinda

Christmas a year ago!