Purpose

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day and an awesome week coming to a close for you! This is going to be a great, great day Friends...I can just feel it!

This morning the burden on my heart is something I touched on just a couple of weeks ago and yet, it continues to gnaw at me. I would like to briefly put this into context for you:

• Last week I met with a great friend, a great mentor. She is what society would define as highly successful and yet she finds herself in that awkward season of life when she is trying to decide what to do with her life. She knows she is a great teacher, she knows that she is a great mentor and there is a soft, distant call in her heart to do consulting work. For some reason she hasn't, she can't. Instead she keeps working at a job that doesn't bring complete fulfilment, complete peace. She is excellent at what she does and yet there is still an emptiness.
• As a college football coach and athletic director I have talked to thousands of young men and women embarking on their life journey. More often than not, when talking about life purposes, goals and plans the conversation would go like this; "I am majoring in (whatever) so I can get a job doing (whatever) however what I have always really wanted to do is (fill in the blank with the purpose, the dream that will, far to often, go unfulfilled).
• Think about it; how many people have you met that are working at a job, doing things with their life, that bring them no peace, no fulfillment, no satisfaction and yet they continue to do it day after day, month after month, year after year. They are living productive lives as members of society and yet sadly, they have not truly come alive.

I want to share a great quote with you that I think might hold some of the secret as to why many of us, perhaps most of us, don't pursue the cry of our spirits - the dreams that have been placed within our hearts:
"Never tell a young person that anything cannot be done. God may have been waiting centuries for someone ignorant enough of the impossible to do that very things." - G.M. Trevelyn

I want to approach this from a few of different angles:
1. As parents, caregivers we impart our values, thoughts, ideas, etc. on the precious spirits with whom we are given the honor and privilege of leading, guiding, protecting. Our values, thoughts and ideas are shaped by our life experiences and are impacted by our own personal fears, hang-ups, etc. Driven from a heart of love - truly, harm is not intended - we want what is best for our kids, those with whom we are given the privilege of leading, guiding and protecting, and yet, it can be us - the parent, the caregiver - who gets in the way. I believe our real purpose as parents, caregivers is to help these precious spirits find their purpose, to encourage them to pursue their dreams, to pursue the burdens of their hearts...not make them pay rent to the worries, fears, hang-ups of our lives.
2. Some of us, though we may be 30, 40, 50, 60, 70...are stuck at the point of "young person." You see, the moment that someone who we love, respect tells us that the dream we have is dumb or that a goal that we want to accomplish is impossible - if we let it take root in our heart - our growth stops. We are still the 5-year old girl who dreams of becoming a doctor so she can find the cure for cancer or the 6-year old boy who dreams of traveling around the world teaching leadership to those in impoverished countries on the inside while on the outside we serve as administrative assistants or accountants (I am not saying these are bad professions to pursue...so long as that is the dream of your heart!). You see these people all the time. They are the one's who are working jobs, often highly successful in what they do and yet, when you talk to them, they will tell you what they have always dreamed of doing, of becoming. Their face lights up, you can feel the passion. You see Friends, our purpose will continue to call to us, regardless of whether we ever, ultimately heed it's call.
3. Who told you that you are not smart enough? Who told you that something cannot be done? Who told you that you would fail? Who told you it is not worth the risk? The questions could go on and on. While I have no doubt these people really do love you and you greatly love and respect them...this is a part of what makes this all so hard. The truth is that you are created for a purpose, there is a dream, a goal that you have in your heart that you are perfectly equipped to accomplish...you truly lack nothing. The great hindrance often times is fear. We don't know how to do something so we don't. We don't want to fail so we don't attempt it. While we don't have success we don't have failure either. I wonder how many great business we would have today, how many diseases would be cured, how many great thoughts, ideas would have grown to fruition in action, if we did not pay rent to fear, if we did not let it control our lives and instead allowed the fulfillment of our purposes to control our lives.

I want to share the lyrics from a song and a couple of more quotes with you. Please let them speak to your heart as they will:

• Lyrics from the song "What Faith Can Do" by Kutless

It doesn't matter what you've heard

Impossible is not a word

It's just a reason for someone not to try

Everybody's scared to death

When they decide to take that step

Out on the water

It'll be alright

Life is so much more

Than what your eyes are seeing

You will find your way

If you keep believing

• "To the timid and hesitating everything is impossible because it seems so." - Sir Walter Scott
• "What we can or cannot do, what we consider possible or impossible, is rarely a function of our true capability. It is more likely a function of our beliefs about who we are." - Anthony Robbins

Please let me know if there is anything I can do for you or your family Friends. I will always be happy and willing to help you any way I can.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please enjoy & cherish those precious families.

Kev