Are you doing what you're created to do?

My previous blog post touched on two very important questions that one must constantly be wrestling with while "sharpening the ax." Are you doing what you're created to do and are you doing what you're created to do the way you're created to do it can be both be expanded on greatly, so my next two entries will go deeper on each question.

Am I doing what I was created to do?

I listened to a sermon by Erwin McManus called "Maximizing Your Strength" and he preached on Ecclesiastes 10:10. He said that he believes a lot of us live "accidental lives" - not lives that we've chosen or that we live on purpose, but lives that just sort of happen to us. We live life accidentally, not intentionally and the world around us shapes us.

You need to ask yourself if what you're doing is on purpose. Are you taking responsibility for your actions?

McManus continues saying that sometimes we take that Ecclesiastes 10:10 ax and just swing and swing and swing and live our lives, fulfilling responsibilities, choosing obscure goals and never stopping to ask ourselves the hard question: is this what I was created to do?

Sometimes we have what he called "creative envy," not living the life we were created to live. Instead, we're living the life someone else was created to live, but we want that life really bad. So we do everything we can to get that person's life, but just because you admire someones talent doesn't mean that you've acquired that talent. The reason we chose false dreams is because we don't have the confidence to believe that God created us for something that really matters as the person that we are.

What were you created to do? What's your calling? Everyone has a calling. What's your purpose on this earth? We all have a purpose.

Have you ever participated in a strength finder or type indicator test in hopes of finding your strengths? Isn't it funny how you can take a strength finder and not become any stronger? That's because these tests are designed to find tendencies, which is more like potential. It's not a strength until you fill the gap between potential and competency and skill. That range between talent and skill is discipline and that's what is needed to take all of your gifts and talents (potential) and harness and sharpen them so the ax works best.

We live in a culture of unreached potential. I meet a lot of people with potential who never become potent. When we reach our potential, life becomes easier (we don't become lazy) because we're in our "sweet spot" and doing what we were created to. To reach our potential it takes four steps and you must 1.) work hard; 2.) work hard at what comes easy; 3.) work hard until it's hardly work; and 4.) work hard at what matters most. When we can harness all of the great things God has given us, we begin to affect the world in a way that has the greatest affect that we can have.

If you fall into a category of working hard and not making progress, this is for you. Ecclesiastes 10:10 says we need to work smart by sharpening the ax. However, sometimes we don't have a sharpened ax because we live a frantic life. We don't stop long enough to ask the important questions of life. Is your life an accident or did you choose this life? Are you doing what you're called to or doing what you just felt "in to" in life? A lot of people feel like their life happened to them rather than choosing their life. Take ownership over your life.

Ask yourself, am I doing what I'm created to do? Not what anyone else wants me to do. Not what all the social pressures want me to do. Not what all the past momentum in my life seems to demand what I should do.

When you look back on your life and someone asks how you got doing that for the past 15 years are you going to say it just sort of happened? Or will you take responsibility for your life?

It's so terrifying to actually follow God into the future; it's much easier to cling to God in the past. If you want your ax to be sharp you need to ask if this is what I'm created to do. Is this the life that I chose? Have I chosen this path on purpose or am I just like drift wood floating down a river being taken where it's going?

Be courageous and do what you were created to do. Be bold and confident in who you are. If you take that step you can rest in the promise that God will indeed equip you to do all that you were created to do. "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" - Ephesians 2:10.