Today I am thinking about the connection and difference between our purpose, our passion, our goals and Plan B.
When God said “I know the plans I have for you…” He didn’t follow it up with a business plan complete with flow charts and timelines.
Instead, He gave us our purpose through The Great Commission. In Matthew 28, Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations. That was their purpose as well as ours.
What does it mean to make disciples?
It means going out into the world and sharing the love of Christ. It means forgiving others just as Christ has forgiven you. It means talking about how Jesus came and conquered death so we can be reunited with God in heaven and restore the Kingdom of God.
How we choose to do this comes out of our passion. What do you love to do? What talents do you have that you can put your whole heart into? Going out and doing what you love to do allows you the opportunity to share God’s love and that is how you fulfill your purpose!
Now then, within our passion of what we have chosen to do is where we set our goals. For example, I want to have another Let’s Go WILD series start up in October. I will set my goals on how many I want to have in it and when registration will start up. Then I work towards accomplishing it.
This is how I am using my passion to fulfill my purpose.
a Purpose – a Passion – a Goal
Here is what’s so cool about God not telling us how we have to do our purpose, we can choose the talent we want to use AND we can have multiple ways of using that talent. You are not locked into one way of doing it!
Again with an example…
I have been a CrossFit coach for 10 years and have loved it. What was I passionate about? I was so passionate about helping people love who they are and become a better version of themselves. It also allowed me the opportunity to be a witness, to share my love for Christ in that environment.
Now, it’s not always by the words that we share our purpose. It’s not like I walked around the gym saying – “Hey, you should know Jesus. Do you know Jesus? You would be able to lift a whole lot more weight if you were a Christian.”
NOOOOOO!!! That’s not true….well, I don’t know if that’s true but that’s not what I am talking about!!
What I am saying is that through my excitement and my enthusiasm and my love for helping other people better themselves, I was able to fulfill a passion and a purpose.
But, I have run that course to the end and now my passion to help others learn to love God, love themselves and love others is coming through This Is The Day ministry.
I am setting new goals that feeds my passion and my purpose through This Is The Day ministry.
So then, what is a Plan B?
This is where it could get controversial.
In my opinion, a Plan B is a cop-out…a Plan B says I don’t trust God or myself enough that I can use my talent and passion to fulfill my purpose. So, I am going to just scoot back here with my Plan B and ride out the rest of my life. I’ll just get up, do my thing, complain about it, come home, go to bed – over and over and over. BLAHHHHH….
I think we get tripped up in the fact that our goal may change and how we choose to fulfill our purpose changes and we confuse that with having to take a Plan B.
Plan B, to me, is that white flag of surrender and that is not what I want. That’s not what we were designed to do!
When Jesus said He came to give us a life of abundance, I do not believe that He meant an abundance of crappiness or disappointment or failure or anxiety or stress. NO!! That’s all Plan B.
He said I come to give you a life of abundance, and through following Him and His purpose for our passion and talents, we find that we can have a life of abundance of peace and joy and purpose.
AHHHHHH – this totally makes me excited!
<>< KC