Distracted.

"Don't let what God has called you to do distract you from what God has called you to do." (Part 1)

Words I never heard anyone utter.

When I first started listening to this podcast, I assumed in my mind that Brian Houston would be preaching about how our work can distract us from loving people. Makes sense, doesn't it? God made us to love Him and to love people!

Then Houston takes the message in a whole different direction: sometimes people can distract you from your purpose. Sometimes their opinions can hinder you from growing into your calling.

WHAT?!

"So if you're going to follow Jesus that means your life is going to be going somewhere. And if your life is going somewhere, I will guarantee it, not everybody around you is going to like it. And we're all about the people around us! Everything that we are alive for, everything that you save for relates to the people around us. But you can't let the people around you distract you from reaching the people around you."

Wow. He just called my bluff.

In my top 5 themes of StrengthsFinder , is a theme called, "Harmony." That means I seek to be at peace with everyone. Now, I do not always consider myself a people pleaser, but when it comes to key people, I am.

Funny how this ties in with yesterday's post.
Over the last 10 months I think God has been showing me a bit of why I have struggled to launch into adult life.

I listen to everybody I trust!
Seeking counsel is not wholly a bad thing (Proverbs 11:14).
But (and here's the tie in), my advisors do not have equal or greater sovereignty in my life over the Lord and His Spirit.

All this time I would go to my parents and they would say one thing. Then I go to my best friends and they say another. My mentor will say another. My sister and brother will give me polar opposite opinions from each other.

Everyone has something different to say! But I know, deep down, when I am truly honest with myself, what is being spoken into my heart. Some people said similar things & others did not.
It is the standing up for "myself" that has proven to be the problem.

Do you know your purpose?
Do you know what God has called you to do?
What is the gift God gave you to serve to the world?

These questions have been haunting me through this season.

I am confident that I am called to make an impact for the kingdom of God.
But I feel like a slug trying to get there when I have no idea which way is up.
Like being caught up in the tumble of a wave- dizzy, yet moving, not because I am moving myself but because the opinions of those around me swept me up into motion.

It needs to stop. It has to stop. Today.
I cannot keep living for others or I will never truly live for my Heavenly Father.
All I've been doing is walking, only to realize I've been walking on a treadmill the entire time!
Never truly arriving.

I throw off the opinion of man and run to God, my Refuge and Strength.
My ever-present Help.
The Lord of my life...

If He is truly Lord, what will I do differently today?