Learning from our Teenagers

I had the privilege once again to spend a couple hours of my life in play with many of the Sr. High youth in our church last night. I was reminded again how easily we adults miss that childhood and especially the teenage years are not dress rehearsal for their life, it IS life.

These young people are going through challenges and pressures that many of us never had to face when we were there age. In case you don’t know, consider this the wake-up call. Drugs are rampant in our schools and chances are that your teen or a teen that you know either knows or has heard of someone trying to commit suicide.

Our families, our values and our beliefs are under attack my friends and our teens are on the front lines. In the midst of their being, they are also struggling to become, to become what their friends, their parents and their guidance counselors all say they “need” to become to “succeed”. Daddy’s are becoming #2 in their little girls lives and teenage sons are busily questioning and challenging and it is all a part of God’s glorious plan.

So when you’re ready to throttle them, try just one more time - tell them you love them, tell them they are precious, tell them like their life depends on it because it does.

This morning, as my 13, 15 and 16 year old headed off for school, I hugged them long and deeply and told them I love them and told them they are the most precious gifts in my life. Ahhhhh…. Life!!

Wishing you all a day and a life filled with God’s peace and passion

Finding my Purpose

One of our most innate needs, as human beings, is to find purpose and meaning and to be significant in the grand scheme of things. Regardless of your religious affiliation you have to agree that one fellow that was clear on his purpose was Jesus Christ:

John 10:10
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full”

He didn’t need a two page Mission statement -just a few words. Out of that purpose -”…that they may have life, and have it to the full” - He did many things and appeared many ways to different people.

From Webster’s:

Being: To exist in actuality; have life or reality:
Doing: To perform or execute: To fulfill the requirements of: To carry out; commit:
Purpose: The object toward which one strives or for which something exists;

We often confuse what we are “doing” with our “purpose”. Purpose is the foundation of our lives, it is the overarching theme for our existence, it is at our core. When we lose touch with our purpose we sense that something is missing and no amount of doing more, better, faster, different, fills that “missing”.

BEing is making real our purpose and it answers the question - Why do we exist. DOing are the actions that are (hopefully) born out of BEing our Purpose. And while we are on DOing - be clear that each of us are far more than what we DO and surrender (to God) is 100% compatible with taking action.

Back in 1643 the Westminster Assembly set out to answer the question of “What is the purpose of man?”. The answer is at once both eloquent and simple:

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever” .

My thoughts and prayers to each of you as you discover the inner peace and joy that is born out of purposeful living and being clear on why you are on this planet.