Useful
“Now that I have gone through my initiation, I am ready for anything, anywhere.”
- Apostle Paul
What if nothing was wasted?
The good, the bad.
The glory and the wreckage of our lives.
What if every bit of it had value?
Every part had meaning and redeemable purpose?
That would mean that everything that you felt had disqualified you to make a difference and do something extraordinary with your life, was exactly the opposite.
One of the most glorious gifts of the Kingdom is that, as redeemed, even the challenges, screw-ups, mistakes, and missteps of our lives, are to our further qualification. Instead of disqualifying us from having an impact, they are actually the fuel or the experiential currency necessary to live an impactful life.
When I started to look at the low points of my life as preparation instead of disqualification, I went from victim to victor. I am not disqualified, but even more qualified. While I felt that I was running through a thick forest, bouncing off one tree and then another, there was a beautiful and powerful different interpretation available.
When I was able to stand back and take some time, both the challenging times and the good, the thick forest and the clearings, were all aligning in a powerful path. I started to see all of those experiences not as disqualifications, but as an initiation for something more and better.
The challenging times were no longer depleting, but part and parcel with the joy and glory and of inestimable value. Nothing was wasted. Everything mattered. All was equal and useful.
This is the treasure in the field that you should sell everything to purchase that field. This is the path to monetizing all that experiential currency. This is the way you uniquely offer his hands and feet. The particular way you offer his glory and operate as a co-heir of his Kingdom. Maybe there are many ways to determining this sort of pathway through your deeply forested life and journey, but I found it through a LifePlan retreat.
Where the challenging trees once seemed foreboding and ominous, I could now admire their glory, the strengthening resolve of them. The guidepost they provided. Instead of being overwhelmed, shadowed, damp, and lost, they now illuminated a path.
Not only was every significant event of my life (both the good and bad) repurposed in my mind, they became markers that vectored my life into a powerful, clear, and inspiring direction. With evidence so incontrovertible, that I couldn’t venture in that direction. And not only was the path now clear, I was aware of how tooled up and prepared I was for the journey.
Every day has been different. Every experience useful. I found different perspective and purpose. As Oswald says, “Launch all on the rising tide of God’s purpose and get yourself lost.”
If any of this conversation stirs your heart, follow the thread all the way to the end. Go after this treasure of great price and don’t stop until you find it. If you are interested in taking the journey I took, we still have spots available for our upcoming LifePlan retreat, March 29-31.
Consider
Do you feel like you are disqualified?
Do you know that everything you have ever experienced is actually part of your glory?
Are you interested in redeeming your entire story and rewriting the direction of your life?
How much are you willing to risk to find it?