Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Today would be my Dad's 84th birthday.

My siblings and I usually send out an email on this day and maybe recount something we miss about him or a fond story. Mine was the following:

"I was in high school and didn't get my way about something (news flash - I didn't get my way about everything S, A, D) so we had a big yelling match and I climbed to the top of the stairs and screamed at the top of my lungs "I HATE YOU!" went in my room and slammed the door. Several minutes later, he came upstairs to tell me that he was sorry for having to say no, but he loved me so much that he just couldn't let me do whatever it was that I wanted to do. Funny how I can't even recall the thing that was so hugely important to me at the time, but I can still remember how he handled it."

That is why I think it has been so easy for me to believe in a good, kind, loving God. My earthly father was all those things, but he was not so much my "friend" that he wouldn't discipline me or correct me when I was about to make a wrong turn or put myself at risk for something that had no value whatsoever.

Because of the way I was raised, I've pretty much stayed inside the lines my whole life, not because I'm boring and safe, but because I think on some level I always knew those boundaries protected me. Those times when I have gone outside, the consequences have been painful and not worth it.

I think to fulfill that yearning in our hearts to go wild at times, God will ask us to take risks and do things that feel outside the lines, but because they are His plan for us, they have positive consequences like exhilaration and growth. And there are never any regrets associated with them.

I still don't know where my job search will take me, but I know this. I will stretch myself if that's what it takes to feel that exhilaration and growth and to ignite a passion within me that burns brightly because I'm doing what I was made to do.

In my Rick Warren devotional this morning, it said:

Repeatedly, the Bible says to "serve the Lord with all your heart." God wants you to serve him passionately, not dutifully. People rarely excel at tasks they don't enjoy doing or feel passionate about. God wants you to use your natural interests to serve him and others.

How do you know when you're serving God from your heart?

The first telltale sign is enthusiasm. When you're doing what you love to do, no one has to motivate you, or challenge you, or check up on you. You do it for the sheer enjoyment. You don't need rewards, or applause, or to be paid, because you love serving in this way.

The opposite is also true: When you don't have a heart for what you're doing, you're easily discouraged.

One characteristic of serving God from your heart is effectiveness: whenever you do what God wired you to love to do, you get good at it. Passion drives perfection. If you don't care about a task, it is unlikely that you'll excel at it.

My last job was so performance driven that a fear of failure cast a shadow over everything I did. I was really good at certain things, but they wanted me to be great at things I wasn't even initially hired for and that sucked all the joy out of it.

Because God allowed my job loss to happen, I know with all my heart it's because He has something better suited for me. And rather than panic and take any ol' job just to have an income, I will rely on Him to guide me to the next thing, however long it takes. He has already provided me with an extra month's income through my IRS refund and babysitting, so I know He will continue to provide for me financially and materially through a variety of means.

One more thing from this morning that I really loved (and that ties into "Following the Pillars" and my being led into my promised land):

8 Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 9 and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your forefathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. 11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. 12 It is a land the LORD your God cares for; the eyes of the LORD your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.
Deuteronomy 11

HAPPY FRIDAY!!