What To Do With What You’ve Got

“What are you doing with what you’ve been given?”

— Rick Warren

Why should we care about anything in life? Well, we do care—most of us do. But we’re still confused as to our purpose. We care, but we don’t know why we do the important things we do. We also don’t know why we do the unimportant things in life, and this frustrates us.

Much of life naturally frustrates us, because life should be more significant than it often feels it is.

But the much-cherished and most-maligned secret of life is one and the same thing: the meaning of life sits enshrined within what you’ve already got within the life you have now. It’s not a distant thing. The more we rally against what ‘is’, the more we become disenfranchised to our actual God-given identity.

The purpose and fulfilment of our lives is easier than any of us generally suppose.

Working with Rick’s Question

The idea here is about purpose—the very reason for your existence. Of all the things you could do, there are some things that you’ve been destined to do. And I’m not talking about going to sleep and waking up and going to work and eating.

It’s about the things we do.

Those things we do for love, for enjoyment; those things that make us stand to attention—we really must ask why these things do what they do for us; not the negative and destructive things, but the positive and life-building things.

It’s about why we do the things we do.

When we accept the things we already have, making a commitment to make the very most of them—that is, to serve others—then we finally ‘get’ life. Then life makes sense.

The best of life is lived in that deeper space of reconciling the depths of satisfaction from the shallowness of life. When we beat back that life of shallowness and seek the true depths, the search is not easy; but, when we’ve found what we’ve been looking for, finally all makes sense.

How are we using our hands, our minds, our hearts, and our senses, to bring glory to God, through serving others, which brings joy to ourselves?

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The simplest question regarding your life purpose: “What are you doing with what you’ve got?” The best outcome is that we find ourselves lost in a purpose that consumes us in joy, which brings meaning to the rest of our lives and blesses our loved ones. It’s not about ‘doing’ per se, but it’s about the contribution we can make.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.