passion and purpose

I'm thinking about purpose today, and how my true purpose in life intersects with my dreams. Thinking back to my younger years, I recall a number of dreams for my life: some outlandishly unrealistic and others simply put on hold for "someday."

I realize that childish dreams are giving way to those of greater purpose, of a spiritual nature. And  I wonder: am I too old to pursue a completely new, and as my family might imagine, surprising path for life?

As a teenager, I harbored a completely romantic dream: to live alone in a small bungalow at the beach, supporting myself as an artist. Funny to ponder now. Not that I wanted to live as a hermit all my life, but this pre-marriage, pre-family, naive goal seemed like the ideal way to start life as an adult. Then came college, marriage, the work world, and immersion in twenty-five years of motherhood.

A new dream is now rearing its head. Last fall when I spent several days with my dad during his hospital stay, I marveled at the nurses and other medical staff. They were skilled, efficient, calm and caring. I took copious notes on dad's diagnoses and medications. I imagine caring for sick and hurting people, as well as their families. But then, reality pulls me back: a new career at my age? One that requires years of training? Perhaps such musings are due to my nurturing nature, a by-product of all my years as a mother.

As I write, our friend Rob Dawkins (pictured here), a family physician in North Carolina, is headed to Haiti with a team of medical staff to spend ten days providing medical relief in the wake of the recent horrific earthquake. Rob is responding to a life-long passion. This intrigues and draws me. In fact, the idea of mission work has been on my mind for some time. I picture myself in Haiti, holding a hurting child, praying with a destitute mother, sleeping on a simple cot. I wonder if I could. I wonder if I should. I ask God, why have you given me these thoughts, these tugs on my heart?

I believe without a doubt that God creates each of us for unique purposes. His Word affirms this over and over, and it excites me no end to realize that while my job of rearing children is almost over, I can be certain new tasks lie in my future. How amazing to trust that God's ways will, in the coming years, intersect with my passions. In fact, he's the one who GAVE me the passions in order to fulfill his purpose for my life. Brilliant, if you ask me.

What about you? I'd love to hear about your passions and purpose in life, and how you see them changing.

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10