Upacking Your Bags - Cure for the Common Life

I love to hike. I really do. I don't do it as much as I would like but I try to as much as possible. Usually my family goes hiking on top of Mt. Eagle in TN. The hike is 2.5 miles in and out (5 miles round trip). I love this trip. The hike isn't too hard, the scenery is beautiful. There are streams and little creeks that flow, it goes along the ridge of a mountain, so you are overlooking more trees.

I remember I did this trip with some friends of mine. The trip itself was great but between the 3 of us, we brought way too much stuff. Our bags were pretty full and we only needed half of our stuff, but for some reason we brought it anyways. As I continue to go through the Max Lucado book "Cure for the Common Life", I realize that my bags were packed by God, and everything that is in them, is everything that I need to do what He has called me to. I don't have to carry around any junk with me, because He knows my purpose and has packaged me with the specific skill set to do that purpose. He delights in me doing what He has called me to do.

Last night I challenged my students to find their part in God STORY. In his book, Max looks at STORY like this:
S - What are my strengths? What am I good at, like to do?
T - What are my topics? What do I like to work with?
O - What are my optimal conditions? Do I work well under pressure or when things are slow?
R - What are my relationship? How do I relate to people? Am I an extrovert or introvert?
Y - Yes! What happens when they all come together.

Each of us has a place. Like puzzles pieces, we all fit into God's great story. He has prepackaged each of us to accomplish a goal for Him. Once we find our place, life is much better. Moses and Paul started their lives using their gifts for something other than God's plan, but God captured them and set them straight. Each man had a purpose and the gifts God gave them helped them to accomplish that. Moses lead God's people away from the Pharaoh he grew up with, and Paul went from being the church's biggest enemy to being its #1 missionary.

We are grilled as children, then teenagers, then young adults to look for the best job that pays the best money so we can be utterly happy. Most people who follow this thinking end up hating where they end up and then change their life. We need to start down the right road before we lose site of what is important. Our skills, our gifts when used properly bring glory to the God who gave them to us.

Psalms 139:15-16, "15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. "