What Do I Do With My Life?
CONSECRATED No. 71 - 1 Thought. 2 Quotes. 3 Verses.
1 THOUGHT
What do I do with my life?
This question has been the cause of more paralysis, anxiety, uncertainty, and fear than nearly any other thing I’ve seen in the life of believers. My own life included.
There is so much fear around making the wrong choice. Taking the wrong path. For example:
Choosing the wrong career.
Picking the wrong university.
Taking the wrong job.
Dating the wrong person.
In their book The Power of Moments, Chip & Dan Heath make a profound and vital observation. In their research they found that, “Action leads to insight more often than insight leads to action.”
“Action leads to insight more often than insight leads to action.” - Chip & Dan Heath
In their book they give two examples.
In the first, they share the story of a woman who had a dream of starting a bakery. She loved to bake cakes. So she started a bakery on the side and began her side hustle. After about a year of running her bakery, she had the realization that she actually hated it. She loved to bake, but only when it was for fun. She didn’t enjoy baking on demand for customers.
They ask the question, “Was this endeavor a failure?”
To which they answer, “Ultimately, no.” This was a moment of insight. Of self-discovery. Of realizing that this wasn’t what she wanted to do with her life.
But she never would have gotten that insight of she hadn’t taken action.
They give a similar example of a man who finds his dream job by taking an entry level position that he didn’t love, but was available. Through taking that position, he discovered a role at the company that he felt like he was made for.
He never would have found his dream job if he hadn’t taken action on what was in front of him.
The goal is learning. The goal is action. Not making the perfect choice on the first try.
(To all of my perfectionist friends reading this letter… read that sentence above again).
Most of us are waiting for some divine revelation from God about what we’re supposed to do with our lives before we take action. But it usually doesn’t work like that.
Divine revelation often comes on the other side of action.
At the end of the day, it’s a stewardship issue. God wants to know if you will steward the small things He puts in front of you before He gives you insight on the life-long thing He’s made you to do.
The primary keys to discovering what God has made you do are as follows:
Action > Analysis
Action > Perfection
Experimentation > Introspection
Doing Something > Doing Nothing
There are so many places in Scripture that illustrate this truth, but for the sake of brevity I’ll just give you one: Mark 16:20. It says,
“Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them…”
I love that it says they preached everywhere. They didn’t have a direction on a specific city or place yet. Just “to the ends of the earth.” So what did they do? They preached everywhere. They didn’t wait for direction on a specific place or city they were supposed to go to before they acted. They took action with the level of insight and direction they currently had.
But what happens after they take action on what God gives them? He starts giving them specific cities and regions and people they were supposed to go to. Like Peter with Cornelius or Paul with the Macedonians.
But that specificity was on the other side of action.
Take action. Experiment. Go with what you know. Do something. And as you do, God will give you greater insight.
2 QUOTES
“Do the next right thing.”
- Elisabeth Elliot
“The book of acts was written because the Apostles acted.”
- Reinhard Bonnke
3 VERSES
“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.”
Ecclesiastes 9:10
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.”
Matthew 7:24
“All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty.”
Proverbs 14:23
A RESOURCE
Grit by Angela Duckworth is a great book on how action leads to insight.
