Your Life's Beautiful and Practical Purpose



I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the past. I tend to focus on what's in front of me and I suppose I have a straight-forward, no-nonsense approach to most things in life. 

I'm never quite sure if that's a good thing or not.


A former boyfriend once told me that what he liked best about me was that I was so . . .


{I waited breathless, eyes staring into his, wondering what he would say. Beautiful? Witty? Kind?}


Practical.

Oh. Hmmmm. Not what I expected.

He must have noticed my disappointment because he followed up with a very long explanation of how GOOD it was to be practical.


So when pieces of the present start reminding me of the past, I imagine that I should take a practical approach {like a good, sensible pair of walking shoes} to my uncertainty, knowing that somehow things will in due time make beautiful sense.


Even if I can't quite see it right now.

I wonder if your life's resume might look similar to mine?


Through the years I’ve held an assortment of jobs since I graduated from college, eager to embark on a writing career equipped with a degree in journalism. 


But it didn’t unfold quite the way I’d imagined. 


Years ago after working monotonous days at a banking software company, I thought I was getting closer to my profession when I landed a job with a helicopter company that flew local TV reporters to wherever news was breaking.


I took frantic phone calls from news desk producers bellowing for a helicopter to race their reporter to the scene so their station could be first to break the news.


After the pilot was dispatched, the producer would call back firing questions at me, “Have the other stations called yet? Are we first? What kind of a head start do we have?”

Every day was filled with urgency, chaos and plenty of barking orders. 


As exciting as this job sounded when I took it, it was demanding and stressful, 
and I begged God to help me find a new job.
  


Even though it was hard to see at the time, there was treasure buried deep in that difficult place. 


It was there, while I was desperate and stuck, that I had my first encounter with a Macintosh computer {a rarity at the time}. As I created marketing materials, I learned valuable design skills that I’ve carried with me to every job afterward. 

When I get discouraged about where I am today or wonder what tomorrow might hold, I take a look at my past.

Because in the midst of those miserable days at the helicopter company, I was asked to join a volunteer committee planning a charity event starring Kathie Lee Gifford and Regis Philbin.

It was at these meetings {where I sat terrified that the committee would discover I really didn’t know much about promotion and publicity} that I learned how to handle a myriad of details to pull off a successful event. 


And it was the recommendation from a fellow committee member for a new job planning education courses that was finally the answer to my prayer to leave the helicopter company.


Only on the other side of these tight spots where it seemed I was in such a hard place, could I see that God did answer my prayers and work out his purposes, just not as quickly as I wanted or exactly how I thought.


Because I think God sometimes asks me to get my feet wet first. And then he shows me the next step.


I work and I wait and I pray, thinking that my dreams don't look like I think they should. 

While I'm restless to move on, God is working out his purposes to make me ready for what's coming next. Whatever that may be.

As I've learned to trust his timing, God is doing a work in my character while he unfurls his plans for me. 

Sometimes he just says, Not yet. 

Does he say it to you too? 


Stay put, it’s not time to leave the job yet. 
Be patient, you’re not ready to start that business right now. 
Trust me, the timing’s not quite right for that relationship.

It’s perseverance he’s after, and it’s trust we’re to lean into.

And then we remember that he tells us that his ways are not our ways. {Is. 55:8}


Maybe I wouldn't have been able to handle any of the experiences God had for me later without all the time spent being refined and matured in hard, dusty, parched places. 


But there's always some refreshment, even in the arid places.


During my year at the helicopter company, I sometimes went flying with the pilots, once just to have lunch at a resort, landing at a hotel helipad like a celebrity. 


And after serving on the charity event committee, I sat in the audience, star-struck as Kathie Lee and Regis stood beside my table on their way to the stage and lit up the jam-packed ballroom with their performance.


Even the worst jobs and the most intimidating events have something to offer. 

And that's the practical purpose of life's experiences I'm trying to keep in mind.

Even though I might have a practical approach to life, one thing I'm really not practical about is my shoes. I stubbornly insisted on wearing heels to walk all over Paris {that's me on the right and you can read about it here}, and I'll wear high heels over sneakers any day. 

On the rare occasion I do pull out a pair of flats, they’re sure to have a little bling. 

So I guess for all practical purposes maybe I’m just a down-to-earth girl with her head in the clouds looking for the beautiful silver lining. 

And maybe that's not such a bad thing after all.

I'm linking up with my friends at Holley Gerth's place at Coffee for your Heart. Come join us by clicking the image!