As we move from Success to significance in Halftime you may think God wants you to do one thing but when you go to do it you find the organization does not want you or need you. So now what?

Many times we think that we are hearing God and he is telling us where to serve. I think the important thing to remember is that God may have more than one plan for you and that’s ok. Another thought is, are you really hearing what he has to say?

Are you living Gods plan is the message we get, yet sometimes it’s not that clear. Many times it takes patience, listening and reading to truly find out what God wants for you. And it’s ok to try one area or group and come up short. The thing is not to give up hope because it did not work the first time. God didn’t say it would be easy, he just said it would be worth it

God wants all of us to make a difference, to move from Success to Significance (Coach Jeff Spadafora wrote a great blog about this) but along the way as we try and embrace new way of thinking, a new way of living, we may get mixed messages. God may be speaking to you (or you may think what you are hearing is God) and tell you that your talents and your passions and your gifts are needed in a certain place or a certain organization. But what if you go to them and say here I am and they say no? Should you give up? Should you go back to success back to what was easy or comfortable for you? Should you give up? I believe it’s a test.  A test of your heart and that’s all God is after. Many times we want to take our strengths and our gifts and what we like to do and use that for God’s will. We think that all organizations, all communities would want to open us with welcome arms. What if its no? Or ‘let us think about it’? Or ‘it’s out of my hands and I have to talk to rest of team’? Frustration can happen. But where do you turn? Back or away? Or do you go forward but in a different direction.

I had the experience of going through this. Got all the dominos to line up so I could leave success and embark on a journey of significance. I took the time to attend classes, got training and followed what I was told to do. Then no was answer. Maybe help us here. But then that turned out to be a no. WOW what a shock! All that I had been looking forward to after I retired was gone, all the planning, all the work and now no option, door closed, don’t come back soon. So now what? Where do I go?  I realized that if you’re not careful the Significant part of life can be affected by the same politics that affected the success part of your life. But do you get stuck? As I am writing this I am hearing the chorus and final lyrics in the U2 Song

U2 Lyrics _ Stuck in a Moment

“You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it

And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if your way should falter
Along this stony pass

It's just a moment
This time will pass”

 

Great lyrics and a great message. “This time will pass”.  Maybe I am just stuck in “this time”? Or just plain stuck?

So now what? Do I change me, do I stay stuck or do I sit back and ask the BIG question, again.

Why am I here?

What does God REALLY want me to do with my life?

I sat down and asked my wife Susan for her thoughts. She then reminded me of what’s gone on in the last 6 months of my life. Of how I have connected a friend who was a songwriter in Canada and a missionary who I was friends with in Romania together, to create a new Christian CD and to record some great songs. Or how I worked with a local church to design a new strategy for growth. Or how I made a great friend with great skills who has had reoccurring cancer and had stopped dreaming and had put all his dreams on the back burner in order to just survive. To get him to dream to think what IS possible and to introduce him to a partner and mentor of mine who wants to share his story with thousands at a sales retreat and to help get his business to a new level.  And to pay him for this. I am working with him on thinking of what he really wants for him and his family.  Or how when visiting with friends who had some financial challenges and had lost hope that through discussion, planning and prayer they were able to turn their business around in just 30 days and now are thriving and have reconnected with the lord. There are others like this. I had thought all was lost but she reminded me that along the way that when a door closed to me many more opened up. That maybe God had a different plan than I thought.

 So for me maybe it’s not a big project. Or just not now. Maybe it’s not a big mission. Or just not now.

But along the way the side benefit of waiting and hearing and being patient God has shown me that I can have significance by connecting people. People who have talent, who have stopped dreaming and stopped living and connecting them with others and most of all God who can show them what is possible. To show us all what is possible. Maybe my job in my second half is to help people who are stuck. Good thing God decided to help me as I was stuck!