You’ve seen the headlines — “Elon Musk’s Top 10 Secrets for Success,” “How I Became an Entrepreneur — and So Can You,” “One Rule Steve Jobs Followed to Achieve His Dreams.”
A lot of personal development and growth articles hold useful takeaways, but after three or so of these blogs with your morning coffee, how much are they really helping you live into your God-given gifts? While many of the tips are good, the overall message that these countless articles send might not be so good, and that is: in order to be successful in life, you have to be more like x, y, or z.
We all want to know how to live out our purpose in this world, but the truth is all those articles can’t tell you what your unique purpose is — no one can. When you turn up the voice of family, friends, influencers, and entrepreneurial superstars telling you things, you end up with a lot of noise and few answers.
So how do you tune into your unique radio wave? How do you figure out your purpose and what that looks like?
God created the world as an orchestra
While bands, quartets, ensembles, and all bring music to life in a beautiful way, there’s something breathtaking about the complexity and scale of an orchestra. Each musician is intensely focused on their part, and when everyone plays their music to the best of their ability, that’s when the magic happens.
We are all like musicians in the orchestra of God’s story.
Everyone plays their own part
You don’t know another person’s part, and they don’t know yours. Someone else’s instrument may require totally different breathing patterns, and your sheet music might be in treble clef while theirs is in bass. While listening to someone else’s practicing tips might be helpful, no one can really tell you how you should be playing your part.
The same is true for how we live out our purpose and gifts. Elon Musk can’t tell you how to be successful, and the choices Steve Jobs made to follow his dreams might not be the right choices for you — you’re an individual with different talents on a totally different life path.
So where do you look for guidance?
Every musician follows a conductor
With around 100 musicians in an orchestra, someone has to lead, otherwise instruments play out of sync, and all you end up with is a cacophony. Our planet, with nearly 8 billion people in the world, is an orchestra on a much grander level — and God is the divine conductor.
Here are a few ways that plays out in his song on earth:
- He gives roles to each person, based on their unique gifts
- He knows all parts to the song, even though each person may not understand parts outside their role
- The music brings him joy
What does this mean for you?
The fact that God is the divine conductor is good news; it means success metrics aren’t defined by your neighbor or coworker or even Elon Musk. Instead of being filled with a sense of unease that maybe you’re not making the right career or family moves compared to your peers, you can be filled with a sense of peace that the only one you’re accountable to is God, and he’s the only one you need to be taking cues from as well.
Focus on the divine conductor. Focusing on anything else, like following someone else’s lead, throws the music out of whack.
So what’s your part?
As Christians, we want to know what work God has called us to do and how we can serve him in it. The best way to know your part is listening to God, being his apprentice, and reflecting on your experience and giftings.
Where do you see yourself in God’s orchestra? What experience and desire do you have that has uniquely shaped and prepared you in any particular area? God speaks to us every day through our deepest desires. Out of our deepest desires emerges our design, and out of our design emerges our destiny.
What is your role in God’s kingdom on earth? God’s orchestra is not made up of only people who work in the church; do you have particular influence in any sphere of society, such as media, family, entertainment, government, education, church, or elsewhere?
This article is part of an ongoing series exploring what it means to live out the Christian faith in all areas of life: family, media, church, art & entertainment, education, government, commerce & technology.
©2021 Cities Project Global
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