Our Warmed-Up, Leftover Lives

Let me ask you a question I’ve been asking myself lately.

What do you wake up in the morning for?

No, seriously, let’s start here.

What keeps you waking up in the morning, every morning? There’s got to be something. If there wasn’t, then you wouldn’t keep doing it. Right?

Now, I’m not trying to make light of life. I recognize it’s a gift. It comes straight from God down to us. He controls our coming and going. According to Psalm, He’s acquainted with even our rising and down-sitting.

When you get right down to it, there’s something that propels all of us to doing more than just mere breathing. There’s something inside of all of us that calls us, beckons us, really, to truly live.

If you are anything like me, there are things in your life that make you feel more alive. Something inside of you feels more full, vibrant, and inspired when you do those things. (For me, those things are writing, reading, thinking/dreaming how the world can be a better place and what I can do with “my” tiny corner of it, singing-in-the-shower-at-the-top-of-my-dear-little-lungs, sending hand-written cards in the mail, creating and crafting things, conversing one-on-one about the deeper issues of life, reuniting with dear friends, watching Father of the Bride for the 50^th time in a year, etc.)

Conversely true is this: there are things in your life that make you feel drained, exhausted, worn-out, and (to get a little dramatic about it) sometimes make you feel near-dead. (I’m not going to give you my list for this one because it’d be sorely anti-climatic and would probably open up the door to truckloads of judgement…haha.)

Regardless of how our lists compare or contrast with one another, we all have lists.

Things that make us feel near-dead.

And things that make us feel most alive.

And guess what? God is the creator of both. He’s the Designer, the Overseer, the Controller, the only One Who sovereignly governs it all. Everything, every-little-thing, in our lives has purpose because we have a God of purpose that perpetuates purpose in all things. Nothing is accidental. Nothing is wasted. All is redeemable. All is worth something. All things have purpose.

With those thoughts in mind, I have another question for you. (Again, one I’ve been asking myself lately.)

At the end of each day, reflect back and ask yourself what takes all your time and energy away?

Are they the things that make you feel most alive?

Or are they the things that make you feel near-dead?

The reason I’m asking you these things, and the reason I’m asking myself these things is this:

My roommate and I recently had an interesting situation come up in the apartment.

Nothing elaborate, just basically, she went to microwave something, and ended up with a wasted meal and the entire house smelling like a legit cigar factory. (No joke. This was a job that Febreeze couldn’t even handle. We had to get the open-the-glass-door-but-not-the-screen-door combo involved in the stench-attack.)

I know that story sounds like it has nothing to do with the blog and thoughts I just poured out to you, 

but stick with me. It actually has everything to do with what I just shared.

How? Well, you see, our microwave didn’t decide just yesterday to go on the blitz and start pumping out cigar smoke (minus the cigars). No, it had problems waaaay before that. Any time, both before and after, we went to use the microwave for its designed purpose of heating up food, it would just run continuously. On its own. For seemingly no purpose at all. I even joked, at one point, that we had a microwave ghost in our midst. Although we should’ve addressed our off-task microwave performance before it got to the point of stench, food-ruin, and open windows, we didn’t. We just kinda rolled with it, chalking it up as just another quirk of apartment living. (Kinda like the guy with lead footsteps that lives above us…. another blog, another time…)

All that to say this: the silly little now-non-useful-microwave in my apartment got me to thinking. 

Would it have lasted longer, had it stayed on track? Stayed within its bounds? Stuck to the purpose it was designed to accomplish? (The phrase, “You had ONE JOB!” comes to mind… I would tell that to my microwave, too, if it’d have any return value.) In short, if it stopped running all over the place when it shouldn’t have, it would’ve done just fine with the job it was supposed to be doing all along.

Bringing it further home, would we last longer in our jobs, marriages, families, relationships, ministries, etc. if we simply stayed on our own lane in the track of life? Stay within our bounds? Stuck to the purpose we are designed to accomplish? Focused on doing the things we do well, and declining doing the things we don’t do so well?

Letting the desire to people-please take a back seat to the design and purpose and strength areas God has individually placed inside of our hearts. Actually, no, not letting them take a back seat. Letting them hitchhike a ride with whoever else is foolish enough to carry that load in their pick-up truck.

Letting others take center stage, and enjoying the behind-the-scenes all-access-pass to watching them blossom and succeed in your stead.

Having a less busy, yet more productive life overall.

I’m afraid that as I asked myself these questions lately, I quickly recognize that I sometimes have been using up my time and energy on the very things that drain the sweet God-given life out of me, instead of investing time and energy into the things that bring to life all the potential God has packed inside of me.

I’ve been operating within the realm of man-made or self-made purposes, which very quickly can lead us all directly outside the realm of the God-given, tailor-made purposes our unique lives were fashioned to accomplish. Not to mention distract us from the greater purpose of contributing to the hurting, aching, dying world of potential and wasted purpose all around us.

Instead of simply waking up each morning to another warmed-up, left-over life, try living out your purpose, out of your own unique design, structure, framework, and purpose.

Always using your strengths as a tribute to God’s glory.

And always offering your weaknesses as a tribute to His grace.

As for now, that’s all I’ve got for you. At the beginning of each day, what do you wake up every morning for? At the end of each day, what do you recognize you’ve spent and wasted all your time and energy on? Hopefully, it’s kindling inspiration and purpose in the lives of others, and not just warming up an intense amount of potent cigar smoke.

Anyone can live without a microwave. In fact, it’s probably better, in the long run, if we did.