1 of 1

Key Bible Verse:As the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the open fields, while Jacob was the kind of person who liked to stay at home (Genesis 25:27). Bonus Reading: Romans 12:3-8

I was in a secondhand bookshop, thumbing through the introduction to a book, when I ran across a sentence that changed my life. The author, Gil Bailie, was sharing advice a spiritual mentor had given him: "Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive."

Suddenly my life up to that point made sense in a sickening sort of way; I realized I was living a script written for me by someone else. All my life I'd been asking the world to tell me what to do with myself. This is different from seeking counsel; what I'd wanted was freedom from responsibility and risk. I'd wanted someone else to tell me who to be. Thank God it didn't work. I couldn't bring myself to perform the scripts they handed me for very long. Like Saul's armor, they never fit. Can a world of posers advise you to do anything but pose?

Reading the counsel given to Bailie, I knew it was God speaking to me. I set the volume down without turning another page and walked out of that bookstore to find a life worth living.

—John Eldredge in Wild at Heart

My Response: What am I willing to risk in order to "find a life worth living"?

Thought to Apply: The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. —Frederick Buechner (author)

Adapted from Wild at Heart (Nelson, 2001) by permission.

Copyright © 2009 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

 1 of 1

share this page

Prayer for the Week

Thank you for the way you created me. Please help me understand how your design should affect my career and service choices.

				Try an Issue of Men of Integrity Free! Name Street Address City/State/Zip E-mail Address No credit card required. Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Offer valid in U.S. only. Click here for International orders. If you decide you want to keep Men of Integrity coming, honor your invoice for just $19.95 and receive five more issues, a full year in all. If not, simply write "cancel" across the invoice and return it. The trial issue is yours to keep, regardless. Give Men of Integrity as a gift Buy 1 gift subscription, get 1 FREE!

FREE Newsletter Sign up for the Men of Integrity Newsletter (All fields required)    RSS Feed   RSS Help