…you’re sure to hit it every time." Or, so the old saying goes. Reading Passion and Purity (did I mention that’s an excellent book?), one of the things that really struck me was the unswerving commitment both Elisabeth Howard and her husband-to-be, Jim Elliot, had to the work of God. For them, it meant training for years and then living in a far-flung corner of the world translating the Bible and ministering to the people. It also meant putting off marriage for five years so that they could focus wholeheartedly on God’s larger purpose. That’s a vision.
So what is God’s work for me? What purpose does He want me to be wholly dedicated to? What am I to aim for?
I prayed about and mulled over this question a lot yesterday, and this morning, as I was getting out of bed, some of the pieces seemed to start falling in to place. I wrote down some brainstorm ideas before leaving for work, and I’m planning to start working on some type of document that will lay out both the principles and practicalities of what I’m thinking right now.
I could ramble on and on now about the ideas going through my head (I’ve deleted a lot of text while writing this article), but I’m going to save that for the document, which I may or may not release. As I pray and think and write, my foremost desire is that God will show Himself to me very clearly on this issue, because I know that His ways are not my ways, nor His thoughts my thoughts.
I am at a turning point in my life; there are many decisions to be made and my life’s direction will almost certainly be set in the next few years. I don’t think Elisabeth Elliot was intending for this question of vision to be what I would find her book asking me, but I don’t think she’d mind, either. Certainly it is God who is doing the asking of my heart now.