Those people that know me know I love sports. While hockey is really my first love, college football has slowly but ever so surely come to take a significant part of my life. This week of New Years is a dream week for college football fans. For me, this past week I have taken particular interest in a man by the name of Jim Harbaugh. He just left coaching the San Francisco 49’ers of the National Football League to take on the job of coaching the Michigan Wolverines college football team. Many might look at this as a step backwards–from professional sports coach to amateur sports coach. So when the reporters from various sports magazines and television stations asked him why his answer was very interesting; I would boil his response down to “following his heart”.
In my opinion, this is the answer that most of us give when we answer people as to why we do what we do. We are just following our heart. Now don’t get me wrong there is lots to admire about Jim Harbaugh. My concern is that if this is all any of us did, we would be in serious trouble. Following our hearts can lead us into all kinds of temptations and wrong doing. We are leading ourselves down a path of destruction if we are doing something because of “desire”, because “it feels good”, because our heart says its okay.
More and more our culture is becoming very impatient with the question of purpose. Why do we do “this” or why do we do “that”? Why do you do the job you do? Why did you marry the person you did? We don’t like the question, but to be honest, I think it is one of the best questions that we could possibly ask. At this time of year when people are thinking about life goals and new years resolutions, what better question to ask ourselves than “why”? Essentially we are asking the question what is your purpose in life?
I arranged a few weeks ago for a young man to come and preach at Alma Bible Church. In his message he took us to the story of Moses and the burning bush. From that story we see a man who is being called by God. This is the beginning of the story where God calls on Moses to be the person to become the leader of Israel and to take them out of slavery in Egypt and into a new land, into a new country and begin again. A daunting task, no doubt. Many of us would freeze at the very thought. But Moses doesn’t just freeze, he has all kinds of reasons for not doing it. He questions, he challenges and he doubts. If you read the text you will see what I mean. You can almost visualise Moses saying, “Sure great idea, but who are you? Who do I tell them sent me? How can I do this? I am not a leader. I am not a speaker.” The excuses from Moses are plenty.
When the conversation was done, Moses conceded to the will of God. He didn’t follow his heart, but instead he chose to follow God. I wonder what it would have looked like if Moses had followed his heart. Likely he would have gone back to his wife, and spent his remaining years enjoying the pleasures of life. Regrettably this is us too. God presents so many opportunities for us to follow Him and serve him, but often we turn away and instead follow our hearts. It is so much easier to be consumed by the joys and tribulations of our lives and not give consideration to the fact that God desires for each of us to reach out beyond ourselves and minister to the needs of those around us.
My question for all of you reading this article is this – what has God called you to do? Have you responded to God, have you ignored him, or like Moses have you tried making excuses? Please understand, I believe that God is calling every one of us. I believe that he calls on each of us and asks us to follow Him. Are you listening? Have you responded to Him? There is great gain for the person who resolves to live his or her life for God (answering the why we do what we do question?) .
I am not saying that life will be easier, but it sure will be more satisfying. Having a clarity of purpose, living for God alone, gives you that amazing feeling of contentment and fulfilment.