Description

As we enter the latter third of our productive lives, we will likely need to consider how our life purpose and mission may need to adapt as we make transitions during this season of life. We will discuss issues relating to our calling and our vision and how these will impact the goals that we still have for our life. Some of the tools offered will be a Time Line and Life Purpose Statement. As we go through this process, we will discover that we are better prepared to fulfill the purposes God still has for our life.

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Video Script

Episode 16 Intro: Your Life Purpose 

In this episode I want to help you consider what how your life purpose and mission may need to adapt as you transition to the final third of your life. We will discuss issues relating to our calling and our vision and how these will impact the goals that we still have for our life. Some of the tools offered will be a Time Line and Life Purpose Statement. As we go through this process, my hope is that we will discover that we are better prepared to fulfill the purposes God still has for our life.

Mission

Well with only two episodes left we are getting to the end of our series. I hope you have found this series helpful as you consider where you have been and any changes you may need to make moving forward. If you have a copy of the workbook, we are now on page 55.

Having a personal mission or calling is something we need at every stage of life, from youth to older age. Without a purpose, hope in the future is not possible (Jer. 29:11). Without hope in the future there is little reason to believe in faith for anything. This purpose, or mission, may be a continuation of our life’s calling, but it also may require changes as we age. This will also likely involve a change in the how or “strategy” of fulfilling that mission (2 Thess. 2:16).

Timeline

It can be very helpful during this season to revisit or update our own Time Line, as well as our Biblical Life Purpose. A Personal Time Line can be a helpful tool to identify the context of what God has been doing in our life and what he still may want to do. The Timeline is basically an succinct organized outline of our life. On one row we list the Key Incidents from our personal and professional experiences. In another row, the major roles we have had during each phase of life and the sphere of influence and those who have influenced us are listed. The goal is to prayerfully consider what Values or Lessons God was teaching you in each season or phase of life. This does not happen in one sitting and it may take months to put together. We provide this in the Mentoring thru Intentional Relationships – Guide 1 if you would like to use that model or you can get it separately from our website.

Life Purpose

Our Time Line can also help us identify our life purpose. We have been using the term, “calling” and I specifically use it to identify What we do. Our “purpose” is the WHY we do what we do and then our  “Vision” is what will be the result or what it will look like. So our calling and purpose will actually be expressed in our vision. We will discuss this in more detail in this episode, but the first step is to consider what our purpose is, why we exist. This is not so much what we do, but our overall reason to be.

Let’s just pause for a moment and review,

What is your mission? What is the same and what needs to change as you enter the final stages of your life and ministry?

If you have not done so, do a TimeLine and reflect on what you learn by studying how God has led you up to this point.

What has been your life purpose and how may this need to change moving forward?

Calling

I would suggest that there is quite a difference between being called and being driven. We all know people in our lives who are driven by either an inner ambition or even a sense of duty to accomplish something (Gen. 11:4). While we may admire such drive, I think it’s helpful to consider if we are being driven by vain ambition or even duty out of guilt. The contrast is being motivated by a “calling,” which has a completely different motivation and is much healthier. A Calling is an inner motivation that is based upon God’s plan for our lives, rather than just our plan for our lives. It is multi-faceted as it is a combination of our interests, our natural abilities, our unique gifts, and special competency we have acquired.

If we come to this stage of our life feeling tired and drained, is it possible that we have been driven by ambition or perhaps a false sense of duty, rather than following God’s call for our lives. If this resonates with you in any way, now may be a good time to do whatever is necessary to return to a contentment in our calling. Rather than being driven by unhealthy motives we need to return to what God’s purpose is in our lives.

At this stage of life we may need to reconsider our current calling and how this relates to what we have done up to this point in our lives. While the two may be similar, since we have the same giftings, personality and so on, it is likely that there will be difference as our roles change and we assess our limitations during this season. At this stage of life it is usually not an easy thing to adjust aspects of our calling, after all we have become quite proficient at what we do in our career or ministry. This means that we can probably function a bit on auto pilot in the area of our strengths.

While on one hand this can be efficient and productive, we have to make sure that we are relying on God and not just functioning on our own strength and wisdom. This is why we need to re-evaluate and adjust during this season.  Instead of just plowing full speed ahead, we need to pause long enough to consider what our life purpose and mission is and how this will inform our understanding of our calling moving forward.

We may find ourselves discouraged with how our ministry and life has unfolded and so we may need to regroup and rethink our future priorities.  Alternatively, life and career may have exceeded our expectations and so we need to redefine what “success” looks like in fulfilling God’s calling on our lives. As the runway shrinks, it will become even more important to have a time of introspection in order to prioritize what we will do in this last stage of our life and ministry.

 So when it comes to calling

Are you discouraged as to how your life/ministry has gone or have your expectations of life/ministry been exceeded? How does your answer impact your calling moving forward?

What aspects of your calling are the same and what needs to change as you finish your race? Spend extended times with the Lord so that he can reveal his calling on your life as you finish your race.

Vision

We have been discussing our mission and calling and how this may shift during the last third of our productive lives. While these terms are used interchangeably by various authors, I have tried to define them here for our purposes. The overall goal of helping you regain vision and meaning in your life is more important than the nuances of the terms themselves. The practical tools that can help with this is a Life Purpose statement and a Timeline. I find that I have revisited and reworked these at various stages in my own personal and professional life.

Vision is the result of our life purpose and calling. Vision has to do with a new challenge or dream. Particularly if we have been successful and effective in our lives, we may arrive at this time in our life and realize that we need a new vision. If we have achieved all or many of our goals we may find ourselves lacking motivation and having less drive in life. Visions are like big goals. Not just for a day, month, or year, but something that God still has for us to accomplish in our lifetime.

We see Moses, even at 80 years of age, having a modified vision for which God had been preparing him for all his life (Ex. 3:1-15). He had spent forty years in Pharaoh’s household in Egypt and then forty years in the desert with God. Who knows, God may have needed forty years to undo some of what he learned in the first forty! But all together, God was preparing him through the first eighty years of his life for what he wanted him to do in the final forty years of his life. Everything before he was the Moses we know as leading the Children of Israel, was preparation for his true life calling. Remember, God usually saves the best for last. From wine at weddings to callings in our lives.

Like Moses, God allows us to go through many circumstances throughout life in order to mold us into the image of his Son. Many of these events have likely been confusing and even painful, but they have all been designed by God to make us into the person we are today. God wants to now take the person that we have become and give us a new vision that will give us motivation and passion to finish the race he has given us to run.

Take some time and consider what your vision is for the final leg of your race. In what ways does this take into considerations your stage of life and limitations?

If you have adjusted your vision to focus on the relationships that are important to you during this time, what steps will you take to make sure this happens?

Goals

Now Goals relate to the How of the vision. They put meat on the bones so to speak, How we will go about accomplishing our vision? Taking into consideration our current realties and limitations, what are the strategies that will be necessary to accomplish the vision God still has for us to fulfill? While goals are helpful as measurable markers of our vision, it is important to remain flexible in determining and implementing them. They need to serve the calling and vision, not be the driver of our calling. For example, we shouldn’t get locked into our goals and then try to make our calling fit into them.

In other words, we don’t want to get locked in to the “how” of what we are doing and forget the “why.” This is particularly important during the last third of our lives and ministry, as we have less time to get it right. While our vision may remain somewhat constant throughout our lives, it is very likely that we will have to make some changes in our goals in order to accomplish the big picture during the latter season of life.

So why not Write down your goals or ways that you will accomplish your vision for the last segment of your ministry. Prayerfully think through each of these areas as you consider what God still has for you to accomplish.

In Episode 10 you may recall that we discussed the Two Commissions and the Two Commandments. We saw that the Great Commission in Matthew – making disciples of all people – should flow from the Great Commandment — to love the Lord with all our heart, mind, and soul. We also saw that making the world a better place – indicated by the Cultural Commission in Genesis – should only flow from Jesus’ the New Commandment of loving each other.

In light of this, we have taken some time to reconsider our mission in this latter stage of life in this episode. This included looking at our life purpose, our calling, our vision and the resultant goals to achieve that purpose. While these are separate from each others, they need to be considered and implemented together. In our final episode I want to encourage you to be full of vision and hope even as you age. I hope that your life will leave the legacy that God intended when he created you. It’s going to be a good wrap up and so I hope you will be able to join me.