A New Job Description

A frequent prayer: "Lord show me the good works you have prepared beforehand for me to walk in during this season of my life."

I am not sure I fully know all of the good works He has prepared for me, but I am beginning to sense some clarity.

He has blessed me with a tremendous "margin of time" that allows me to be available to create and cultivate relationships. My "new normal" is actually God's strategic alignment of my schedule with my heart's desire to invest myself in others.


Several months ago I had a discussion with a couple of people who wanted to explore the possibility of me working with them. I left the discussion with a weird feeling. It wasn't a good fit. They wanted to build a business. I wasn't interested in that. I was interested in building people.


I had forgotten that feeling until a few weeks ago when I was re-reading yet another Gordon MacDonald book, A Resilient Life. I was particularly drawn to his discussion of one of his mentors, Vernon Grounds.

Listen to his description:


"... he was the quintessential resilient man because he always thought about his life and those around him with a big picture in mind. He has always known the center of his strength and his call. And he wasted little time out on the edges of activity where he is less competent.


... Somewhere in his earliest years it became plain to him the he was a builder of people more then anything else. People simply grew under his influence, even when he was unaware that he was exerting it.


... But even though he bore the burden of a seminary presidency for twenty-five-plus years, as I see it, he was first and foremost a builder of people.


... He understood that life was lived out of call and conviction, and his call was to build people according to God's design for them."


As I read that passage I underlined, asterisked, and marked it. The description resonated with me because I too have known people like that.

And the best way for me to thank those who helped build me, is to pay it forward and build others!


That's it!


That's my job description: A builder of people: Building people according to God's design for them.

This is the "good work that God has prepared beforehand for me to walk in" during this season of my life.