I recently came upon this: On his death bed St. Francis said, “I have done what was mine to do; now you must do what is yours to do.”

So many of us  concentrate on what we think we should be doing, what we think others feel we should be doing or what our culture in various ways tells us we should be doing or should have already  done.  But St. Francis comes at it a different way.  He says, you must do what is yours to do.  There is no comment about following the bible or his teaching; he simply says you must do what is yours to do. We might not like it, we might want what someone else has to do but that is the truth of it.  If we are single Mom with two kids our job is to raise our children the best we can with every breath we take.  It is not easy or glamorous but it is ours to do.   If we have a fairly solitary life but feel the tug on our heart to step in and help out after work with our neighbors, volunteer clinic or church maybe that is what is ours to do.  I don’t know, only you do but I can tell you, you have been given something that is only for you to do in this world.  It might not be what you wanted or it might not be as “sexy” as you thought it would be but it is yours and I believe once you embrace it instead of being afraid of it you will find a lightness and contentment that you haven’t known.  So many people I run into in the bars and clubs I play talk of being lost and confused about how they blinked and suddenly found themselves with a mortgage and a job they hate….I think that is what happens when you miss what is yours to do.  I think you get in a routine of getting up going to work, watching football on the weekends, and counting the days until retirement.  Your life becomes about passing the time or getting through the day.

I think the second part of this is we are all guilty of idolizing in this country and by doing so we set ourselves up to fail and never really go after what is ours.    The bible speaks of false idols and we all think of a golden calf or some strange alter to Zeus but what about others?  What about Hollywood, actors, sport stars and talk show hosts?  Notice the magazines by the check out counter and how we cannot take our eyes of off mega stars?  Notice how we spend hours and hours watching analysis of Tiger Woods driving his car into a tree? Those are the false idols we deal with today.  The deeper message of not worshipping false idols is you miss what is yours to do, you miss your own life, you miss the chance that God gave you to truly live.  We have teams of young girls trying to be Hannah Montana (while she is trying to be the next Britney or Madonna) instead of being guided to find their own voice, their own beauty, and their own gifts to bring to the world.  We need to start listening and focusing our attention inward.

So what is it and how do you find it?  Luckily St. Francis gave us a hint on that also.  He spoke of going about your days and paying close attention……paying close attention to the moments you feel most alive and then, he says, do that.  Doesn’t seem like rocket science but try and do it for a day.  With the amount of distractions we all have dancing around our heads it is actually hard to clear the space to listen.  I can tell you for me where I feel alive is music, writing, being a good father and husband.  I didn’t get the stadium success I wanted and sometimes I would rather be somewhere else than dealing with my kids when they are freaking out but it is mine to do.   And when I embrace that I have joy in my life.  Yes there are moments that are hard, when everything goes wrong, when life seems unfair but I also have the peaks when I have a fantastic show, when I am hiking with my boys laughing and running.   I don’t know what the big picture is but I trust that if I continue to do what is mine, God will continue to work in me.  So let’s look at things differently today; Lets go about the world paying attention to where we feel alive and lets trust that God has placed in your heart a whisper that pulls you to what is yours to do.  Your job is to find, embrace it and let it carry you home.

Posted by Trent on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 10:02 am.