MarcAlanSchelske.com - Life at the intersection of Grace and Growth.

Attitudes that propel you forward.

There’s one thing, and only one, that truly has the power to either derail you or propel you forward.

You can have the worst circumstances possible, and this one thing will push you past them. You can have every advantage, and this same thing can steal the opportunity from you. That one thing?

Your attitude. Attitude, that combination of emotion, story, and values, is how you go about the task in front of you. My last post in this series looked at attitudes that are holding you back in personal and spiritual growth.

Today, we look at the other side.

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Don’t let your attitude derail your life’s purpose.

Knowing where you’re going is important in life. A clear sense of purpose can provide motivation, focus, and energy, especially when things are hard.

But no matter how clear you are on your purpose, there is something that can keep you from getting there. You might not even be aware of it.

Imagine taking a road trip to Chicago from Portland. You want to eat some deep-dish pizza and watch a game at Wrigley field. You’re so excited to get out of town that you don’t bother to check your tires or do any pre-trip maintenance.

In Wyoming, your car starts overheating. By the time you get into Nebraska, your engine is making strange grinding noises. Then one of your worn tires blows out, and you find yourself stranded in North Platt. With a flat tire and a seized-up engine, you don’t have enough money to fix your car, or to get home.

You had a clear destination in mind, but the way you chose to travel took you somewhere else.

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Look closer for clues to your life purpose.

Spiritual vitality and living with purpose are intertwined. To have one, you need the other. Your pursuit of purpose is key.

Very close to you is a treasure chest overflowing with clues necessary to finding your unique, God-created life purpose. Chances are high that you’re overlooking it. I want to show you where to look.

When big dreams distract us.

Sitting across from me in my office was a bright young woman. She was crying. Her life felt empty, she said. She wanted so desperately to do something powerful for God. She mentioned missions or creating a foundation to empower young women. Heck, even faith healing! She had these giant dreams, and she was frustrated because nothing like that was happening for her.

As we talked about her life, I listened. She never mentioned her husband and their marriage, or her workplace where she had the opportunity to be of great influence every day. She didn’t think about the flexibility she had not having children or the lessons that she’d learned going through counseling and dealing with anger and abuse.

Something occurred to me. In trying to find a big life purpose, it was like she was planning an incredible trip to a once-in-a-lifetime destination without starting where she actually was. Every road has two ends–the destination as well as the beginning.

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Hunting for the purpose of life? Here’s a landmark.

An orienting landmark.

I live in Portland, Oregon. It’s one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen and my favorite place I’ve ever lived.

One aspect of my city that I love is the view of Mount Hood. This solitary mountain towers east of the city, a snow-capped beauty mark. As you travel through Portland, the mountain plays hide and seek. You can’t always see it, but it’s there. As your street winds around the next hill, or you catch a glimpse through a break in the trees or building, there you’ll see it.

Because you can see the mountain so frequently, it has become an orienting landmark for me. When I get turned around, unsure which direction I’m heading, I can invariably find my way to a vantage point where Hood is visible. Need to head north? The mountain should be to my right. Need to head downtown? The mountain should be behind me.

Having this landmark has frequently kept me on track. When it comes to knowing how to live your life, and in particular, where to find your purpose, there is a similar landmark.

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Read & Grow / Why Wandering Deepens Your Faith

Christianity is in a transition, at least in North America. Some fear that the faith once delivered to the saints is being watered down with cheap grace, or corrupted by bad doctrine. Any given week you can find some preacher on the internet declaiming the way other churches are giving in to low standards, and abandoning cherished truth, all in an effort to be culturally relevant. But this is not the transition I see happening in the church.

The church is shedding a hard carapace of certainty and triumphalism for a much softer, more gentle incarnation. The Dusty Ones, by Dr. A. J. Swoboda (Website / Facebook / Twitter) is a compelling example of this.

A.J.’s book presents itself as a discussion about wandering in the life of faith. It tackles the metaphor of wandering wherever it occurs in scripture. Turns out, it occurs there a lot–and not always in a bad way.

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