week 5 - who God created us to be

What an awesome week this was here at LT! (I apologize for how long I know this post will be!) First of all, the staff could see how hard all of us had been working at our jobs and decided to give us Monday night off from session. On Tuesday night we had Mike Swann speak on “Discovering God’s Will for Your Life”. He talked about the simple truth that discovering God’s will for our lives is actually a lot easier than we make it out to be… we get so caught up in finding our own specific plan from God that we completely ignore the fact that God has already laid out a plan in His word for every one of us to follow. Secondly, he spoke about guidelines for understanding God’s specific will for our lives as well. First, consider the things that you love, maybe things you love to do or to learn about, and the things that make you angry, like injustices in the world. Secondly, from those things, consider what you are really good at. Then, get counsel about it and ask the people who are around you that know you best. Most of all, listen and adhere to the advice. Also, consider wisdom in the choice you are making. Even if it doesn’t directly conflict with a scriptural principle or mandate, is it wise to do it? Even if you have the freedom to do so in Christ, should you? In addition, consider the circumstances: for example, location. Where does God have you placed right now? Is He leading you somewhere else? Consider the people around you: who does God have you with? Maybe those are the people He wants you to minister to. Lastly, if you feel you have a specific calling from God, check it with scripture and counsel, maybe even fasting with prayer. All in all, when trying to make decisions in our lives, we should try to follow these guidelines. Mike also gave this advice: If we are the kind of person that usually sits paralyzed waiting for a billboard from God, we should go out and do something good… not just sit there waiting. If we are the kind of person that usually tends to be so busy that there is no time to stop and think, we should “Wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27). Also, remember that there are seasons of life! You can’t do it all at one time. There will be time to explore other things. In summary, we should consider whether we are spending too much time on the general will or the specific will in our lives. Also, Mike asked us to consider the option, “if money were not an issue, I would…” …. I definitely knew my answer to that question. :)


Also this week, we were given the book Strength Finder 2.0 and took the assessment with it. Basically this test pinpoints your five biggest strengths and focuses on making them stronger, instead of concentrating on making up for our weak points. Let me just say that this showed me so much about myself and was very accurate! If you ask me about it, I could tell you so much of how cool it is. My top five strengths were communication, woo, belief, connectedness, and developer. In short, these mean:

- Communication – it’s easy for me to put things into words and I’m a good conversationalist. I usually tell elaborate stories when sharing information or getting a point across that often entertain people. Also, I naturally surround myself with people I love finding out as much as I can about them.

- Woo – I enjoy meeting new people and connecting with them; I’m comfortable striking up conversations with strangers, I’m quite open & transparent with people, I enjoy socializing. I am very fond of and devoted to people in my life & I thrive when feelings of warmth and affection are returned.

- Belief – I have certain core values that are unchanging, which also influence my decisions and how I spend my time, and I have a defined purpose to my life. I feel like everything I do in life must have meaning & purpose behind it. I am highly motivated to leave the world a better place than I found it.

- Connectedness - I have faith in the links between all things; I believe that there are no coincidences and that every event happens for a reason. I can accept what cannot be fully explained through logic. I am confident that things are linked for a purpose that may or may not be revealed to me.

- Developer – I recognize and cultivate the potential in others.

With each of these strengths, the assessment also provided 10 ideas for action in using them. On Project Day, we spent some time going through these and we were asked to pick one or two from each of our strengths to work on in the upcoming year. Some that I’m really excited about or feel would be good for me to work on are: getting wiser about the words I say and spending each more wisely instead of talking excessively without thinking & finding an avenue, like public speaking, for my voice and message (communication), deliberately building a network of people who know me and check in with each once a month (woo), making sure that I’m balancing my personal and work life (belief), considering roles where I listen and counsel & acting in a global perspective (connectedness), and finding a mentor to invest in me, so that I can also invest in other people (developer). It also suggested that I consider a career in teaching, ministry, or media…. :)

I know that I’m talking a lot about this assessment, but I feel like I learned so much about myself through it. For example, it was so awesome for me to be able to identity communication as my biggest strength when in the past I’ve been afraid that it’s the one thing about me that annoys people most. But, this displays it in a positive light where I can use it in an effective way! My woo strength definitely helps explain why I feel like my strongest friendships are the ones where I know a lot about them and we openly share a lot.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” – Psalm 139:4

[Also on this week’s Project Day, we did service projects at two different local churches and then spent 4 hours of alone time with God, which was wonderful. ]