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When I was in the second grade, I won a Bible storybook by selling magazines. It was illustrated with colored pictures unlike the King James Bible from which my mother read our nightly bedtime stories. It was a significant improvement. I was very pleased.

Bible bedtime stories are very formative. Mostly they teach us about God, his love, mercy, expectations, and blessing. They also teach us how to live. They even plant seeds.

Our Bible story today is very familiar. It is the story of Abraham and Sarah depicting how they were chosen by God to be blessed in order that they might be a blessing. "Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father (and mother) of a multitude of nations ... I will make you exceedingly fruitful ... and give you the land of Canaan."

Quite a blessing, isn't it? Life would never be the same for them. They soon left home on a mission trip that eventually changed them and the world.

In our Judeo-Christian tradition, Abraham and Sarah have become the classic examples of faith. They recognized the voice of God. They understood the voice of God. They trusted in God's purpose for their lives and followed in faith and obedience.

As we reflect over these faithful servants of the Lord, we recognize the big challenges for our own lives. Where am I going with my life? How has God's choices and blessings for me shaped my journey so far? What is it that God wants me to do in the future? Not always as easy as it was for Abraham and Sarah.

Soren Kierkegaard once remarked, "What I really lack is to be clear in my mind what I am to do, not what I am to know ... The thing is to understand myself, to see what God really wishes me to do ... to find the idea for which I can live and die."

How can we do that?

I suppose one approach is to develop a personal mission statement. God can certainly speak to us as we discern through a more structured means.

Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, suggests that as we develop a personal mission statement, we should focus on our values and principles that are central to our lives. We should add as a primary principle, faith and focus on what God has in mind.

Peter Drucker suggests that we focus on two very important questions in helping us discover the unique role God wants us to explore. The questions are:

1. What have you already achieved? (competence)

2. What do you care deeply about? (passion)

The goal is to find something, through prayer, that fits something you're good at and something that excites you.

An excellent book to help discover one's life mission is titled, What Color is Your Parachute? by Dick Bolles. An ordained Episcopal priest, Bolles has a helpful chapter in his book titled, "How to Find Your Mission in Life."1

The important aspect of this little exercise, as with any discernment process about our purpose and future, is to struggle in both prayer and petition to hear God's voice and sense God's leading. God has a purpose for all of us, and when it happens, satisfaction and joy often occur.

But remember that God always takes the initiative and he usually approaches busy people. Sometimes we think that if we take a week off and go to the monastery, God might break through to us and we might catch a new vision. Such belief, however, is not biblically sound. God's call to Moses came when he was busy with his sheep at Horeb. Gideon was busy threshing wheat. Saul was busy searching for his father's lost animals. Elisha was busy plowing. David was busy caring for his father's flock. Amos was busy picking figs. James and John were mending nets. Lydia was busy marketing and selling fabrics. Peter and Andrew were fishing. Matthew was collecting taxes. Mary and Elizabeth were busy with their homemaking. On and on God issues a call in a specific way for a unique task. He hasn't changed. When we are in a position to listen carefully and move out with our God-given abilities trusting obediently, great things can happen.

Dag Hammarskjöld once said, "I don't know who -- or, what -- put the question -- I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer yes to someone -- or -- something -- and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore my life, in self-surrender, had a purpose."

Albert Schweitzer was a brilliant theologian. He held PhDs in several fields, including theology, music, medicine, and philosophy. He even wrote a book titled A Quest for the Historical Jesus. In the midst of all this success, Schweitzer heard an irresistible call from God to be a medical missionary in a small rural village in Africa. The rest is history. He spent the rest of his life there and the hospital continues to thrive.

A small-town country lawyer from Georgia sensed a call from God to do something about housing for the world's poor. Did you know that half of the people in the world either have no place to live or dwell in miserable substandard housing? Millard Fuller said, "We can change that." In a little over twenty years, Habitat for Humanity has made a significant dent by this powerful ministry. Homes have been built in scores of overseas communities and practically every state in this nation. We need to wonder whom will God call next to make a difference in some small way in our broken world.

Are you listening? Would you like to be more fulfilled in your life and responsive to your faith? I think God has a plan for all of us. Perhaps not as grandiose as was the case with Abraham, David, Schweitzer, and Fuller but significant, purposeful, and rewarding.

George Bernard Shaw once said, "Life is no brief candle to me. It's a sort of splendid torch which I've got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it over to future generations."

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1. Dick Bolles, What Color is Your Parachute? (Berkeley, California: Ten Speed Press, 2003 [revised]).