Thought for the Day:
In his book, “Life Without Limits,” Nick Vujicic said that he believes
that each one of us has a talent, a gift, a special ability which is uniquely
suited for us. We need to discover our gift and then figure out how to put it
to use giving us a purpose and focus in life.
“Even if I didn’t change this
planet as much as I would like, I’d still know with certainty that my life was
not wasted. I was and am determined to
make a contribution. You should believe
in your power to do the same. Life
without meaning has no hope. Life
without hope has no faith. If you find a
way to contribute, you will find your meaning, and hope and faith will
naturally follow and accompany you into your future.” [Nick Vujicic, Life
Without Limits].
It seems that some of us discover who we are and what we are meant to
be early in life. I remember being
amazed at some of my friends in middle school who knew exactly what they wanted
to be when they grew up. There are a
fair share of people like me who took some extra time to settle into a career
comfortably. But Nick’s comments go
beyond your job. If you have a passion
to “help people” there are all sorts of career paths that you could take to
accomplish that goal. It doesn’t even
have to develop into a full-time, paying position. If it is something you feel so strongly about
that you would do it for free, you enjoy doing it, and you see others affirming
or responding to your efforts—you have discovered a wonderful thing.
There is something so rewarding to discovering “this is who I was meant
to be. This is what God created me to
contribute.” It helps answer the
question of “What is my purpose in life?”
It gives our life meaning. It
energizes us and helps to focus our attention.
We cannot do everything; but we each can do something.
I think too often that we dream of a Hollywood-like existence where we
accomplish great things so that movies are made about us and monuments are
erected in our honor. Very few people
live that kind of life; however, if we are doing what we were created to
accomplish, then we may not necessarily change the world; but we are making a
contribution. In this context I think of
parents, especially stay-at-home moms.
You may never have a paying joy and never get elected as the president
of the parent-teacher association at your child’s school; but you are building
into their lives and helping to develop another human being. That is something to be proud of and is
enough to have made a worthwhile contribution to this world.
Maybe you haven’t yet discovered your gift and purpose in life. Don’t be discouraged. It can take time to develop certain abilities
and it may take some extraordinary event to propel you to your place of purpose
in life. Until then, live your life with
honesty and integrity, constantly looking for an opportunity to contribute
until that day arrives. Like most things
in life, we often won’t recognize them except in hindsight.
So for this day, take whatever you’ve got and put it to good use. Make a contribution. It may only affect the life of one other
person—but it may make all the difference to them. And we never know how many other lives that
person that we helped will touch.
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