I meet weekly with a group of friends. Our conversations lately center around life purpose. In his book Visioneering, Andy Stanley says “Everyone ends up somewhere in life. A few people end up somewhere on purpose.”  Our group exists right now to track down, identify and put a name on our “on purpose”.

My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers remains my favorite devotional book of all time. As a teenager, that book drew me into thoughts about faith that transcended the stock Sunday school thoughts I had steeped in my whole life up to that point. The book became for me a diving board into the deep end. The words I read there always caused me to think.

I heard last week while listening to a podcast that all but one of Oswald Chambers’ books were published after his death. His wife compiled and published the rest from notes she transcribed for him during their marriage. My Utmost For His Highest was published 10 years after his death. That fact hit me kind of sideways.

Oswald Chambers served the Lord faithfully. He died at 43 from surgical complications. He has a legacy I imagine he never would have dreamed of. For Oswald, his “on purpose” led to magnificent returns he did not live to see.

What if our struggle with finding life’s purpose has to do with the direction of our focus?  We tend to focus on the outcome, don’t we? I like to write. A big piece of me feels like a complete failure because no books exist that were written by me. My habit of comparing my current output (this blog) to my ultimate desired outcome (published and well-known) causes me to question my call to write in the first place.

How about you? Do you have a latent skill, talent, or ability? Do you question its value in your life or the lives of others simply because that thing has brought you zero fame and or has exactly nothing to do with your current life or career?

I spent some time with a friend over the weekend. Toward the end of our time together she shared some pencil drawings she has done. As I sat there slack-jawed at her talent, I could hear the questioning in her voice. She has a Ph.D. and a career in a field most certainly not art related. She discovered a really cool talent. What in the world does she do with it?

My friend shared with me that she feels encouraged by watching me develop my gift. Observing my obedience to developing my craft encourages her to develop her craft. I love that! Our focus shifts from fixating on the unknown to attentiveness to developing what we know. Neither one of us needs to know the outcome.

Throughout their marriage, Mrs. Chambers transcribed her husband’s lessons, speeches, and encouragement. She, in essence, recorded the development of Oswald’s craft. Those records became more than 30 published works.

What if we fix the direction of our focus toward developing whatever skills we possess, even if they don’t seem to have an obvious purpose. We make things complicated by trying too hard to fit everything into a category. While there’s nothing wrong with trying to understand our significance in our realm of influence, we were born uniquely equipped to glorify God today. We can trust Him with our outcomes, even if we don’t see them this side of heaven.