Google Unanswerable Questions This Instant!

You know you have a problem when you find yourself Googling: “What should I do with my life?” 

Google, apparently, is just not the fountain of answers it’s cracked up to be.

I was at a young professionals’ leadership development course the other day. About 50-60 of us from all around town crammed into a board room in the first of several monthly meetings. The instructor had us break into groups so we could talk and get to know others we’d never met before. I loved my group. Three guys and three gals. All were people-people and we really hit it off. I even learned that my voice makes a good first impression. Something led to someone saying my voice was soothing or attractive or had great cadence or nice inflection … or some kind of combination of those. One person even ventured to say that I (rather, my voice) should be on OPB. Okay! I will take these perfectly random perfect-stranger compliments.

Anyway, I digress. Later in the class we were told to draw our passions on the back of our name cards. I drew the easy ones – a tree and mountains and a river (outdoors), a running shoe (health), and a cross (my faith). Then I just kind of sat there. I looked over at my new friend, Nate, on my left. He was looking off into space. I looked around at everyone else in our group. They were furiously drawing. I looked back at Nate. He looked at me.

“Uh…..”

“I know,” I said.

We just sat there, passionless.

Then he said, “What if my passion is finding my passion?”

“Totally,” I nodded without missing a beat. “I get that.”

So he drew (wrote) just that on his card.

I didn’t want to copy him, so I continued to sit there. But what he said resonated with me on a thousand levels.

I was never the five-year-old who knew I wanted to be a nurse when I grew up. Or the fourth grader who so adored my teacher that it sealed my fate as an educator. No, I went to college and majored in communications simply because I needed all the help I could get communicating with others!

Today, finding my passion is exactly what I am passionate about. I spend countless hours on this trail. I don’t know what it is I’m looking for exactly, but I am looking, and looking hard for it!

Where does one look to find their passion? Well, Google is instinctively and obviously our first choice. Right? We Google everything these days. But when that turns up fruitless, maybe we turn to other people. Talking with those you’re closest with and asking for feedback is a foolproof way to gain invaluable insight. Then there are books. A friend just sent me “48 Days to the Work You Love” and I can’t wait to unearth some gems of direction there. Then there are the heaps of introspection that come all too easily for the introverts among us.

But what about the Source, the only One with any kind of answers worth listening to at all? The One who made you, formed you, and Himself created all your desires and longings – realized and unrealized – within you? When life’s big questions loom like stormy rain clouds damp and dank over your head, will you set aside your technology and media long enough to tap into your Creator Himself? I’m convinced He has something specific to say to each of us. It may take time, but one day I believe the answers will be clear, and tangible. 

In the meantime, I’m going to go Google a recipe for dinner.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock ad the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

“ … the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” Colossians 2: 2-3

Hear the Call This Instant!

Sound travels better over water. This is a fact. I am hearing impaired; I know this to be true. I can take out my hearing aids while spending a day on the lake with friends, or in a pool or a hot tub, and people can talk in regular voices and I hear them just fine. It’s kind of cool. But get us out of the water and back on dry land, and the words they are saying immediately become hard to discern. If I were into science, I could explain to you why air and water carry sound differently. All I know is that when land-locked and hearing aidless, I have to request that people speak louder, as though to their grandma.

Whether or not you’re hearing impaired, you’ve certainly experienced what it’s like to hear someone with crystal clarity, or to have their voice muffled or distorted. It’s frustrating when you can’t understand what is being communicated. Typically you can state your struggle, request that they repeat their words more clearly, and then you’re set. But what about when you try time and time again to ask for clarity, and the other person just doesn’t give it?

Have you ever had this problem when trying to discern the Lord’s calling on your life? It’s like standing on the edge of a waterless ocean, and you hear that He’s out there calling you toward something … but what? His voice is either distorted, muffled, or altogether lost. The more you ask for clarity, the more He seems content to let you wrestle with ambiguity.

What if God isn’t trying to frustrate you? What if He doesn’t want you to sit still and blame your inactivity on your hearing impairment? What if He wants you to move forward, toward his voice – even if you don’t know what exactly He is saying – in order to discover that discerning His call is more of an adventure than an audible line from His mouth to your ears?

“To you, O people, I call out; I raise my voice to all mankind.” Proverbs 8:4

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11-13