God didn't put your purpose on your shoulders alone.
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father."
- John 14:12 (New King James Version)
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As I've been exploring creating more space in my life to live & enjoy it more, I've been thinking about how short but infinitely impactful Jesus' 1st life was. I mean, He legit completed everything He was supposed to get done in 33 years. And really His ministry was only 3 years long right? So He accomplished His entire purpose in 3 years. Like, where they do that at!? Looking at His example truly has me wondering:
Am I burdening myself with more "purpose" work than God has even assigned to me?
Because, even though God literally put the weight of the world on Jesus' shoulders, the work that needed to be accomplished didn't take long compared to an entire life span. Of course there was more work to be done after Jesus' resurrection but, as this week's scripture points out, most of that additional work was for Jesus' disciples to complete because He had to "go to [His] Father."
In essence, even before Jesus went to the cross, He knew that there was a laundry list of "greater works" yet to be done. But, instead of taking it all upon Himself, He passed the baton to us.
What if we adopted that same mindset? What if we got really clear on two things:
- What infinitely purposeful work we ourselves need to complete while we're here; and
- What pieces of that work we need to pass off to the next generation.
I don't think we consider the next generation enough in our culture these days. We want to do it all. And it's stressing us OWT. The pastor in a sermon I listened to recently spoke about how God showed Abraham this huge vision, then his son Isaac took care of a piece and then his grandson Jacob took care of the next piece.
I know the vision you see is HUGE but could it be possible that it's that big because it's not all on YOU to see it through? What if, just like with Jesus, God baked into your mission a requirement for other people after you to complete it? And what kind of peace could you invite into your life if you released yourself from the burden of carrying it all out in its entirety?
These are questions I'm asking myself right now, and I'm actually really excited about the prospect of clearing my plate & structuring my business to allow those coming behind me to carry the torch on. Because if the work I'm doing is just for me in my lifetime, is it really worth doing at all? But if it is, shouldn't I be setting it up so that it doesn't die with me when I'm gone?
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Still hungry? Eat some more //
- See Genesis starting at Chapter 12 through Chapter 50 for background on the vision God showed Abraham and how his lineage carried it on.
- Here's the sermon I mentioned above; it starts around 1 hour and 3 minutes in.
- This teaching from Dr. Myles Munroe on mentorship and succession is absolutely fire and pairs perfectly with this week's devotional. If you're thinking right now about how to structure your business to eventually run without you / building a team, this is required listening.
- Lastly this sermon speaks so beautifully about what our "purpose" really is and I think is a great compliment to this week's message too.