Hopefully, by now you’ve done homework<\/em> and feel like you are progressing in new ways.<\/p>\n (I’d love to hear about it! Send me a note.)<\/p>\n Now we are on STEP 3<\/strong><\/p>\n “S”<\/strong><\/p>\n Service<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n This one may make little sense to you.<\/p>\n You may think,<\/p>\n “Really? That sounds backwards. I don’t know my purpose yet. I’ll try service\u00a0once<\/em> I get that figured out, duh.”<\/p>\n It’s not as backwards as you think.<\/p>\n Here’s an example:<\/span><\/p>\n When my kids were very little I made a point of helping my friends prepare for a big, yearly program. Instead of being fulfilling, it was frustrating and felt futile. I realized that my skills and passions were better served elsewhere. This eventually lead to many other types of service that tapped into my\u00a0greater purpose and held greater meaning for me.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n In the beginning, what drew me to help out\u00a0was a sense of friendship, community, and desire to love and minister to others\u2013to be part of something greater than myself. Those were all things I <\/span>kept<\/strong> seeking. What I left behind were projects that could miss the forrest for the trees. The experience helped me know when projects were too detail-oriented to be optimally useful in a greater way, for my\u00a0preferences.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Would I have been able to narrow things down for myself without making this (seeming) mistake? No. And it wasn’t a mistake to help, it was a clarifying exercise.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Would I have been able to decipher what types of service aren’t a good fit for me without this experience? Unlikely.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n In serving, something else happens. It’s big and you’ll see the pattern once I mention it:<\/strong><\/p>\n In losing ourselves we are found.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n That means by taking ourselves out of the middle<\/span>, we can see and choose better and more easily.<\/strong><\/p>\n (It doesn’t mean thinking less of ourselves, but thinking of ourselves less\u2013by design. Thus, we more expertly “stumble” on to bigger insights.)<\/p>\n In a way, you don’t find your purpose at all, it finds you.<\/p>\n From my perspective, finding God works the same way. You are only lost to yourself, not to God. So you don’t so much “find him” nor does he “find” you. Instead you wake up. <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The same holds true for finding your purpose.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n We tend to assume, just by default, that finding our purpose must start and end with us. Not so.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Just like Worship, service<\/strong> makes finding your purpose far easier because it becomes a revelatory process<\/em><\/strong>. Finding your purpose, like finding happiness, comes as a byproduct<\/strong><\/em> of doing other<\/span> things.<\/p>\n Here are some categories and qualifiers to explore:<\/strong><\/p>\n If one stands out as more meaningful, or ignites your passions (which is directly connected to your purpose), try that first. Check with your church, your community, your local schools and organizations, local charities, or just asking around to see what available or sounds like a good fit.<\/em><\/p>\n What ever it is, do something. The key on this step in ACTION followed by reflection.<\/strong><\/p>\n If you are already serving, reevaluate it. It is leading you to a greater purpose or holding you back?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n (If you are overly involved in service, then it’s time to scale\u00a0back.)<\/p>\n HOMEWORK – take some field notes on the following questions:<\/span><\/p>\n \u2022 Do you like Creating? (What do you like and how do you like to do it?)<\/p>\n \u2022 Do you like helping and being useful? In what ways?<\/p>\n \u2022Using your body<\/strong> more than your mind to help out?<\/p>\n OR<\/p>\n Using your mind<\/strong> to help more than your body? \u2022 Do you like being the glue<\/strong> that holds people and projects together?<\/p>\n \u2022 Does helping behind the scenes feel meaningful?<\/p>\n \u2022 Do you like detail-oriented projects…<\/p>\n OR<\/p>\n Being the visionary that comes up with and starts the project?<\/p>\n \u2022 Do you like teaching? (If so, what about it appeals to you?)<\/p>\n \u2022 Do people in need<\/strong> ignite your passions?<\/p>\n What about your past service appealed to you and why?<\/strong><\/p>\n (If you don’t have much past service to serve as a gauge, that’s your biggest obstacle. Start right away. You are much too “in the middle” of your world and you need a break from yourself.)<\/p>\n [You guesses it! This is handy-dandy notebook time! Write out your field notes from the questions above.]<\/p>\n Also consider: (It’s okay to specialize and then turn away things that fall outside your scope. This refinement is usually helpful. However, once in a while change it up and serve outside your specific domain\u2013it will surprise you by opening new doors or clarifying your purpose further.)<\/p>\n Types of Populations:<\/strong> \u2022 children<\/p>\n \u2022 poor<\/p>\n \u2022 students<\/p>\n \u2022 the needy<\/p>\n \u2022 peers<\/p>\n \u2022 20-somethings<\/p>\n \u2022 new parents<\/p>\n \u2022 the forgotten populations (immigrants, incarcerated, homeless, mentally ill, etc.)<\/p>\n \u2022 who else?…<\/p>\n Assess how your TALENTS and SKILLS play into your past service decision.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u2022 What sort of technological knowledge, special skill, unique experience, or centering insight makes certain kinds of service easier?<\/p>\n \u2022 What is your “backstory”? Your backstory tends to shift you toward you purpose.<\/p>\n The next step is “P”…come back soon.<\/strong><\/p>\n Do you know anyone who’s struggling finding purpose, or feels “off-track”? Pass this along!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We tend to assume, just by default, that finding our purpose must start and end with us. Not so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5626,76],"tags":[265,4378,451,485,604,612,5913,961,4377,4697,1093,1122,1184,1215,6445,5298,1331,1372,1472,1503,1616,1763,4347,4081,1921,4857,1989,2074,2077,5901,6215,2223,3840,2367,6069,2491,2521,2584,5902,2741,2747,4079,5411,3038,5855,4859,3315,5611,3998,3421,4241,3444,4075,3711,5577],"class_list":["post-14886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spark-my-muse","category-spirituality","tag-asking","tag-be","tag-body","tag-break","tag-centering","tag-change","tag-decipher","tag-desire","tag-do","tag-down","tag-elderly","tag-end","tag-experience","tag-fall","tag-fining-purpose","tag-following","tag-forrest","tag-friends","tag-god","tag-good","tag-help","tag-in","tag-insight","tag-just","tag-kids","tag-lead","tag-left-behind","tag-lost","tag-love","tag-method","tag-millenials","tag-mind","tag-mistake","tag-not","tag-notes","tag-passions","tag-people","tag-play","tag-projects","tag-purpose","tag-questions","tag-right","tag-schools","tag-service","tag-special","tag-start","tag-surprise","tag-taking","tag-talents","tag-things","tag-thinking","tag-time","tag-true","tag-will","tag-write"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14886"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14911,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14886\/revisions\/14911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"(Creative](\"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/640px-India_-_Painting_a_staircase_-_0063-300x200.jpg\")
What will appeal to us in terms of service is often closely tied to our talents, gifts, and greater purpose.<\/h3>\n
\n\n
\n\n
\nSo where can you start with meaningful service that will help\u00a0you find your purpose?<\/h3>\n
\n
\n(At the end of the day, which feels more satisfying and why?)<\/p>\n
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\nWhat specific population<\/strong> do you feel drawn to serve?<\/p>\n
\n\u2022 elderly<\/p>\n
\n