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Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

July 24, 2018

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

Psalm 139:13–14

We’re due any day with our first child, so I’m spending some time thinking about Psalm 139. Before this baby is even born, God created him with special gifts and abilities. For a while, he’ll be totally dependent on us, but one day, he’ll grow up and live out God’s unique plan and purpose for his life.

I think all of us believe this for our own children and other kids that we love. We know they’re gifted, and we dream big dreams for their lives. But I often wonder if we’ve forgotten that our own lives have a unique purpose.

As we get older, it’s easy to think that our lives, our roles, and our jobs are less significant than they should be. We reason that our job is only to manage a team, to support a customer, to design graphics, or to teach middle school students. A lot of times, we devalue the roles we’ve been given and don’t view them from the proper perspective.

Think about it like this: If you were meant to cure cancer, to solve world hunger, or to negotiate a treaty that would bring peace to millions of people, and you didn’t do it, it wouldn’t just affect you. It would hurt other people—your children, your friends, your community, and the world as a whole.

Steven Pressfield says that when you aren’t living out the true purpose for your life, “You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.”

We all have unique talents and abilities; therefore, we should view each of our roles as vitally important to the good of the people around us. Whether you are a manager of a team, a customer service representative, a waiter in a restaurant, a teacher, or a lawyer, your role matters. God’s unique plan for your life is a gift to you that you, in turn, owe the world.

This week, consider the talents and gifts God has given you. Are you living these out in your daily life? If so, keep working and be encouraged that your role matters. If not, find ways to pursue God’s unique purpose for your life.

In the same way that my child is fearfully and wonderfully made, so am I and so are you.

Don’t cheat the world of your contribution, and get to work.

I have a new book out called The Lens of Leadership. It’s all about perspective because I believe the way we view things changes how we do things. 

CLICK TO ORDER The Lens of Leadership

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