Yet, as Christians, that’s a long way from the kind of life that we should be living. In contrast, Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). William Barclay’s commentary on that verse says that the Greek word the indicates a super-abundance of a thing. Whilst many of us have experienced times when we have lived that kind of life, we have often allowed other areas to crowd out this rich life in Christ. Just as in Jesus’ parable of the sower, the thorns and weeds of the cares of this world have choked the seed of the Word of God.

So how do we get our lives back on track? Firstly, don’t make the mistake of starting with the ‘Time Management’ step. There are many modern resources around that suggest ways of accomplishing more in the limited time that we have in each day. The problem with this approach is that it focuses on quantity i.e. doing more, not quality i.e. doing the right things. It’s like a woodcutter who works hard and efficiently for a whole week, only to discover that he’s been working in the wrong forest! He’s been very efficient, but not very effective.

Listen

So, where do we start! The first step is to get back to the Good Shepherd, and to listen to His voice. Jesus said that the sheep follow the Good Shepherd as He goes ahead of them, because the sheep know His voice (John 10:4). This may seem like an elementary and obvious point, but sadly it’s an area that often gets squeezed out of our busy lives. Often, we’ve become busy and dissatisfied because we have been listening to every voice, apart from the Shepherd. The voices around us can be the needs and expectations of others, attempting to ‘keep up with the Joneses’, or even the fear of being outside an ‘inner circle’ influential people.

Often we can get absorbed by the needs and activities around us, and get fill our lives with many tasks and projects without weighing up the cost of all our hard work. God has ways of getting our attention, but often those experiences can be painful or challenging. My last experience of this was on a missions trip where I spent the whole time bed-bound as I was hit by a virus. Apart from receiving the loving care and attention of those that I went to assist, I had plenty of time to rest and listen to that ‘still, small voice’ of the Shepherd!

Explore

The second step is to rediscover our passion. By ‘passion’, I’m referring to our burden, or calling, or vision, or dream. You can use whatever word connects with you, but I’ll be referring to our passion. For some of us, that will be a simple task as we know what God has been saying to us, but we’ve been avoiding it. Jonah is probably the most vivid example of someone in that boat (or should I say, fish!). However, for many of us this is going to take more effort. I’d like to expand on this in a separate article, and dig a little deeper into the process of discovering our passion.

Embrace

The third stage is to embrace the tension that we feel within ourselves. At the stage where we rediscover our passion, or even identify it for the first time, we will sense some tension within us. That tension arises out of us feeling how far we are from living the kind of life that we need to be living. The tension is natural, and valuable, not something that we need to beat ourselves up about. Peter Senge talks about the importance of having creative tension in order to accomplish our vision. The key is to ensure that we don’t let the emotional tension that we feel overrun the creative tension within us. The creative tension is the impetus that draws us on to accomplish the vision, whilst the emotional tension is negative voice that says that we’ll never accomplish it.

Reorganize

The fourth step is that we need to reorganize our lives around our passions or calling. At this stage that we need to evaluate all of our activities and to identify those areas that are in line with our passion, and those areas that lie outside our passion. This involves identifying and focusing on activities that will feed and develop our passion, and setting aside the activities that draw us away from our passions.

Many of us need to take care how we approach the process of reorganizing our activities as we can easily drop areas that may be of benefit to us, or fail to consider the impact our decisions will have on others. Here are a few pointers.

Don’t specialise too early

Discovering our passion and calling is a lifelong journey, not a single event. Many people have found that their understanding of their calling has changed as they have walked the journey of life. Particularly for those who are in their teens, 20’s and 30’s, it’s a good thing to get a broad experience as those earlier years are best spent in discovery. The experience of those years will give us a better understanding of our gifts and calling, so don’t specialise too early.

Talk things through with others you trust
Why struggle through the process alone? God often speaks to us through the insight and experience of others. As we talk through the process with others we trust, we can receive further insight and clarification on where we should place our priorities.

Consider the impact on others
If we have been involved in a number of areas, we will find that others have become dependent on our contribution. If we feel that we need to stop doing a particular role, then the best approach is to explain our reasoning and to give a notice period. For example, rather than saying, “I’m no longer going to lead this Sunday School group”, it’s better to say, ”...because of these reasons, I feel that I should stop leading this Sunday School group. I’m happy to continue for 3 more months, which will help give you time to find a replacement, but I will be finishing at the end of October.” Often in this scenario we will find that others will put pressure on us to continue with the role, and will tell us how they depend on us. However, if we feel that this is the right step, and we have given a good notice period, we shouldn’t need to feel any guilt. Often as we step aside from a role the is not right for us, God will raise up someone else who is passionate about the role.