Purpose

Do you know what yours is? It's amazing how much purpose drives us. We need a purpose in life. Some core value to live for. Now as a believer definitely we have the"macro" purposes to live by. For example Matthew 22:37-39 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." There are others like "Be fruitful and multiply", but my participation in that command isn't quite for this moment in my life. So how do we use the gifts we have been given by the Lord? What has He created you to do here?

You see this last year was pretty big for me. First I hit the ten year anniversary at my work and subsequently received my first ever sabbatical. A great blessing, but also a time marker. You see that sabbatical had always seemed so far off, and in my mind I would have accomplished so many things by that time in my life. It was an important year of reflection. Also it was a year marked with a very intense project, long hours and exhaustion. And what was it for? You see, my purpose, what I was created for....it's not what I am doing in my day to day job. That began to gnaw at me. I knew shipping shoes, improving processes, and making sure you could buy NFL jerseys was NOT what I was passionate about. I am good at it, and for years that success and the idea that I had time lulled me into complacency. But that is not what I want my life defined by. So what was my purpose?

After my year of reflection I realized this purpose this calling has been incubating and growing in me for some time. I just needed to articulate it. Here it is...

I am called to encourage, give rest, restore and lift up those that have died to themselves and have committed to a life spent in service to their God and savior. With the goal of keeping them healthy so that they can continue to live out their purpose and calling.

This is what I am passionate about! Now that it's articulated I can't wait to see how God shepherds me in it and where we will go. I have visions but God is the real vision caster and Creator. My prayer is that I will see the next steps one at a time. For now though, I have that core value to go back to. That is who I am. That is how I define myself. I am no longer confined to being defined by my job or my success at it. This has brought me so much freedom. I hope you find and articulate your purpose and calling in life. I am praying you will. Here is a quote that really speaks to the place I am in. Honor your purpose.

"When salvation comes to your house, first you think differently, then you act differently. First you shift the imagination with which you perceive this world then you enact gestures with which you honor it." Mark Buchanan The Rest of God (2006)

You know what assuming does right?

Last year I focused on losing weight and through Weight Watchers (which I seriously recommend) and some serious discipline I finally proved to myself that I could in fact lose the weight I thought I was forever going to have. In many ways it was just an effort to prove an assumption wrong, that I was just genetically predisposed to be the weight I'd been for years. That assumption was totally wrong. I lost 20 lbs, and still going.

So after that enlightening experience I decided to test another assumption. That assumption being that I am not really an athlete and that I will NEVER ever be a runner. In fact I used to tell people (usually at work, the world of runners!) that I only would run if someone was chasing me. Yep, great motto huh? And this weekend I'm running my first 5k run ever.

How did this happen? Well it started with my walks in my effort to lose weight just not feeling like enough effort. I started just having the urge to run. Maybe this was due in part to the fact that I was feeling more in shape than I had in a very long time. Just running a block or two and then walking. Then running a little farther and a little farther. For a while all I could do was the walk/run effort so I needed another driving force. Erin and I decided we'd try and run a 5k together to motivate ourselves to actually get to the point where we were running more than walking. For the past few weeks we've ran for set periods of time and walked for a much shorter time. It helps that the Nikeplus technology makes it so much fun to track my runs, pace and time.

It's so satisfying to know that I'm now running. I'm a runner!!! Another assumption about myself that was not true. What's next? What are your assumptions about yourself? Challenge it, you might be pleasantly surprised that you too can experience a runner's high and its not a myth.

A few things I've been up too...creatively that is.

So I am a knitter. Basically self taught through great video links and books. Its nice to have projects to work on and complete, especially when I don't feel like I'm "completing" things at work. I am not obsessed with knitting all my clothes or wearing knit items all the time. I just like the challenge of knitting. My goal is... Don't make it unless you saw it at Anthropologie and you'd want to buy.

This year I continued my cable obsession and completed two scarves (one for me and one for my dear girl Laurel) in a Sand Pattern of varying sizes:

Trying out fingerless gloves in a first attempt at gloves at all. These are incredibly simple and knitted straight and then stitched up the side. I got the pattern on Ravelry (Waffle Stitch).

I made this super easy scarf, appropriately called the "Easy Mistake Stitch Scarf" is to keep Margo warm in her new house in the woods.

I made two fantastic berets of Anne of Green Gables proportions (aka BIG) for Colleen and myself with this pattern improvised a little.

Links to some of my favorite knitting websites... (This is for you Shannan)
Figure out how to do some of those baffling stitches here and get links to some great free patterns: http://www.knittinghelp.com/
Great ideas at the Purl Bee Blog and tons of patterns.

An encyclopedia of projects/yarns/pattern ideas many for free at Ravelry .

If you want to felt, this is the pattern for the first bag I ever did. French Market Bag

Next up... I want to try Entrelac based off a beautiful wrap I saw in the window of Happy Knits my new favorite local yarn shop. Here's the article at Knitty. There are also some lovely patterns from this gal in Scotland that I am curious to try. Along with this lacy looking scarf which would be a new skill for me.