What if I don’t know why?

Watch the complete sermon here: https://www.bridges.church/messages/using-time-well-ephesians-5-1-21/

Thanks again for sending in questions related to our recent sermons. This last week we kicked off our 40 day focus and stewarding God’s Many Gifts. Well, we started with the gift of time, which is of course limited and precious and we need to make the best use of it. As Paul says in the passage that we studied, one of our first points was to know our why we do whatever we’re doing before we really choose what we do.

So the question comes in this week.

What if I don’t really know my why? Or. Or what if. What if I don’t have a good why, but I don’t really know if I should change what I’m doing or should I just bail on what I’m for?

You know, for instance, you might be in some career that you feel like you just kind of got one promotion after another. You’ve climbed the ladder, and now you’re at a place where you don’t really enjoy. It may not be the best use of your natural abilities and talents, but because you’ve climbed this ladder so far up this ladder, you, you realize switching to some other profession would be a huge cost.

I’d have to start down at the bottom again. So I don’t have a good why for why I’m all the way up here, but do I switch?

Or the reason you picked your career in the first place. You just went to college, didn’t really know what you were doing, got some degree, applied for a bunch of jobs. This is the one that was available, and so you just started going in that direction. But it was never really a passion, it just kind of happened.

Or you’re a student and you’re thinking, you know, most of my time is at school, but why do I go to school?

Well, because mom and dad say I have to go to school. I don’t really want to be there, you know, so should I just not go to school? Or. I remember when I was in college and I evaluated why do I spend time working out? Why do I spend time exercising?

My real why was I wanted to look good, you know, I wanted to look good at the beach. Is that, is that a good why? No, of course that’s not a good why. But does that mean I should stop working out? Because there are benefits to exercising, you know, so what.

So what if my why isn’t particularly good or, I don’t know my why at all? Should I just stop doing everything or keep doing it without a why? I’d say before you, before you stop doing whatever you’re doing before you switch careers, maybe, which you might need to do, that could end up happening. But before that, as a preliminary step, create a why, you know, you might feel so aimless because you don’t really have purpose in what you’re doing.

And that, that, that, that is probably zaps all the enthusiasm out of you.

So I would say create a why, create a purpose. And as we said in other parts of the message, that our purpose, you know, for what we’re designed to do is to serve others, others over self. And so in your job, which you may not really care about except you kind of feel like you have to have one. I mean, you have to do something.

So I guess I’ll just do this.

In your workday, there you are around other people. You’re not working in isolation probably. And so if you go to work with the mindset of how do I, how do I elevate these people around me, how do I encourage them, how do I make their lives better? The other people on my team, and have that be, as a preliminary step, have that be your why I go to work.

Because at work I can lift these other people around me and hopefully you can connect dots to whatever it is that you’re producing at work of how that helps the world as well.

And then you can, then that can be your purpose for work. Same thing at school. Yes. Mom and dad tell you you have to go. Are you, are you saying I’m going to school so I can get a degree, so I can get a good job, so I can make lots of money?

All of that is perhaps true, but it’s all self centered, right? You’re thinking about you the whole time, which as we said, will lead to burnout, frustration. And so that’s not a good why. All about me is not a good why. I’m doing this for me so I can have a better life.

Okay, that’ll get you so far. But really our purpose is others focused. So at school, how can I elevate the people around me there? How can what when the teacher is saying things, when I’m studying, when I’m trying to figure this out, try to draw plot lines between what the teacher is saying, what you’re learning, and how that can one day or even immediately help you contribute to the world in a productive way.

And if you can’t do that, you can always at least elevate the people around you, be an encouragement, build them up, point them to Christ.

Of course. So if you don’t know your why before you bail on everything create a why an others centered why. And I believe you will immediately feel more enthused to go continue even doing the same things that you have been doing. So thanks for the question and we’ll see you next time.