I'm sure you've all heard of The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. I attend (and agree wholeheartedly with the concept of) a purpose driven church. (If you don't know what I mean, check out or my church But I must confess. I have never read the book. I've started it a couple of times. If I could just read through it in a couple of settings, I'd probably finish it, but Rick says to read a chapter at time. I've made it to day 10 or 12.
I have, however, studied SHAPE. Shape is an acronym that Rick uses to help people find their fit or "SHAPE" in ministry. I began attending Grace on the exact day that they started "40 days of SHAPE". (Coincidence? I think not!) SHAPE stands for:
Spiritual Gifts
Heart
Abilities
Personality and
Experiences
that all make up who we are and how we were created to ministry within the church. At the end of the 40 days, the church brought in Erik Rees, who wrote the book on SHAPE. (Literally! He's a pastor at Saddleback with Rick Warren.) Over the course of the weekend, using his tools, I discovered my purpose in life--my Kingdom Purpose--what I am here for.
Are you ready for this? My kindom purpose is to connect women. That's it. And the funny thing is--I've been doing it for years. I just didn't realize how God was using me. About a dozen years ago, I got online for the first time and set out on a quest to connect women desiring children with other women desiring children. I expected it to be a little pen pal program. Within 2 years, we had over 2000 members. About 5 years ago, we merged with a large sister organization Hannah's Prayer: By the time we merged, we had reached over 10,000 families. I didn't set out with loftly goals. In fact, if I had known where it was going, I probably would have run away--scared to death. But God, wisely, didn't reveal the whole plan. He just told me to "connect women".
What is your purpose in life? Why are you here? Are you fulfilling your purpose?
