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What You Were Meant To Do
By: Tom Norvell
Vol. 13 No. 27 | July 5, 2010
In one of the all-time great sports movies, The Rookie, Jim Morris (played by Dennis Quaid) has lived with the unfulfilled dream of playing baseball in the major leagues all of his adult life. A series of injuries and surgeries has kept him out of playing baseball and instead he finds himself teaching high school Chemistry and coaching the high school team in a dusty Texas oil town where baseball takes a distant back seat to football.
As another dismal season begins Coach Morris challenges his players to do more than settle for mediocre and to strive to follow their dreams. His players pledge to play harder and win the district if he will agree to tryout for the majors. The team rises to the challenge. They do win the district. Then they hold Coach Morris to his part of the bargain by saying, “It’s your turn coach.”
He tries out. He impresses the scouts and gets the invitation to play minor league ball with the hope of eventually reaching the majors. As he struggles with the idea of staying with what he knows how to do or reach for what he dreams to do, he stops by his estranged father’s house one evening hoping to receive the support that he has longed for. Again his father disappoints him when shares the advice he had received from his father: “It’s okay to think about what you want to do until it’s time to do what you were meant to do.”
Is that your story? Is there a dream out there waiting to be realized? Have you spent your life "thinking" about what you want to do? Do you live every day thinking about how you would like to live and what you would like to do, but allowing what’s practical to keep you safely where you are and doing what you do?
Is it possible that what we want to do and what we are meant to do might be the same thing? Must we make the choice?
Matthew 14:22-33 is the story about one of the disciples discovery that doing that what he wanted to do and what he was meant to do are not is possible.
The disciples are in a boat well after dark when the wind and the waves begin to get rough. They see Jesus coming toward them walking on the water. As he often did, Peter simply reacts to the situation and says what’s in his heart, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” Peter wanted to be with Jesus.
Jesus tells Peter, “Come.”
He does. Peter steps out of the boat and begins to walk toward Jesus on the water.
We give Peter such a hard time because he became afraid, began to sink and had to be rescued by Jesus. Yet, the deeper truth is that Peter was able to do he wanted to do as well as what he was meant to do. Peter was meant to walk on water.
He sinks and stumbles and falls and fails, yet Peter did things that no other disciple ever did. Jesus used Peter in mighty ways because he was willing to accept that what he wanted to do, he was meant to do. (If you don’t know the rest of the story, read the book of Acts.)
Now back to the movie. Although those were not the words Jim had hoped to hear from his father, he tries to rationalize that maybe he’s right. Maybe staying home and giving up on his dream is the more practical thing to do. Surely it is the safe thing to do. After all, he has responsibilities. He has a good job offer in a major city with more pay. He has a family. Maybe he should just settle for what he knows is the sure thing. Jim chooses another route. He decides to take the advice he had given to his players: live your dream. Don’t settle. Step out. When he did he learned that what he wanted to do, he was also meant to do. What about you? Are you trying to choose between what you want to do and what you were meant to do? Do you find yourself wondering if you will ever live the life of purpose you were created to do? Are you standing in the boat wishing you were out on the water with Jesus?
Maybe it’s time to stop thinking about it and talking about it and dreaming about it. Maybe it’s time you let go of the comfortable, the secure, the predictable, and the mediocre. Maybe it’s time to realize that those thoughts about what you want to do are really God’s words of affirmation to you that it is also what you were meant to do.
You’re in the boat. Jesus is inviting you to come to Him out on the water. You wonder what it would be like to walk on water. There is only one way to find out.
Tom
© Copyright 2010 Tom Norvell. All rights reserved.
