‘What Are You Going to Do with Your Life?’ A Guide to Fulfilling God’s Purpose
Column by Joe Pisani
I have a confession to make. I buy more books than I read. It’s been this way a long time, and sometimes I think that instead of being an avid reader, I’m actually a compulsive book buyer.
So while I was perusing titles on my Kindle recently, looking for eBooks that I probably won’t get around to reading, I found one that interested me by an author the Dalai Lama called “one of the greatest thinkers of the age” and Time magazine — that arbiter of the world’s most influential people — described as “one of the five saints of the 20th century.”
Despite all the hoopla, I never heard of him. The writer was J. Krishnamurti, who sold millions of books, the most popular of which was “What Are You Doing With Your Life?”
How can you resist a title like that? It’s a provocative question, so provocative that most people don’t want to ask it, and if they do, they respond with a mundane answer like “I’m enrolling in community college and then I’ll transfer to a four-year school and become a physical therapist.” Or “I want to get married, raise a family and make a lot of money.” Or “I’m just trying to ‘find myself.’”
There are countless responses, but once you scratch the surface and go deeper, you realize not many people have a great answer to the question, “What are you doing with your life?”
I dipped into the book, but wasn’t particularly inspired, probably because I already had the best answer to that question, and its best answer for all of us: “Whatever God wants me to do with my life.”
Most people are reluctant to consider that option because they figure God will tell them to do something that scares them, such as enter the monastery and become a contemplative or commit to a life with no fun, no possessions, no TV and no social media. (Now, that I think about it, that doesn’t sound so bad.)
The simple irrefutable truth — and I’m no guru like that author — is God has a plan for your life, and it’s infinitely better than your plan, so if you want to know what he’s thinking, all you have to do is ask.
God created you for a purpose. That’s not my original thought, but I’ll use it because it’s the truth. And with God, we can achieve great things beyond the comprehension of our puny minds. He uses all of us to bring about his kingdom if we’re willing to turn our will and our lives over to his care. He uses us even in our imperfection and weakness, which is pretty amazing.
No matter what our calling is, every morning we should ask, “God, what do you have planned for me today?” because he always has plans. Also, don’t forget to say, “God, don’t go too far because I’m sure I’m going to need you.”
Let me tell you a story about a woman named Anna Rodriguez, who described herself as a “wild child,” who liked to party and go on road trips with her friends … until she had a personal encounter with the Eucharistic Lord, which inspired her to leave her job and her boyfriend.
Many years ago on Sept. 8, the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Anna went into an Adoration chapel and her life was never the same again.
“I was before the Blessed Sacrament, and I wondered, ‘What am I feeling?’” she told me. She remembers asking, “Dear Lord, what am I going to do with my life?”
She always loved horses and immediately thought of the blinders they wear in the mountains, so they can stay focused and not be distracted by the cliffs.
Then, she heard a voice say, “Put the frame on just like you put on your horse. Look forward and not to the side … and I will be there.”
“That’s when I knew, the Lord wanted me to be a sister,’” she said.
Today, Mother Anna Rodriguez is the superior of the Convent of Mary Immaculate of the Missionary Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament and Mary Immaculate in Bridgeport.
She didn’t know what to do with her life, but God did. She so asked, and then she listened.
No matter how old you are — teenage, middle-age or senior — ask God: “What do you want me to do with my life?” And you’re guaranteed to get the best answer possible.