What Stirs Your Soul?

Thought for today......

You will not find true, inner, REAL happiness until you can define what stirs your soul. Here in the west, the familiar lie is that "stuff" will make us happy, or money, so many of us jump on the merry-go-round of chasing that money to get that stuff. Don't get me wrong, we've all got to eat and bills to pay, but what if we could do that by doing something that we'd actually do for free?

What is it for you? I can tell you one thing, there is something in all of us that stirs our soul, something that when we can get ahold of it, all of life seems to make sense. Just a warning, it seems to be harder to define the older we get. Our youth made it easy to dream and wish of what we wanted to do and be when we grew up, and somehow, as life goes on, we carry the weight of "responsibility" around like a ball and chain. What about our responsibility to be true to ourselves?

At the risk of garnering criticism and starting arguments, may I suggest that for many, finding that which stirs the soul is a life and death proposition. Spending a lifetime doing something we really don't like to do literally drains the life out of us, but filling our days involved in something that enrgizes and fulfills us can be life giving. So what does it look like?

As I said before, it's different for each of us but here a few general characteristics:

• You will be passionate about it. Thoughts and discussions about it carry an emotional value.
• There is never a point at which you "get enough" of it. You find yourself coming back to it over and over. (At this point you're thinking it sounds alot like an addiction......read on.)
• It has value for others. Others will find beauty and value in the thing that stirs your soul. It adds to the world around you and others notice.

That last point is very important, it's what keeps it from becoming selfish indulgence. For example: you absolutely love to fish, you can spend hours and days on the water, it makes you feel fully alive. The value in this example would be to share that love and knowledge by becoming a fishing guide, and in so doing it may even feed and clothe you.

That may sound completely simplistic and irrational to you. I understand, this world is full of people who love to tell others that their dreams and heart's desires are foolish. But I'm here to tell you otherwise...they are a clue. A clue to that which stirs your soul. May God, the One who placed the clues here for us, help each of us to discover and embrace them.

Peace.......