When you arrive at Senior Citizenry, have received a few years of AARP magazine, and the grandchildren begin to make their visits, life takes on a different feel and causes you to pose questions you’ve never asked yourself before. You begin to wonder about your different “lives.” Your life with Deity, your life with family, and your life with those you love and/or minister to. Since Deity planned you before the foundations of the earth were laid (according to Job and Paul) and your family is stuck with you, many of your musings will center on those who are a part of the remainder of my life. Since statistics show that you are forgotten after four generations, you will wonder if your time with others provided some meaning and significance to their lives. Thinking about that now erases future questions.

Although I know you desire significance, your motivation for that significance is critical to your peace and prosperity. I think all of our motivations balance on a dangerously thin line. There is indeed a right and wrong way to approach things; however, you are human and will always be susceptible to bias or rationalization. As a believer it is easy to get sucked into doing the “right thing” for the wrong reason. Just because your friends are actively involved in street ministry and want you to join them, doesn’t mean that is how you are gifted and what you have been called to do.

I encourage you to scrutinize the talents and gifts afforded you through your personality strengths. Make a list of them and post them. After you have done that, ask your family and friends to do the same thing for you. Take the lists and compare them. You will see patterns emerging from those lists. Those patterns will be the key to identifying where your strengths lie and what you have to offer others. If you are strong in communication, you may be an excellent liaison in a ministry that needs to spread information to a broad and diverse group. If you are very analytical, you may be the perfect choice to identify challenges the ministry faces and provide viable solutions to remedy those challenges. Or, you may be very shy, quiet, and withdrawn. In that case, simple acts of service and support will provide you with satisfaction and the knowledge that you have fulfilled the greatest job of all according to Matthew 23:11.

Your personal ministry needs to be something you enjoy. It is no different from your calling to secular work, if that is where you end up. If God wants you to have the desires of your heart, then He will call you to where you can receive joy and not struggle with motivational issues. The key is hearing what He is saying, not asking Him to bless your efforts (1 Samuel 15:22).

You should have joy in whatever you do, whether it is work, ministry, or play. The Father put a great deal of thought into what would bring you that joy. All you have to do is use your assets.

Love, Dad