April is Over, May is Here!

I finished Traveling Mercies last night. I am so glad that I read this book. I just loved it. It's definitely a book I would read again, which is saying a lot. I generally don't re-read books because I don't really feel any need to, but this book had so many nuggets of wisdom in it that I don't feel like I got it all the first time. But what I did glean, I loved. Anne Lamott is insightful and hilarious, all in the same breath. I'd be cracking up and then the next sentence I'm grabbing my pencil and underlining like crazy. I just wish I had an ounce of the wisdom and insight that she has. Although I'm sure she wouldn't say that she has either of those characteristics, I find her ability to draw spiritual connections between and out of regular life events uncanny. I definitely envy that.

Anytime I read a memoir of Anne Lamott's nature, I find myself questioning myself. The other day I was reading the blog Stuff Christians Like, and Jon Acuff (the author) was talking about people's various "things". He proposed that everyone has a "thing" that when he/she does it, he/she feels alive and like he/she is really doing something big. However, he also posits that very few people are actually doing their "thing". Anne Lamott is definitely doing her "thing." And if she's not, I am extremely jealous, because she is such an incredible writer. But it made me think, am I doing my "thing"? I realize this is kind of a rabbit trail from the actual book, but it's what this book made me think, so I'm going there today.

If I'm not doing my "thing", what exactly is my "thing"? Is it problematic that I don't think I can answer that question? As much as I'd like to, I'm not sure what my "thing" is. But I desperately want to know, and I desperately want to be doing that.

Sometimes, I think I'd love to write, but I don't think I have what it takes. Other days, I really think I'd love to go into politics. And then I don't think I have what it takes. Then again, I really am interested in psychology, and maybe that's my "thing", but again, I don't know if I have what it takes. On the other hand, I'd love to live somewhere outside of the USA and do missions work. But then I remember I have a husband. :)

And then I remember. I have the Holy Spirit inside of me. God is inside of me. So why do I ever question if I have what it takes? Why don't I just stop making excuses and DO??

And what if we all did that? What if we all thought about what our thing is, stopped making excuses, and then just did it? Probably some of you are thinking that you are doing your thing, and I'm sure you love it. But just think- what if all of humanity, or even the majority of humanity, was actually doing what they love. What they want to do, rather than what's practical, or earns them the most money. What would life be like?

I'd like to see it. And I'd really like to see it just in my own life.