Nineteen

I was talking to a friend last week who had recently been on a trip to America to spend a week observing a sports program to help troubled youth run by one of the top universities in America - Stanford. This is a famous university where many top athletes go to develop their athletic skills and gain a college degree. Tiger Woods went there. In fact it is expected that all students will develop their intellect as much as their physical talents. Stanford is more like a city, 8180 acres in size with 49 miles of roads, its own police and fire services, a shopping mall, a research park home to more than 150 companies and 23,000 employees, 43,000 trees, 3 dams with a power plant, the list goes on, it is very impressive.

Stanford students are given every opportunity to be the very best they can be. While my friend was there, he witnessed some of the students taking a break from their studies to go and watch Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams play a match on one of Stanford's tennis courts. Another story that impressed was one of the students being offered a $45 million contract to join the NFL but turning it down so he could finish his last year of study! Young people like that will change the world...bring it on.

The words of Psalm 19 are the thoughts of a young man beginning to understand his place in the world. David thinks of how God created the sun and placed it in the sky and how every day it majestically sweeps from east to west giving light and warmth to the earth. The sun doesn't speak but it sends a powerful message of God's faithfulness and provision to all mankind.

When you are young it is a good time to consider what God has made you for because in finding that purpose and then applying yourself to doing it excellently you send a lasting message to the world sometimes without even having to say a word.

Many people end up doing things in life they weren't created for and have a lifelong sense that they have missed their purpose in life. People find themselves in a field of work that just doesn't fit. Maybe they were clueless or too lazy. Maybe they saw what others had and mistakenly wanted that for themselves. Maybe they did only what others wanted, but the Bible teaches God makes each one of us for a unique purpose and he wants us to find and do that thing with excellence, with all our hearts and for the benefit of God and others not just ourselves. I'm sure you would agree that if everyone could do that, this world would be a completely different and better place.

But finding our purpose is oddly elusive for many of us! When I was young I enjoyed learning, reading, writing (and playing football). But when I left school I never knew what I wanted to do! I studied Commerce because it was the easiest option that would lead to a job but it wasn't my field even though I was OK at it. I remember a friend telling me when I was 20 to go into teaching but I never listened. It's funny that at a later age of life I am coming back to the field where I should have started. I guess God has a way of getting us to finally do what he wanted all along : ) We can never happily do for long what we were not created for.

I think that at a young age it's best not to be too specific about what you want to be when you are older, but to know the field you would like to work in and then learn it with excellence. For example, Sports. Many would like to be a famous athlete, but there are plenty of other interesting careers in sports - coaching, refereeing, sports science, broadcasting and so on. There are so many fields to choose from including Arts, Science, Craftsmanship...well you don't need to tell you.

Fulfilling our purpose in life is often the difficult road, that's why so many give up too soon. Daniel was a young man from the royal family with a great future ahead of him. But an enemy nation came and conquered his country and took him back to their land as a prisoner of war. He was forced to learn things that were contrary to his culture and beliefs but he worked hard and applied himself with excellence and within 3 years had mastered all the arts and science of the time and was appointed the King's counselor. Daniel was a young man with a passion for God who when hard times came continued to make the most of every learning opportunity. The things Daniel wrote are still influencing many of us more than 2500 years later. I would like to leave a legacy like that!

So the big question is how to find our life purpose? Here's some sound advice from the Bible! Firstly and most obviously, ask God about it. God has promised to give wisdom to anyone who asks for it. Secondly, we are taught to love and honour our parents which if we do promises us a long life that goes well. Our parents are often right about us aren't they? Thirdly there are others in our lives who love us. A friend of ours thought his life purpose was to be a rock star. The rest of us were skeptical. You can guess the outcome. Always listen carefully to a friend who tells you the truth! Finally there are the desires and passions in our own hearts. I think if all 4 of these things line up then you have you have a clear answer but as they say "success is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration". It is up to you to work hard and apply yourself with excellence!

On a sadder note this Psalm also contains a warning that we should all pay attention to. David wrote Psalm 19 when he was a young man. He asked God in that Psalm to forgive his hidden faults, the sins that would emerge later in his life and ruin his family. God was gracious to David and restored his relationship to him when David expressed his sorrow over what he later did. Tiger Woods, the worlds most famous golfer educated at Stanford University was the World Number 1 until a scandal started him on a downward career path that he hasn't recovered from yet. I think also of the sadder case of Amy Winehouse, the talented blues singer who died recently because of a life addicted to alcohol and drugs.

The final conclusion is that even with all the talent in the world and the very best education, hard work and success in our careers, we all still need God's everlasting Forgiveness and Grace in order to be truly successful in our lives.