How do we know when we have found the direction and purpose for the phase of life that is before us? It seems that a variation of clarity exists. The variation depends on the degree to which prayer is both at the center of what we do AS WELL AS the lens (a prayer lens) through which we gaze at every single choice before us.
When I am praying for clarity and understanding, my focus rests clearly on the space of my mind or my heart that is most open to listening for God's guiding voice. When something becomes crystal clear, I experience an increased energy....a momentum that can move my hands, my feet, and most certainly my mind at a more rapid pace....
Then, all too soon, it seems, clarity begins to be less apparent. Perhaps I am focusing too much upon results... or trying to measure my effectiveness... or placing more emphasis upon the deed than upon the call which has motivated me to engage in the deed. Whenever that happens, I realize that I am running the risk of moving away from God's call to some self-determined call. It may be a nice thing to do.... but the vigor and vitality that infuses my actions when God is working through me is no longer there. I begin to pursue the task (the self-determined call) under my own steam, using my own power, so to speak.
And then I realize that I must return.... always, return, to nestle in the arms or sit patiently at the feet of the one who not only knows me better than I know myself, but also knows all times and places where I can serve most effectively.
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...and in our hurry up, rush, rush, rush lifestyle, our calendars jammed with commitments, it can be most challenging to refrain from being action and results oriented, but rather to sit at Jesus' feet, like Mary, and absorb what the Master is so patiently and lovingly trying to reveal in His time frame.
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