Do what you love! Find your passion! Find a job you adore and you’ll never work a day in your life. This is the kind of stuff that is being served up and devoured by the people comprising the younger generations in our world. Maybe you have found yourself motivated by such inspirational dictums. But here is the problem. You might notice the common root word in all of these phrases is “you.â€
Every generation loves to fantasize about their own importance to the world. However, most generations very early on have that kind of narcissism corrected. Whether by words, actions, or situations, the young have been reminded that the world is not all about them.
But it seems the members of our younger generations are being told the exact opposite. Do to overwhelming concerns about the lack of self-esteem is previous generations, many of our young people have been assured of their overwhelming specialness all their lives.
While older generations might have dreamed of greatness, many individuals in these younger generations assume greatness to be their God-given right. The “spiritual†leaders of these generations feed this belief at every turn. The inspirational leaders of the day are telling people that fulfillment in life is found by doing what you love, by following your passion. It is the sure path to manifest your unquestioned importance in the world.
The Godly life though is not about doing what you love. It is about doing what the others around you need. You may well in the end get to do things that you love to do but that should never be your motivation. You should be motivated by those around you. You should form your life not around your passions but around their needs.
It is a clever deception that is being spread no doubt. Our younger generations actually believe that by doing what they love and following their passion is the secret to helping those around them. That is why every video that talks about finding your passion ends up suggesting that somebody out there is going to be affected in a positive way by you doing what you love. People are becoming convinced that navel gazing is somehow also altruism.
But that’s all backwards. It assumes that focusing on yourself and what you love is the best way to help others. It is not. This is not to suggest that sometimes when people follow what they love that they do not end up helping people. It can happen but most often the needs fulfilled are mostly those of the person following their passion. The Scriptures speak about being very cautious when following one’s inner passions for this very reason.
The Scriptures do speak about God giving specific gifts to specific people. But it always talks about that in the context of using those gifts then for the betterment of others. It is not about fulfilling some purpose for yourself but for meeting the needs of those around you.
Some days in life you will get to do things you love. Others days you will do things you hate. Everybody’s life is that way. Even the people who act like is not. But if you meet others needs each day, you have lived well.
