An Announcement About Thursday...on Tuesday!

A couple weeks ago a dear friend confided in me that he felt lost. He was working hard in a lot of different areas, but still didn't feel fulfilled and had no idea which direction to go in next. For some reason, this resonated so deeply with me, and I wanted to reach out and help him somehow. Then I figured out why I felt his plight so deeply...

I feel lost, too. Wow - talk about the blind wanting to lead the blind.

Let me define, though, what I mean by lost (from my perspective, not his, of course - I can only speak for myself). As a Christian, I know I am always loved and taken care of, and there is always a plan, even if I don't know what that plan is.

In his book The Circle Maker Mark Batterson talks about a point in his life when he felt like his life resembled an airline joke - the pilot comes on the overhead speaker and says, "I've got good news and bad news. The bad news is we're lost; the good news is we're making great time."

My life feels like that a lot of the time ( and you know that because I've written about it...oh...eight billion times). The issue, I've discovered, is that in order to know where you're going, you have to know where you are.

Like Bilbo discovered in the movie The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug when he and the dwarfs are lost in Mirkwood Forest, sometimes you have to stop moving, running around in circles, look up (or in his case climb up) and take an accurate assessment of where you are. Only then can you determine the direction in which you should move.

God reveals His plans to us in many different ways, and He revealed to me yesterday that He'd been smacking me in the face with answers for the past 8 weeks. I was just too buried to see it.

At the end of my last semester at Liberty I took a Christian Life Coaching class. Many of the discussion board assignments for this class were designed to make you think about the material from a personal perspective, but because I was operating in overload, and under some serious time constraints, I kept the material at arm's length and attacked it mainly from a scholastic perspective.

But times, they are a changin'. It's time to get personal.

And of course, I've decided I want to bring you along on the journey! Aren't you excited?!

First, I should probably share a little about what the heck life coaching is...and what it isn't. Actually, we'll start there.

It isn't therapy or counseling. Those deal with the past, this deals with the present and future.

It isn't mentoring. Mentors guide you to be more like them; life coaches want you to be more like you.

It isn't discipleship. Discipleship is purely spiritual in nature, while coaching deals with many different aspects of life, albeit from a Christian perspective (if you're dealing with Christian Coaching).

So what is it? Well, Life Coaching is helping someone become exactly who or where they want to be. It's telling them, but helping them discover through thoughtful questions and guided self-examination.

Christian Coaching, on the other hand, is helping someone become exactly who or where GOD wants them to be. You use the same methods, but instead of just seeking inward, you first seek upward.

If you'd like more information on this, I would strongly advise you to take a look at Christian Coaching by Dr. Gary Collins. It's the main book I'll be using throughout this series of blogs, and it was the main textbook for the course.

And of course, I'm not just writing this because I'm a huge over-sharer...I want you to walk along with me!! Have you been feeling lost? Do you feel like your life should have greater purpose or a more defined direction? Then let's take this journey together!

(Disclaimer: I have taken one Christian Life Coaching class and am going by the book on this one. What this means? I am in no way a certified life coach. This is all amateur, folks. If this sparks a serious interest, I strongly advise you to seek a real life coach to help you on your journey!! But until then, we can have some fun together.)

And you'll never guess what else...this series is going to be my first link up!!! I'm so EXCITED!!!!! Can you tell?

Thus far, I've been very intimidated by the link up process, and I've just kept telling myself, I'll wait to start a link up when I get Seeking the Symphony up and running. But guess what, that's taking a while, and in a recent talk with my Life Coaching professor, which was invaluable (more on that later), I discovered that it's okay that it's okay that it's taking a while. Sometimes, things that need to be done right take time...and I've got to learn to be okay with that.

So, with that, I introduce to you Corinthians 3 Thursdays!!!

Why Corinthians 3, you ask? And which Corinthians: 1 or 2? BOTH

As I was looking for Bible verses on our purpose according to Christ, I found the following verses:

For we are God's co-workers.

You are God's field, God's building.

According to God's grace that was given to me,

as a skilled master builder I have laid a foundation,

and another builds on it,

because no one can lay any other foundation that what has been laid - 

that is, Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 3:8-11

Now the Lord is the Spirit;

and where the Spirit of the Lord is. there is freedom.

We all, with unveiled faces, are reflecting the glory of the Lord

and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory;

this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Two verses, from both Paul's first and second letters to the Corinthians, and both in the third chapters, beautifully articulate the purpose of this series.

I don't want to find direction and purpose according to my own plans, Instead, by following these steps, I am praying God will reveal HIS divine purpose and plan for my life...at least this next stage of it. We're laying a foundation for Jesus to build on, being transformed by Him.

That is the purpose of this series, and I sincerely hope you'll come along with me!

Now because this is a process, if you decide you want to come along, but you need to skip a week or two here or there, I would strongly advise you to go back to the next step for YOU. This is not a race to purpose, people. We all have our own lives and our own schedules. If you decide you want to link up with your blog and you're "behind," just link up with what you've got. Ain't nobody judging around here.

I think that's enough for today. This Thursday, we'll have our first link up, and we'll talk about values and why it's important not just to have them, but to be able to define them!