The Biggest Lie in the World

I recently heard a pastor give a message on being who God has called us to be. During that message he said this, "There is one big lie that exists in the world today. You have heard it, you have probably even spoken it over your children or even your friends. Many of you do not even believe that this is a lie, but fundamentally, when you get down to the bottom line, this is the biggest lie ever."

As you can imagine, I was pretty hooked into this message at this point. As I drove through DC listening to these words I started to think of some pretty big lies - there is no God, Jesus was not the Son of God, there is no devil, and many more that I could think of. As the speaker progressed with his message he put me out of my misery by answering his own statement. Are you ready to hear what he said?

The biggest lie today is this, "You can be anything you want to be"

I will pause for a moment to wait for the internal reaction that just went off inside of you to settle down. I wonder if anyone thought that having heard this that I should be more selective of the speakers I listen to. Let me unpack this particular speakers rationale for this statement.

"You can be ANYTHING you want to be" - sounds good, sounds encouraging, sounds liberating, sounds unachievable, sounds unattainable, sounds false. You may have told your kids this as they were growing up. You may have high hopes and aspirations for them, but are these aspirations realistic? Do your dreams for your kids match God's gifting and calling for your kids? If you have a son who grows up to be 5'5" tall and appears to have two left hands when it comes to ball sports, then no matter how much he WANTS to be an NBA star, he is most likely not going to achieve that ambition. If you have a daughter who WANTS to become an astronaut but doesn't understand elementary physics and gets motion sick when you reverse the car out of the driveway, then this WANT will not be achieved. When we get down to the harsh reality, we cannot be anything we WANT to be.

If you have continued to read, then you are either depressed or upset or intrigued. So let me bring an upside to this otherwise depressing posting. If we were created by God, gifted and anointed by Him, and placed on this earth then there must be a reason for Him doing that. The biggest problem I see with the biggest lie is that we have removed God from the equation. We tell ourselves and our children that they can be anything that THEY want to be - what about being who GOD wanted them to be? When we see a goal or have a dream we will spend countless hours pursuing that goal and trying to achieve it. Many of us will be successful in our endeavors, and we often call it God's blessing. We see our success as a validation that what we are doing MUST be what God wants us to do - otherwise we would not succeed. Why would we think that? We hear stories of married men who leave their wives and move in with another woman because they have a better relationship with the 'mistress' - therefore it must be God's will that we be together!! - Have you got rocks in your head??

God's call and will for our lives is not a mystery. He wants to tell you and to teach you how to be the best YOU that He made you to be. So many people struggle with knowing what God has called them to do or to be because they followed the biggest lie. You may find yourself in a position right now where you have been asking God to bless you in your work yet you are not seeing that blessing. could it be that you have followed the path to become the ANYTHING you wanted to be but you have forsaken the THING that GOD created you to be?

I personally have wrestled with this for a number of years. I did not see myself as a college professor when I was growing up. In fact, while I was still in physical therapy school I applied for a vacant youth pastor position at a previous church. I was sure that I would be working in full time (PAID) ministry. When I graduated and started my PhD I began to teach. I loved teaching. It fired me up. I have spent the past 16 years teaching. So what about that full time ministry position? Well, I now have a job where I can do what I love, I interact with young minds every day and have the opportunity to affect those minds with words, actions and prayers. I have a mission field that comes to my office with their questions and concerns. I have some students who even read this blog - and have now realized that I am talking about them. I have a position where I only have to go to my office 4 days a week - boss' directive. I have a job where I get 2 weeks off at Christmas, 5 days off at Easter and 2 months off for the summer - all paid. My work pays for my ministry. This work schedule has allowed me to devote a lot of time to ministry - to the church. What a blessing!

If I had taken that youth pastor job back in the early 1990's I don't know where I would be, but I don't think it would be here. What are your wants? What ANYTHING do you want to be? Does your ANYTHING add up to the SOMETHING that God has called you to be? Don't settle for just ANYTHING. Ask God what He has created you for - what good works he has created for you to do? Eph 2:10 says, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." Are you doing the good works that God has already prepared for you?