Real Life Leading #43
To Find Your Passion, Begin by Serving
This past week, I was blessed to see two very different organizations be celebrated for their service in local communities. On Tuesday evening, my family and I were able to attend a dinner fundraiser for our local Boys and Girls Club, and on Thursday I spoke at the luncheon of our local chapter of the Lions Club International. At the Boys and Girls Club dinner, the club awarded their annual 'Home Town Hero' award to a woman who has served the local club for almost twenty years; at the Lions Club meeting, the local chapter (Anniston) was awarded the 'Club of the Year' for the entire state of Alabama.
After attending both of those get-togethers, I asked myself, "What do the members of those groups have in common?" The answer should have been obvious: a desire to serve. The woman who received the 'Home Town Hero' award is a former prison administrator, who at one point was in charge of six facilities. Thus it makes sense that she would spend much of her free time helping underserved youth, hoping to help them follow different life paths than what she saw everyday.
The men and women of the Lions Club are doctors, reporters, attorneys, bank managers, and former school teachers. The Lions Club helps raise money and awareness about diabetes, childhood cancer, vision-screenings for kids, and world hunger. Again, it makes sense that these types of people would, after their 'job' ends for the day, continue to help others through volunteering with the Lions Club.
What's the point? We are called to serve, and one common reason that people give for not serving is that they haven't yet found their passion.. So how do you find your passion? You take a page out of the Boys and Girls Clubs and Lions Clubs playbook, and you simply begin to serve in your local area. Jesus himself said that he came not to be served, but to serve, and He calls us to do the same. These two groups are just a couple of examples of the countless ways you can get involved.
Perhaps working with at-risk youth isn't what you end up being passionate about. Perhaps you find that you are drawn to serve the homeless in your area. Perhaps you feel passionately about raising money for families who are dealing with cancer or other diseases. Perhaps you are, like my wife, constantly drawn to help animals who are without homes.
Here's the crux, though: you won't know until you get out and try. Nothing is set in stone: go get information, volunteer with a local organization, and see how God may be calling you to use your skills in the service of others. As you serve others, you'll start to see what you enjoy and what you don't, where your skills are a great fit and where they might be better utilized. But you have to begin by doing it, not just by thinking about it.
If you want to learn more about why it's so important to serve as leaders, and to get more ideas on how to do so, go grab a copy of my recent book Inverted Leadership: Lead Others Better By Forgetting About Yourself . (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1983110167/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1528802141&sr=8-1)
In the meantime, get out and serve, and then be sure to tag me on social media so I can celebrate your service as well!