Mike Donehey – Hope is alive

We go, “What’s God’s call on my life?” Really what we’re saying is, “God, give me a fail-safe plan that if I follow, I’ll be good.” Jesus goes, “Eat My flesh and drink My blood.” We respond, “No, I don’t want to. Give me the plan.” There’s a Fredrick Buechner quote that’s like, my life quote right now: “Your calling is where your deep gladness meets the world’s deep needs.”

We go wrong in the Church because we only ask one, or the other. We either just say, “What’s my deep gladness? What makes me come alive?” Then we just turn into the narcissistic black hole of selfishness. Or we say, “What does the world need?” We go and we do stuff that we’re not even wired for, or unqualified for, and then we burn out. The beautiful thing is, when you wake up and you say, “What makes me come alive?” That’s the first question, but don’t stop there. Do what makes you come alive. Ask, “How am I wired the way I am?” Then ask yourself, “Now, how can I use that to meet the world’s deep needs?’

For me, I knew I loved music, but I also love to dance. I love to be funny. I love to…whatever. It took a long time to let those things infiltrate what I was doing because I thought, “Okay, I love music, but now what does the world need?” The world obviously needs another Shane & Shane. The world needs another Switchfoot. The world needs another… All of those artists that I look up to. Then over time, I finally was like, “Oh, no, the world needs me to be me.”

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