“Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.”

John 15:14

Assuming the postulate that I have elected to let God have His way in my life, the questions arise, “How may I know where God is leading? How may I recognize

His plan for the course I shall take?” None of us expects God to hand us a detailed outline of what our life will be. He does not offer individual blueprints to us, which, once accepted, may be followed without any further exercise of thought on our part. Such a method of dealing would deprive life of many of its keenest interests and all of its happiest surprises. No, we must still walk by faith in this present world, not by sight – without doubt, that is best.

To a Christian, the prime objective should be to serve his generation. We see this exemplified in the life of Christ as he explained to His disciples, “the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” To the Christian, there could be no greater motive than this. Many ask in their minds, “how can I be the most useful?”, or, “how can I be the most helpful?” The best way is to count the cost of the circumstances and the human needs around us. Therefore, if we can be sure that we have rightly measured the talents our Lord has entrusted us to be stewards of and that we have rightly measured the human needs our abilities will supply, then we will have little or no difficulty in deciding what our lifework ought to be.

Of course, there are some things that hold true for all of us in general. For instance, we know that our part is to be a part of serving and not simply of being served, a part of going forward and not of holding back; of lifting up and not of dragging down. I have known some people who seem to think that all they were sent here to do is stand on the sidelines and watch the game while criticizing the players.

A man was once quoted, “One of the greatest tragedies of life is that men who have power to bless the world are willing to waste their lives on tasks that can be done better by machines!”