100 uses for a...

I love it how everything has a purpose. Like even play-dough. It makes kids have fun and keeps them occupied so they won't chase the cat.

What I also love is how things are useful beyond that intended purpose. Like play-dough makes a salty snack when there are no Goldfish under the couch cushion.

And like the book that is not only a fabulous world waiting to be unlocked, but is also currently a little mini-table upon which my chai tea sits. I don't have to worry that the carpet fibers underneath will sit funny and make it spill, and I can't tell you how distracting that can be when one is trying to write.

One might, if one wished to make this a multi-purposed address (!) note the parallel with people. I want God's will in my life. I want to matter. To discover what my purpose is. For ages I lived with frenetic worry that'd I'd veered off the skinny black line denoting my destiny. What if I was supposed to go to UW instead of GT (go Jackets!). What if I was supposed to go to Starbucks instead of Caribou this morning? I would be hopelessly lost in a dark sea of pointless existence (melodrama intended.)

I don't remember when...I think it was more of a dawning than a bolt, but I came to understand that there is not one skinny road I'm meant to wend my way upon. I don't have one singular, isolated purpose. I'm made to glorify my God, to know him, but that is not a one-shot deal.

I bet Moses did a lot more in his time on earth than lead Israel from Egypt. That alone would be a killer destiny, but for forty years, he lived in the desert. Lived. Not just existed. And after Joseph saved his family from starvation and hooked them up with a sweet property in Goshen, he lived. Lived. Raised kids, sheep, and other stuff.

And I? I'm made to go to Cambodia, have coffee with friends, fall asleep on the couch, shamelessly justify naps as the will of God, write, laugh, travel this beautiful world, read the brilliant stories of others (here's looking at you, Tim Downs. Bugman is heelarious!), make cookies, enjoy cookies, relate to friends, play with my niece, etc. Maybe some day I'll get to lead a people group to a promised land...but I'm not holding my breath. I imagine my life's designed purpose won't clarify this side of the grave, but in between now and then, I'm grateful for the little things that put meaning in life and make a tiny, pale pink mark on the world.