Why, What & How

The future has been on my mind a lot. This may be because I’m about to start testing for my Architecture license, or because my career has stagnated in to a struggle to survive each month. There is a wealth of directions to go from the bottom. It’s a good place to set a course from.

I made a big list of what I wanted to accomplish in life. Learn to play piano and speak Spanish. Own part of an Architectural firm by the time I’m fifty. I stepped back from my list and noticed a glaring omission. Jesus. I didn’t mention Him at all. The spring point of my entire life and I didn’t even give Him a sentence. I can say with almost complete sincerity that the thing I want to accomplish in this life above all else is to become as much like Jesus as I can. How does that factor into my more worldly life goals? Does He inform Why I do things, What I do, How I do things or all three?

"Why"
Why get up in the morning? Why go to work? Why get married? Why learn Spanish? Why become an Architect? Does Jesus answer any of these whys? Certainly at some level He does, but that universal truth sounds hollow to my human ears. Besides why questions don’t move you forward. My counselor from back when I was dealing with depression/anxiety said it was better to ask how. How I got to the point of breakdown has more substance than why I broke down. If I know how I got to the bottom then I can work to circumvent the situation from happening again.

"What"
I struggled most of my life with what I was going to do in life. Is this question even important to God though? According my pastor Jesus wants us to have a relationship with Him. He isn’t concerned with whether were doctors or lawyers, married or single or whatever. I think there are exceptions to this. God will call people to do certain things, but He has not called me as of yet.

"How"
The answer to the question I posed above is Jesus informs How I go about life? When I own an Architectural Firm I do not run a sweat shop. I do not work my employees to death to turn a profit so I can have lots fabulous sports cars? I do not put my desire to be a Cat 3 bike racer above everything else and leave my children to raise themselves. I live my life as close as I can to how Jesus would live it.