My Job As a Perfusionist (running the heart lung machine)

I was recently asked the questions, “What would you like to be doing in the next five years? What do you ultimately aspire to be/do?”

As I pondered those questions, I thought back to all the jobs I have had in my life – waitress, medical technologist, on staff with Campus Crusade (locally and internationally), phlebotomist, perfusionist, and now Women’s Ministry Director.

My initial response to those questions was: I want to be a teacher/speaker/writer. But I realized the job itself is not what I aspire to do. What I aspire to be and do is to live out my God-ordained life purpose: to encourage others to passionately pursue Jesus Christ, through teaching, discipleship, and writing. The venues in which I do that may look different from year to year and season to season, but the underlying purpose stays the same throughout my life.

That’s why I encourage others to develop a life purpose statement. What has God put you on this earth to do? Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:11, “… I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.” God has given each of us as believers a life purpose. He created us and gifted us in a way that would enable us to carry out that purpose.

What has God gifted you to do? Are you using your gifts and talents to carry out that purpose?

If you’ve never developed a life purpose statement, I encourage you to do so. You can use the worksheet from my Free Resources page or Building Your Spiritual Toolbox Vol. 2.

What do you ultimately aspire to be/do? Is it a job title, or a life purpose?