Who Is My Neighbor?: Being a Good Samaritan in a Connected World

by Steve Moore

I have enough experience sharing about this topic to know that you may be tempted at this point to exempt yourself from this entire conversation, believing you are the exception to the rule. I want to make several brief and yet important assertions that I can state with great confidence. God has a purpose for everyone, including you. It is possible to discover your life purpose. God knows you can't do what He put you on the earth to do if you don't know what it is. Your purpose will be fueled by the God-honoring passions that emerge from the life-shaping experiences, the heartlinks that come your way. Pursuing your life purpose will bring freedom and clarity to the decisions you make about crossing boundaries and overcoming barriers to show God's mercy by serving others.

  There is no simple formula for discovering your life purpose; it would be foolish to suggest you can plug information into a life-purpose spreadsheet, hit enter, and come away with an answer. But there are guideposts that can prove helpful. In my experience training and coaching people of all ages and diverse vocations in life planning, three variables have consistently shed light on the journey: history, identity, and opportunity. The history variable asks, “What are the clues from my journey so far?” The identity variable asks, “Who did God make me to be? What do I have to offer?” The opportunity variable asks, “How can I serve or add value to others?” Let's take a brief but closer look at each of these three variables.

  THE HISTORY VARIABLE

  It has been said that the two most important moments in your life are when you were born and when you discovered why you were born. Discovering why you were born shines a light on your future but requires a look at your past. God has already been at work in your life. He wants to conform you to His image and prepare you to accomplish His purpose for your life. Though you may not have recognized these life-shaping, destiny-marker experiences when they occurred, if you stop and reflect on your journey so far, I believe you will find them. The idea of looking back to where you have come from for clues about where you are going seems counterintuitive. But in more ways than you might think, your past has helped shape who you are, and thereby influences what you do. Your history has a lot to do with your destiny.

  You may find it helpful to reflect on your journey using several lenses or vantage points. Start by looking for formative relationships, asking the question, “What relationships have most significantly imprinted my life or shaped my journey?” Be on the lookout for unique friendships, mentors, or special circumstances in your family history. In the Bible, the stories of Joseph, Moses, Samson, and David, just to name a few, are sprinkled with examples of how God used life-shaping, destiny-marker experiences to lay the foundation for a special purpose.

  A second lens for helpful reflection is personal milestones, using the question, “What significant events, experiences, or accomplishments have served as building blocks for my journey?” Pay special attention to experiences in which your giftedness began to surface, in which you were shown unusual favor from God or the encouragement and affirmation of others.

  A third lens through which you can look at your history is pivotal turning points, using the question, “Have I experienced special windows of opportunity or made definitive choices that opened new doors or expanded my horizons?” Look for opportunities in which you were stretched beyond your comfort zone. Be sure to include failure experiences, especially when they became teachable moments that accelerated your learning.

  A fourth lens for exploring your journey so far is recurring mega-themes, using the question, “Can I see an overarching theme or storyline that weaves together the threads of several life-shaping experiences into a single fabric?” For example, this could be an accelerated interest or even prodigy-like focus combined with recurring opportunities. It may be repeated encounters with different people who have similar needs.

  Finally, consider reflecting on your history variable with the lens of providential occurrences, using the question, “Have I had ‘unexplainable coincidences’ or spiritual experiences that have shaped my life and marked my journey?” Be alert for God's providential intervention that spared your life, unusual circumstances surrounding your birth, or special guidance from God in decision making.

  Before you discount this as too complex or mysterious, let me remind you of Amy Carmichael's journey from chapter 4. Amy's encounter with the little girl outside the tea shop was a powerful, life-shaping spiritual experience. The same could be said of her ministry to the “bag lady” during which she heard the voice of God, refining her motives. Amy's ministry to the young girls in her neighborhood and “shawlies” stimulated the discovery of her giftedness and refined her passion for the marginalized and neglected. The gift from Kate Mitchell that provided the funds for building the Welcome Hall demonstrated God's favor, expanding her influence and broadening her opportunities for ministry. All of this would converge as a megatheme in her life when she encountered the temple girl in India more than a decade later.

  It is important that you understand these destiny markers seem so obvious in Amy's story only when years are compacted into a few sentences like time-lapse photography and the mundane routines of daily life are pruned from the narrative like overgrown branches on a vine. If you are in your twenties or younger, it is quite likely the most important life-shaping experiences that will heartlink you to issue-based passions and fuel your life purpose are still around the corner. Don't try to manufacture them. Remember the importance of daily surrender that can turn life into an ongoing adventure. Revisit the sample prayer at the close of chapter 4 that I pray almost every day, and expect God to lead you. Take time to reflect on your journey periodically using the lens of the history variable with a special priority for the issue-based passions that will provide the self-directed motivation required to fuel a life of great purpose.

  One final thought before we move on. An unintended consequence of engaging the history variable can be running headlong into negative, even painful experiences in your past that you have tried very hard to forget. In some cases these trying or even tragic events raise profound questions such as “Where was God when this happened?” As difficult as it might be to accept, God is big enough to reach down into those painful moments with healing grace to set you free. He may even take the emotional wreckage of those experiences and build a platform for influence that will enable you to serve others who have been similarly wounded.

  The tragic reality is that some people miss out on God's purpose for their lives not because they don't know what it is or believe it is good but because they are dragging around a ball and chain of hurt, anger, and resentment from their past. Joseph could easily have found himself in this kind of emotional and spiritual prison after having been sold by his brothers into slavery in Egypt. The injustice he experienced there added insult to injury. But by God's grace he was able to move forward, even recognizing that while his brothers meant to bring him harm, God turned it into something good (see Genesis 50:19-20). He stands ready to do that for you as well.

  THE IDENTITY VARIABLE

  Passion doesn't reveal anything about capacity. Passion helps clarify the “what” of your life purpose, but in order to pursue your passions and accomplish your purpose, you will need to know “how” in addition to “what.” The question of “how” focuses attention on who God made you to be and what you have to offer in the service of others.

  After all, the same God who designed a purpose for your life put the gifts and skills and tools inside you that would be needed to accomplish it. It is true that no matter how fully you develop your giftedness, you will need God's help and the help of others to accomplish your life purpose. But you cannot expect God to reward your failure to identify, develop, and steward all that He has entrusted to you by pouring out an extra measure of supernatural grace. In the same way that your history has a lot to do with your destiny, who God made you to be helps reveal what He wants you to do.

  Engaging the identity variable is simply being honest with yourself about yourself, and honest about
yourself with others. It is important that you grow in your self-awareness as it relates to your personality and temperament, your strengths, your acquired skills, and your spiritual gifts, in addition to your passions. There are many different assessment tools that can help you in this journey. Understanding who God made you to be will provide strategic information regarding the development of personal growth goals. I have written extensively on the importance of personal growth planning and how it relates to the pursuit of your life purpose in The Dream Cycle: Leveraging the Power of Personal Growth.

  The reason God gave you the personality, strengths, skills, and gifts you have is that He knew you would need them to pursue the dominant issue-based passions that fuel your life purpose. But all of the strengths and gifts you received from God came in seed form. If you have the gift of serving or teaching or leadership, it did not come fully developed. God is expecting you to intentionally work those giftedness muscles to strengthen your ability to leverage those kingdom resources in the service of others. Regardless of which of the four domains of passionate engagement toward which you gravitate (service, justice, discovery, or advocacy), you will need to refine and develop your capacity to make the contribution God wants you to make.

  The Opportunity Variable

  When it comes to your life purpose, the most strategic opportunities to serve others will come at the intersection of “what” and “how.” By what, I mean your highest priority issue-based passions, and by how, I mean the gifts, skills, and tools God has put inside you. But a central theme of this book is that in a connected, globalized world, we live in virtual proximity to more needs than any one of us could possibly meet. Not every need will overlap with your passions and life purpose. God has prepared good works in advance for you to do, but clearly that divinely ordered project list is limited in scope. It is understandable and appropriate for you to use the passions that fuel your life purpose to filter the opportunities that come your way.

  Opportunities to use your giftedness in areas that connect with your life purpose will generally fit in one of two categories: structured or spontaneous. Spontaneous opportunities to serve others are usually momentary, unplanned, and one-off situations that can further be divided into miscellaneous and missional. By miscellaneous I mean opportunities that do not overlap with the sweet spot of your purpose and capacity, but the combination of proximity and urgency suggest action is appropriate. To revisit the tragic story of Eutisha Rennix in the opening chapter of this book, if you came across a twenty-five-year-old pregnant woman who had passed out, you would probably feel responsible to do something to help while you waited for first responders to arrive, even if you were not a trained EMT.

  I am not mechanically inclined at all and wouldn't have the faintest idea how to help a stranded motorist. I have enough self-awareness to recognize the aptitude and acquired skills required are beyond my capacity. I will never be involved in a ministry to help single mothers get their cars repaired or oil changed. That might fit in the sweet spot of someone else's issue-based passions and the good works God has prepared for them, but not mine. In spite of all this, if I came across a young mother and her van-load of kids stranded on the side of the road in apparent distress, I would view it as a spontaneous, albeit miscellaneous, opportunity to serve. I would stop, knowing full well my capacity to help begins and ends with my cell phone.

  In addition to spontaneous/miscellaneous, there are also spontaneous/missional opportunities to serve others. These are unplanned and often momentary encounters where God places someone in your path whose need overlaps with both your passions and giftedness. I believe this happens much more often than you think, but if you have not refined your understanding of your passions, purpose, and the kingdom resources you are vested with, you will not see them.

  There is a simple but powerful principle that says what you focus on expands. For example, several years ago my wife and I purchased a Honda Odyssey, after years of driving another brand. Almost immediately after purchasing our new van, I started seeing other Honda Odysseys everywhere. Did our purchasing decision start an immediate trend? No. The fact is there were already thousands of Honda Odysseys on the road, but I had never paid any attention to them. Once I started focusing on this specific model, I could hardly go around the block without noticing one. What you focus on expands.

  The same will be true with the issue-based passions that fuel your life purpose. As you might expect based on the content of this book, one of my issue-based passions is helping people discover and live out their God-ordained purpose. I often have the opportunity to travel as an extension of my role as the president and CEO of The Mission Exchange. I routinely pray as I'm preparing for a trip, asking God to direct me to people who are hungry for greater meaning and purpose in their lives. I expect when I get where I'm going, as well as along the way, there will be a handful of divinely appointed conversations with people who are at a major crossroads in their lives. I believe the life experiences and kingdom resources God has deposited in me could be of help. Engaging them with thoughtful questions and Spirit-led prayer is part of the good works God has prepared in advance for me. Meeting people like this, even once for a few minutes, represents a spontaneous and yet missional opportunity to serve.

  Even more important than spontaneous opportunities to serve others, you need to be aware of structured environments, including volunteer and vocational. As you might expect, structured opportunities for service are planned, recurring, and systematic points of engagement. Spontaneous windows of opportunity choose you. You choose the structured pathways of service and therefore should give special priority to ensuring they fit well with your giftedness and overlap as much as possible with your passions. These are the places where you will move toward level four on the passion pyramid, sacrificing as needed to learn more about, engage with, and influence others toward a worthy cause.

  There are both volunteer and vocational expressions of structured service. You have probably heard motivational speakers exhort people not to waste another minute doing something they don't love to do. They tell you to find something you are passionate about that people will pay you to do. In a perfect world I agree. Robert Frost put it like this: “My object in living is to unite my avocation and vocation as my two eyes make one in sight.”3 But I am convinced that the overwhelming majority of “good works” God has prepared in advance for each of us will happen outside the walls of vocational service, even for professional ministers or Christian workers.

  In chapter 4 I introduced you to two streams of passion, interest- and issue-based. At the confluence of these two streams is what I describe as “incarnational passion.” Remember, interest-based passions are activities we pursue for fun; they bring us pleasure. Issue-based passions bring fulfillment and give a sense of purpose. Incarnational passions bring these two streams together, allowing us to combine the momentum of doing something we like to do for a cause we care deeply about.

  For example, Nancy G. Brinker found an incarnational passion after her sister, Susan G. Koman, died of breast cancer. Having promised her dying sister she would work to spare other women from suffering in the same way, Nancy needed a tool to raise awareness and funds. While engaging an interest-based passion of jogging, she developed the initial idea of 5K races that have become known as Race for the Cure, which has helped fund more than $180 million in research grants for this issue-based cause.

  TURNING THE LENS—INCREASING FOCUS

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  If you would like additional information on the subject of life purpose, consider downloading the Life Planning webinar by Steve Moore from the online store at www.TheMissionExchange.org. Use the one-time discount code chapter6-neighbor to download this webinar for free.

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  It is helpful to view the model I have developed for discovering your life purpose as a lens that you turn by engaging the history, identity, and opportunity variables. Doing so brings your life purpose into focus. It enables your issue-bas
ed passions to fuel the highest purpose for your life, connecting your deepest sense of fulfillment with your greatest sense of accomplishment. This is not a linear, formulaic process. It is common for people to have more fully engaged the identity variable, growing in self-awareness as it relates to their giftedness, before ever seriously reflecting on their history variable. I'm not really concerned about whether you agree with my model, labels, or definitions. What I do care about is helping you identify the “great objects” God Almighty has set before you so you can begin to prioritize and organize your service of others around the highest purpose for your life. In doing so not only will you be following in the steps of William Wilberforce, but you will be doing what Jesus did.

  JESUS ON PURPOSE

  If there was ever an acid test of the biblical validity of knowing and fulfilling your life purpose, it would be seeing this principle played out in the life of Jesus. Did Jesus have issue-based passions? Did He know His destiny and actively work together with God to fulfill it? Did He wander through life engaging in random acts of kindness until He ended up on a cross?

  The answer to these questions depends to a certain extent on your Christology—your theology about Jesus. I believe that Jesus was all God and all man. He never stopped being God while on the earth, and yet He chose to put off the fullness of His divine nature so He could completely identify with our humanity. Jesus did miracles and worked wonders not because He was God but because as the God-man he drew upon the power of the Father through the Holy Spirit. He testified to this, saying, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (John 5:19).