During this week I am exploring many thoughts and feelings about life and direction. I always love it when God gives me affirmations and help in discovery. I’ve had a couple cool moments over the last couple days but today’s cool moment was when I read from relevantmagazine.com today.

The article Who Are You, and Why Are you Here was timely with this story:

There’s an old story about Akiva, the rabbi, who had been in the village to gather some supplies. Walking back to his cottage, he absentmindedly took the wrong path. Suddenly, a voice came through the darkness: “Who are you, and why are you here?”

Shocked to awareness, Akiva realized he had wandered into the Roman garrison, and the voice had come from the young sentry keeping guard. But being a rabbi, he answered the question with another question: “How much do they pay you to stand guard and ask that question of all who approach?”

The sentry, now seeing that this was not an intruder but a rabbi, answered meekly, “Five drachmas a week, sir.”

At that point the rabbi offered, “Young man, I will double your pay if you come with me, stand in front of my cottage, and ask me that question each morning as I begin my day: ‘Who are you, and why are you here?’”

This story just reminds me that each day I have to be able to answer these 2 important questions with peace of mind. That’s why time like this week are so important to me. I’m also in the process of reading The Me I Want To Be by John Ortberg. 

Considering these things brings me back to the greater question of not just who am I or why am I here but the question of how am I supposed to serve and glorify the Lord with the life I have. I have to believe that when I have a clear understanding of who God is in relation to what I want and who I am, then I’ll be completely content.