The joy of being who God designed you to be. Or how to become a square peg in a square hole

Many of us go through life feeling like a square peg in a round hole.

If we have any sense of destiny at all we think of it as something out there, unreachable.

We feel like King David probably did for many years: out of place, awaiting that sense of fulfilling our destiny.

I’m not altogether sure which is harder: not knowing what it is you were put on earth to accomplish, or knowing what you think it is, but being unable to achieve it.

David had known since he was a young boy out with the sheep that God wanted him to be King.

And yet the journey to kingship was a rocky one. Just because God has called you to something, doesn’t mean it will be easy getting there.

Finally in 2 Samuel 5 we see him receive the acclaim he had deserved years before. His previous military prowess was finally acknowledged I wonder if David was thinking “about time!” while the people were basically saying, “you da man!”

The truth is that there is no such thing as overnight success. Or perhaps we should say that overnight success only happens when it has been long prepared for.

Perhaps you are eighteen and about to go off to university for three long years (or even more!). It can seem as though time stretches in front of you like an unending chain. But if you have chosen your course wisely you will benefit from it for the rest of your life, which will hopefully be many times longer than your preparation!

The David who was finally  anointed king of all Israel was not the same man he was when this moment was first prophesied. He had gone through a personal “king school” If you do feel out of place, make sure you are learning the lessons of the wilderness years. Learn to be faithful in small things and maybe one day you will be welcomed into that role that the universe is waiting for you to fulfil.

Sometimes you are eventually given a role that you know fits you like a glove. I know that my new job feels like that. Every previous career move I have made has prepared me in specific ways for this new one. It is literally as if the person specification had my name written all over it. Without wanting to sound arrogant, as this is largely a so-called ‘co-incidence,’ but it really is not too much of an exaggeration to say that there is nobody more qualified in the World than I am to do my current job. I work in a very specific field, and even within that field, I have worked in specific projects decades ago that are directly related to the current one. Nobody else has the exact combination of experience I have, and it is hard to imagine of a different mix or prior work that would be more suited to my role. I guess what I am saying is, that I do feel that professionally I am in the right place at the right time.  It is a good feeling.

So although my job is hard work, and has had the effect of severely limiting my extra curricular activities, I’m not going to fall into the trap of being ungrateful to God for providing a square hole for this particular square peg!

Of course for many of us, unlike David, our current job will not be our final one.  We must treat the role we have in front of us as every bit as much God’s assignment as the dream role we believe he is preparing us for. GOD determines the exact place we live, and he presumably therefore determines the exact place we work. David had worked to be a great shepherd, he had learnt how to be a good fugitive leader, and now he got to be a great king. No wonder the scripture tells us to see every roles as God’s assignment.

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving” (Colossians 3:23-24).