When I first created my personal timeline, I experienced affirmation, healing, and a greater sense of God’s movement in my life. At times, I felt sad over missed opportunities or painful situations. Yet, I also rejoiced, as I saw God mixing the defining moments and seasons into something good.

In the Old Testament, the Israelites would often erect stones of remembrance as a reminder of God’s provision and faithfulness. In a similar way, your personal timeline is a way of identifying markers in your life that point to significant events that God used (or can use) to shape you. I am so thankful that God can bring good out of even the most painful event in our lives. This does not mean that we minimize what happened, but we recognize that God is able to redeem even our most painful experiences.

Here are four steps for creating your personal timeline:

1. Identify the Pleasant and Painful Moments/Seasons in Your Life

Using one colour of post-it notes for pleasant experiences and another colour for painful events (or colour-coding entries in a spreadsheet/table or using Chazown’s personal timeline tool), brainstorm some of your defining moments or seasons of life. Some of my defining moments are times when people spoke into my life by simply asking a question or making a statement (e.g. "Randy, would you like to teach this lesson to the rest of the class?" and "I would like you to be a leader in this group."). Others occurred over a longer period (e.g. growing up in a Christian family). Put one defining moment/season on each post-it note. At this point, don’t worry about putting them in chronological order. Come up with approximately 20-30 events to start.

2. Arrange Your Experiences in Chronological Order and Give Your Timeline Chapter Titles

Arrange your post-it notes chronologically in columns in a legal-sized folder or on a 14x17 piece of poster board. On different coloured post-it notes, come up with three to five chapter titles for the different seasons of your life. For example, as a young adult I went through several liberating experiences. I have called that chapter in my life, “My Renaissance.”

3. Identify Lessons

One of my heroes, Mother Theresa, had a driving sense of purpose. In her own words, her life’s ambition was “to love the least of these; to touch the dying, the poor, the lonely and the unwanted.”

Terry Fox, a Canadian hero who lost a leg to cancer, ran over 3,000 miles in his attempt to run across Canada. His purpose – to raise awareness about cancer and to ultimately find a cure.

Life purpose is the reason that we exist. It clarifies what is non-negotiable. It gives our lives focus.

Life purpose helps us to discern what is best among many good options. It gives us passion, courage and determination. When we understand our life purpose, we are much more likely to make sacrifices to achieve it. The result- increased productivity that is both meaningful and fulfilling.

In a previous blog, Why Understanding Your Personal Calling is Important, I talked about the first time I articulated my life purpose. Dave Jackson, who was with Church Resource Ministries at the time, led our church leadership through a process of clarifying our personal life purpose. The following three steps are an adaptation of the process he used and one that I have now used with hundreds of leaders to help them understand their life purpose in a deeper way:

Step 1 – What are at least 8 Scriptures, sayings, or quotes that give you focus and direction in life?

For me, my blood pressure increases whenever I read about making disciples (Matthew 28:18-20) and the fields being ripe for harvest (John 4:35). Quotes like this one by C.T. Studd also inspire me: “Only one life and it will soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.” We all have “sacred texts” that guide us. What are yours?

Step 2 – As you reflect on what you wrote in step one, what are the themes that emerge?

The Scriptures and quotes that resonate deep within your spirit likely contain themes that are not only important to you, but to God, as well. As we draw close to God, our desires increasingly reflect His desires. Identifying these passions as expressed in key verses and quotes will make the final step of creating your purpose statement much easier.

Step 3 – Using the themes from step two, craft a one-sentence purpose statement.

I vividly remember the leadership retreat several years ago where Dave Jackson with Church Resource Ministries led our church leadership through a personal refocusing process. The lights came on for me, as I understood in a much deeper way God’s call on my life. That process of understanding my personal calling fanned into flame a strong sense of purpose that continues to guide me to this day.

God’s Plan

God has created and shaped us for a purpose. Our calling is God’s game plan for our lives. It’s also part of His larger plan for the Church and the world.

There are numerous examples in Scripture of people who knew their God-given calling.

• Abraham made great sacrifices to move his family to the place of God’s choosing. 
• Nehemiah risked losing his career in the royal courts and faced great opposition in order to obey God’s call to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
• After an attempted detour to Tarshish, Jonah realized that following God’s calling was better than going his own way.
• God called Queen Esther to save her people and she did. 
• The Apostle Paul had a strong calling to proclaim the gospel where people had not yet heard it. He lived out his calling and God used him to make disciples and plant churches all over the Mediterranean world.

Understanding Our Calling Gives Us Direction and Passion

What happens when we understand our calling and decide to live it out in God’s strength and for His glory? We have a strong sense of direction – we know our game plan (or at least parts of it). Because we believe that our game plan is from our loving Lord, we will want to carry it out with passion, courage, and determination. We will engage in extraordinary efforts in the struggle to realize God’s calling.

Staying on Track

Of course, there are circumstances and forces that may distract us from the game plan or diminish our passion to execute the plan. That is why it is imperative that we keep coming back to the Lord for guidance and strength. We also need to keep the plan in front of us at all times and prayerfully discern when God would have us to adjust it. Having a strong network of prayer supporters and encouragers will help us to stay the course, as well.