Tag: purpose

  • What Do You Want to Be Known For?

    Day 6 of 30

    As a person who has owned 30+ different blogs on unique domains, I’ve asked myself this question over and over again. Not because I’m necessarily getting deeper into the answer, but because I’ve repeatedly caught myself getting derailed and not pursuing what’s most important.

    What do I want to be known for?

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  • My Life’s Purpose Seems Impossible to Reach – How Do I Get There?

    It’s important to know your purpose in life. In fact, I would venture to say there are only a couple things more important. I’m a thinker. Some would say an overthinker. But I consider ideas and questions from many angles. Nine times out of ten, I’m not satisfied with the status quo answer. I see gaps. I see flaws. I see possibilities.

    “They” say that we each attract like-minded people. If that’s true (and I think it is), then I hope some of you are really out there. At the very least, I hope I make a profound difference in one person’s life other than my own by writing in this blog.

    I’m going to tell you how I am reaching my purpose. You ready for it? Here goes:

    One small choice at a time.

    Wait! Don’t leave! I know you’d like something more profound sounding, but this is the truth and if you get ahold of this truth, you will be on the path.

    Here’s the deal:

    At 17, I was a depressed, anti-social smoker with no hope for a future. I literally told people that I hoped to die at age 25 so I wouldn’t have to bear the lame adult years of being a pathetic domesticated and emasculated male. Just before 19, I cried out to Jesus in my greatest moment of trouble and He delivered me. I was born again, completely clueless about what it meant to live as a believer or as an adult. But my vision began to change.

    Within two years, I was deep in depression again. I had no mentors, no one pouring truth into my life and holding me accountable for my thoughts, beliefs, or actions. I was wading through life without a guide, and I couldn’t believe God REALLY loved me enough to help. Everything I did was reactionary. I had no idea what I was aiming at. I had no long-term goals. I had no vision. What’s worse, I had dozens of prophetic words spoken over me that seemed to just bounce off me like BBs.

    My point is, I don’t live in that mess anymore. You don’t have to either. I want to encourage you. This is a lifelong process, but I can tell you that my life has grown qualitatively better EVERY SINGLE YEAR. There is no time of my life I would rather be in than right now.

    My Goal

    It’s a burden on my heart to impart some of my story to you because I’ve had so many friends who are still drifting along without a sense of purpose or destiny. I listened to their aspirations and dreams back when we were 16, 18, 21. But some of those friends got stuck along the way and haven’t made much progress towards the life that God intended, and that will ultimately fulfill them the most while they walk this earth.

    That is my heart. If you are discouraged, or have lost your way, I want to encourage you by the Spirit of God. So I will be writing some of my story in the coming days to share with you what I have done to overcome some MAJOR hurdles in my life.

    I want to know you. I want to bless you. Spend five minutes with me. You’ll see how human I am. But we’re all JUST human. That’s it. There are no superheroes. There are no elevated people, like super apostles of the faith.

    I want to bless you, and I hope you’ll share some feedback with me. Remember, comments are currency in the blogosphere. If you want to thank someone for writing content that matters, write a comment on one of their posts and tell them. Ask questions. Give alternative opinions. BLOGS ARE SUPPOSED TO START CONVERSATIONS.

    With that said, I hope you’ll come back and visit and talk to me about YOUR story.

    Stay tuned for more of my story.

    As always, you can contact me privately here.


  • Blogging Question #1: What IS My Passion?

    If you have to ask yourself this question, you might already be screwed. OR, you might be just like me. I don’t automatically know what I “love”. I don’t know what my passions are. There are things I love, but I don’t want to talk about them all the time. There are things I am passionate about, but I don’t think anyone else will appreciate my take on them.

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  • Gary Vaynerchuck Just Might Change Your Life

    After watching this CNN interview with Gary V, I’m inspired all over again to go out and make it happen. Are you still contemplating what to do with your life? Watch this video and let the endless possibilities wash over you like a nice, warm wave of caffeine infused adrenaline.


  • What Do YOU Want to Be When You Grow Up

    “Danny, what do YOU want to be when you grow up?”

    That question always puzzled me as a boy. What do I want to be? How the heck should I know? I have to BE something? What for? Why didn’t I get that memo? And am I REALLY going to grow up and be an adult like you?

    People’s expressions taught me that it wasn’t okay to not have an answer to this most important question. I, of course, did NOT have an answer, so I made one up. The two answers I used most often were “I want to be a basketball player” or “I want to be a pastor.”

    Nice combo, eh? The basketball player part is obvious. Basketball is fun. I was okay at it. I had dreams of being better. People did it for a living and no one asked THEM what else they wanted to be. So that was as good an answer as any. But the pastor thing? I have no idea where that came from. Seriously. I didn’t actually WANT to be a pastor. I didn’t much care for the pastor we had, and he was my only pastoral role model.

    So there’s a mystery for you. Why did I say I wanted to be something I didn’t actually want to be? Why not a policeman, fireman, astronaut, doctor, or something “normal”?

    You got me. I have no clue. But that’s what I chose.

    Here I am. 32 years old. Still asking myself this question. What DO I want to be? What is deepest, truest passion? What is it that would most fulfill me in my life?

    If I had to guess, I’d say that the reason I didn’t have any aspirations as a child was because I had never heard of or imagined the purpose God has for me. It’s hard to say you’re going to be a nuclear physicist when you’ve never heard of even an ordinary physicist, right?

    Right. And I’d never heard of a prophetic person, or prophecy in any context until much later (and even then, the only context was of end-times prophecy which I don’t worry too much about). So it’s ironic that I chose to tell people I wanted to be a pastor, because that was the only member of the fivefold ministry I’d heard of at that stage in my life.

    Sadly, I STILL don’t know what a full-time prophetic ministry looks like. I see John Paul Jackson, but he’s into these international prophetic training schools. That’s great, and much needed, but I don’t want to leave my wife and family every few days to travel the world. I also see Rick Joyner, but I’m honestly not sure what he does. He’s written very popular books, of course, but I guess he sort of runs a church, like a pastor. I’m not into being a pastor. I know that’s not my particular set of giftings or interests.

    Somewhere in the deep recesses of my mind, I have an idea of what church SHOULD be, and it incorporates all members of the fivefold ministry: Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Evangelists, and Teachers. I’ve never seen a model of this in the real world, but I think it makes perfectly logical sense that the fivefold ministers should be actively working together to train and grow the Body of Christ. What a concept! A pastor, a prophet, an evangelist, and a teacher all working together! Does that ever happen?

    Since most churches are built upon a pastor/teacher’s charisma, insight, or gifting, it’s rare to see church leaders share the spotlight or the power. They’ll call it whatever they like, but they’re really running a corporation as the CEO.

    Back to my original dilemma. I actually know what I’m called to. But I don’t know what it looks like. And I don’t have the faintest idea how it generates income without being oogly (i.e. creepy and dangerous). I’m ready to make a move. I’m ready for transition. But I don’t yet see what I’d be transitioning into.


  • Pursuing What God Made Me For

    If it seems like I own too many websites, it’s because I do. If it seems like I don’t update them often enough, it’s because I don’t. This site isn’t really a blog. It’s more of a home base, from which you can venture out into the world to see what I’m up to.

    If you look to the right and the left, you’ll see links to websites I either own or contribute to. Feel free to catch up on the latest articles or delve deep into the archives. For now, this site will remain largely untouched, because it is the hub from which all the spokes point, and, well, because I haven’t decided what to do with it yet.

    I have found that in life, it’s not a question of whether I have an option. It’s a question of which option to choose.