In God’s plan nothing is wasted. Even that which seems lost, is not. Even that which seems unimportant, is not. God always gives us more than we need, and many paths to choose from. Look around you at the incredible variety of nature - did God really need so many different kinds of butterflies? Or so many different shapes of leaves, or colors of wildflowers? Not really. Abundance like this is everywhere because God is generous and loves abundance - and so gives abundance to us, because He loves us most of all. As far as humankind knows, we are the only creatures to whom God has given the gifts of free will, choice of destiny, and the power to create physical reality with our minds and manifest it in our world.

With these gifts comes an inner desire and urging to express God with them. This is what calls us to seek our mission and purpose in life.
We all have the same purpose, and we know this in our souls. It is to create and live a meaningful life wherever we are, here on earth. The primary tasks of this purpose are to live, to learn, to heal, to create, to teach, to love, to nurture, and to share all of it with the others who are our co-journeyers here. All of these tasks are non-finite; they have no “done” point.

Mission, though, is finite. It is a calling that is specific. For Mother Teresa it was to love the lost, to gather and nurture the sick and dying of a particular people in a particular place - the place where she found herself in life. It was not something “out there.” It was right there where she was. She did the ordinary things that were needed and she made them holy with her dedication and her love. Her well-known answer when asked about her important work was this: “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.”

Your mission might be somewhere in a distant land, doing something you may not feel prepared for and yet you feel called by your heart to do. It could be that your mission is something in the public eye, very visible and grand. But it could just as well be that your soul’s mission is right where you are right now, even doing what you are already doing, but in a larger, deeper, more conscious way. Anything can be holy, when it is truly and sincerely dedicated to being so.

For many of us, when we look at what we’re doing in a conscious way, we may realize that we need to change what we do, or how we do it, because it may not be enough to satisfy the deep quiet urging of our inner soul. That’s when we begin to look for work, or ways of working, that are more meaningful and that give us the feeling that we matter, and that we are giving something to our world.

The change we make doesn’t need to be geographical, but inside of us. You can find your mission anywhere, or right where you are. You might be already doing it right now without realizing it.

For many years I searched for “my dharma” - my mission in life. I was looking for some rare and vaulted calling - some grand assignment from God that only I could do, which would glorify God and help to enrich other lives and the world. I went to my prayers and to my Spirit Within, and asked to be shown My Mission. Again and again the inner voice told me things like this: “It does not matter even what you do.” and “There are no mistakes, only learnings.” Until one day I got this message:

“Your work is revealed to you day by day. Everything you do and everything you say is part of it. Any work is an opportunity. All of life is opportunity... But there is work we have chosen to do together. Seek to know it, and when you know it, put it first above all else, and I will prosper it.”

“Aha!” I thought, “Now I’m onto something. There IS one destiny for me! But what is it?” and I found myself right back at square-one. Eventually I realized that we are called to more choices and more possibilities than one life can use, and that always there are many possible destinies for each one of us.

God/the Universal Consciousness does not set a riddle or a treasure-hunt and then send us into this world of physical limitations to blindly search for it, while we live in frustration and fear of missing the mark. The message I bring to you this day is simply this: Give yourself permission to live one day at a time. Honor every honest effort you make, the work you do, and the events of this day and every day you are here.

You are a work-in-progress. You are not just God’s gardener, you are God’s garden. If you are pushing yourself to serve God in the best possible way, ease up on the pushing; that is probably not necessary. What is necessary is that you accept and receive the spirit that is trying to flow through you, and let it flow in whatever you do, whoever you are now. The flow will carry you to wherever you need to go, and whatever you need to be, to express God in your life in the fullest and most personal way.