By Bobby Coverston

Hi … My name is Bobby Coverston … and I’m driven by materialism and praise to try and fulfill my longing for purpose. What drives you?

What if we introduced ourselves to each other this way? The way our friends in recovery do. They identify their false strategies that try to mask pain, gain significance, fix themselves, etc, etc… By verbalizing that drive, it loses its power and gives way for an honest dialog with God and others to point to our true purpose.

This reading, the points to ponder, and the suggested message to listen to, all had much to do with peace. Real peace. God created us with a vigor and fire for life. Life in relationship with him and others that will set fire to our hearts and allow us to experience peace and passion that we cannot define. Yet we try and funnel that fire into a thing, a place, a circumstance, a job, a relationship that we can see, sense and feel to validate, quantify and qualify our intensity around it. And yet it leaves us feeling empty. And so we try again, and again, and again. And we are restless, wandering and without peace.

What if we flipped the equation around? What if we started with our admission of wandering? It would level the playing field and change the conversation that happened immediately after. Instead of exchanging competencies and achievements to try and prove significance only to be one-upped by the next guy/girl, we lead with, “I don’t know what I’m doing here and I know I’m going about it the wrong way.” That kind of vulnerability gives way for the other person(s) to respond with either “sucks to be you,” or “yeah, me too…”.

The first response ends the conversation but at least we were honest and didn’t continue the  crazy cycle. The second response will be a rare conversation in our society. An honest, human  conversation that will point all parties to bigger, deeper things, specifically God. Because God  is really good at redemption. Specifically redeeming broken things. We have to be aware and honest about our brokenness so that we can begin to know how great, extravagant, and far reaching his plan of redemption really is.

Since I’m being painfully honest… The question to ponder in this reading asked, “What would  my family and friends say is the driving force of my life? What do I want it to be?” I think my friends and family would say that I am driven by music. While there is truth that I need to   allow myself to receive in that, I also know my own heart well enough to know that there are  some mixed motives in why I do music i.e., to make money and receive praise. I want my life to be driven by a zeal for relationships with music as a tool and Christ’s peace that passes understanding at the center. Where I am able to give myself fully without the restraints of the lies I have believed my whole life about what God and others think of me.

As to not end on a negative note, here are some truths that I can more readily assure myself of that are true of you too:

God is not angry with me or the choices I’ve made.

God loves me and you more than either of us know.

God’s purpose for my life will not be changed, bound or hindered by my abilities, my job or my circumstance.

If I never sing/play another note, I will still have purpose in this life.

I/(you) have so much more to offer this world (and it’s not just the things you are good at).

The best is yet to come.

Bobby Coverston is music pastor at Green Bay Community Church