Do you ever dream or envision a life different than what you are currently living? Is this new vision a reality or a pipe dream? Are you totally unrealistic in your wishes or just afraid to try? Is this vision a calling? Does it comprise of your talents, gifts, abilities, desires?

I have enjoyed the musings of author, Jennifer L. Scott and her blog, The Daily Connoisseur. At that site she expounds on living excellently. She touches on topics like dressing appropriately, the ten-item wardrobe, practicing poise in one's daily life, home organization, simplicity and in general, how to live life well.

What I like about her is that she is unapologetic in her opinions. For instance, she will comment on the unmannerly use of inappropriate language or the benefit of dressing well in public. For her, there is no shame in enjoying good things. Her rationale for doing so is not so much for hedonistic pleasure but a philosophy on life that good living is honorable.

She has disclosed that in the next year she, her husband and three children will be traveling throughout Europe visiting family (her husband is British) and having experiences with her children. In order to prepare for a lifestyle like this, she and her husband have made choices to be debt-free. They have made sacrifices for this plan.

Kudos for her for having an idea on how they will live their life and then have a plan and discipline to do so.

It inspires and encourages me to re-think the direction I am going. As I have been considering work/life balance, I have been reevaluating purpose and plan for my life. My musings are not such a major re-consideration or adjustment in my life, but just a fine tuning. Through much of the process I am just validating and regrouping what I already know.

Do you know where you are headed in life? Do you feel a calling for a certain profession, a way of life or even a specific activity? Ms. Scott's example is not a big passionate lifetime calling like being an overseas missionary but it does follow the desires of her and her family's heart. Not all of us are called into the big visual ministries. Yet all of us are called by God to live the life He has designed us to live.

There are steps to fulfilling our call in life which includes many choices on our part. For me it comes down to my interaction with God and my election of free-will throughout those choices.

1) God has a plan for each one of us. Our journey in life is discovering the call, listening to it and obeying that call. That plan generally includes the people in our lives (spouse, friends, children, grandchildren, etc.) because we do not go through this journey alone.

2) God has given us gifts and graces in order to carry out that call. He doesn't give us an assignment without giving us the necessary tools to do it. It may be that we need to practice our talent, learn more about a subject through education or through the wisdom of others.

3) God will give us the details of the plan. This can be the troublesome point. God will unfold the details for the plan, but generally not all at once. In our "need to know all" mentality, we have to trust that God will tell us as we "need to know just this much. For now".

4) God will give us the discipline to continue through the call. If we ask. This is our active part of trusting in God. I have found that as I grow in my faith (through Bible study and prayer), He is shaping me through discipline. He gives me the strength to keep going when the times are tough. He reassures me of His plan when I doubt if the call is real. Sometimes, I need physical discipline (like Ms. Scott learned to be debt-free in order to do her travel) and "bottom" (as they say in the UK) to make hard lifestyle choices so that I can follow the call.

5) God will redirect us when our call is complete. I do think that we may have a lifetime call or we may have a call for "such a time as this". Our calling and plan may be short lived but that doesn't mean that it wasn't significant nor impactful.

Our call doesn't have to be mutually exclusive from our heart's desires. If there are activities, situations or things that bring us joy, it can all be part of the plan. Whatever the future holds, it should be weighed against what God has planned. Just ask Him.

What about you? Would you be able to follow your heart's desire? Have you asked God for guidance in your overall life? In your day-to day?

One life on this earth is all that we get, whether it is enough or not enough, and the obvious conclusion would seem to be that at the very least we are fools if we do not live it as fully and bravely and beautifully as we can.

~Frederick Buechner

Last week on NPR there was a story about gun control. It was show casing another side of the debate and not just the NRA's view point or lobbying strategy. The article focused on the partnership behind a grass-root group, "Million Mom Army" and Michael Bloomberg's vast resources.

What struck me was how the founder of the "Million Mom Army" or Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Shannon Watts got involved. Shannon lives in Zionsville, Indiana, 800 miles away from Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut. She was folding laundry for her family when she heard the news on the radio of that fateful day. It affected her. She thought that she wanted to do something. Shannon says, "I was obviously devastated, but I was also angry".

It spurred her to action. She looked online to see if there were any mother groups about guns similarly to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. When she didn't see anything, she posted something on her Facebook account. As she says, she only had 75 friends so when she started getting likes from more and more people, eventually over 1 million, she knew that she was on to something.

It was then that the following caught the attention of the Bloomberg group who, though they had all the top-down processes in place, didn't have any grass roots footing. By partnering, the two groups have formed a formidable organization.

Now I am not going to debate the gun control issues. But I am inspired that a person was able to hear something on the radio and do something in her own way. Initially, it wasn't anything too extraordinary nor requiring too much commitment. In fact it was something that she was doing already- commenting on Facebook. It was in her comfort zone. As she explored more, she got into things that were new to her which I am sure pushed her beyond her capability. Certainly all the notoriety, like meeting President Obama, etc. was probably not in her mind when she posted her first Facebook notice.

It made me think of the organizations and activities in my life. Am I doing anything that affects change? Has anything resonated with me that keeps niggling at me to do something more? What is the issue and what can I do about it? Ignore it? Find excuses why someone else is better suited? Recognize that it is not my time for this endeavor and move on? Or, explore that thought and see where it leads? Whether or not, Shannon's organization makes strides, she has certainly continued the dialogue of an issue that is not going away.

What about you? Have you wanted to do something but wondered how you could be a change agent? Just like Shannon Watts, you might be going about your normal day when something intersects your life. Explore that idea. You never know where it will lead and what that calling will do for you and for others.

Living the Dream

Ordinary Activities or Are They?