A Life Quote

A good friend and co-worker sent this quote to me when she announced that she would be leaving the company to work with a non-profit organization. I admire her strength to follow her heart's calling to reach out to others. She will be missed.

"Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.
-John Gardner, "Fish"

This quote is thought provoking and challenging. It seems easier to settle for what's comfortable but unsatisfying. A job that pays the bills, but doesn't make your day. I'm struggling with my current means of fundage for this life. My mind has begun to wander more and more. I know I want something more than this job. I know there is more to life than a comfortable paycheck, an office space I can call "my own", and the occasional recognition for "job well done". Isn't this where everyone wants to be? Isn't it true that God can use people no matter where they are? I think I need to be content with where I am right now, instead of looking beyond to that "more meaningful" something. The danger in always looking for that "more meaningful" life is that you lose focus of the meaning for the life you are actually living. I struggle with, but choose to live in the now and be used wherever my talents take me.