There's been a lot of press lately given to the concept and profession of "life coach." I originally read these articles with disbelief, wondering why on earth someone would pay someone else to tell them what to do. Most of us go to great lengths to AVOID being told what to do!
Then my avaricious bone kicked in. I'll bet I could be a pretty good life coach, I thought to myself.
And recently I've seen a lot of press given to professional organizers, and the desperate ends many people go to -- including paying someone else to tell them what to do -- to organize their lives.
Again, I thought, I can do that.
Thinking about these trends though, I realize that the problems the people in both of those situations are struggling with are:
a. overcommittment
b. too much stuff
The pressure people feel to "keep up" either for themselves or their children's future is ridiculous. The idea of organizing or life coaching our way around it is a laugh. And the enemy of man is laughing all the more because we buy into his lie about needing to get "OUR SHARE."
Certainly, if you believe that your existence is ONLY in this life, and there is nothing beyond it, the desperation to do everything on your bucket list is great.
But if you know, like I do, that we are just visitors here, then activities, stuff, and achievement lose their grip on us.
Philippians 3:20 tells us "Our citizenship is in heaven" and 4:6 tells us "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, in thanksgiving, present your requests to God."
Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount said, "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?" (Matthew 5)
So I guess if I become a life coach or an organizer, I'll root it in Scripture. I wonder whether anyone would hire me.
4 comments:
I've been interested in the life coach business, but I guess really it's career counseling I'm after. I'm pretty sure I'm wasting my talents. BUT I'm pretty content & get paid pretty well for what I do. Do I want to upset that just to utilize more gifts? Hmmm. Well, & I'm 47 & NOT in a good financial place. Maybe I'll just stay put :)
I've never been able to grasp the idea of a "life coach". About people having to keep up with other people and being so busy: Looking back (especially with oldest son), I think we did waaaay too much and didn't place enough emphasis on school. Oh, if only I could do it all over.
I think if a person has a good Friend to bounce thoughts and ideas off that is about the same as a Life Coach. My friends provide great counsel, ideas, and encouragement for my life.
My pastor's wife is finishing up a degree and at the end of it she will be a certified Christian life coach. Mostly she helps people pull their lives back together after tragedy.
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