Chapter 15

Gifts from the Past

Looking at the restaurant one last time as he drove away, Josh came to the realization that wherever he decided to plant the seed, it wouldn’t be at a place from his past. While the signs pointed him to the places where he had been happy, he wasn’t meant to plant the seed there—he realized he was meant to rediscover what energized him and brought him happiness in his past.

He remembered what the pilot had told him and saw how his past had provided him with clues for his future. Going home reminded him of his strengths and gifts. At college he discovered he loved learning, growing, and being autonomous. At the restaurant he rediscovered his passion for serving others.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t doing any of these things at his current job. He wasn’t making his work his own. He wasn’t learning and growing like he did in college and wasn’t serving others like he did at the restaurant. He felt stagnant, and he wasn’t sure whether it was his company’s fault or his own. What he was sure of was that whether he stayed in his current job or found a new job, he needed to make some changes.

From now on he would use his strengths to learn, to grow, and to serve. Instead of feeling like he was dying every day, he would start living. He wasn’t supposed to be a pastor. He wasn’t supposed to be a teacher or professor. And he wasn’t meant to be in the restaurant business. He was supposed to take the elements of what he loved about these past experiences and make them a part of his life, with the hope that they would lead him to his purpose. He just hoped he would find his purpose within the next week—before he had to give his boss a decision.