The deferred life plan means having to divide your life into two distinct parts:

Step one – Do what you have to do.

Then – eventually

Step Two – Do what you want to do.

We start hearing about this plan early in life with expressions like: Walk before you run, no peas no pie, and pay your dues.  All implying that what we must do is necessarily different from what we want to do.  Somehow we grow up believing that the must of life finance our wants.

In the deferred life plan the second step, the life we defer, cannot exist, does not deserve to exist, without first doing something unsatisfying.  We are trained from childhood that in order to get desert we must eat our vegetables.

The deferred life plan dictates that we divorce who we are and what we do in the first step to become who we really are and what we really want do in the second.  Fueled by ambition and greed, we hope that in the end we will be judged by our accomplishments and not by who we are.  Most people never become who they are because they are too busy being who they need to be because they are too worried about the money.  They go to the grave without ever having bloomed into their glory.

Why?  It all stems from the unrighteousness of sin conscious and is driven by fear and peer pressure.  Why not work hard because it is meaningful and fulfilling?  Why not live step two now instead of waiting until you retire?

The distinction between drive and passion is crucial.  Passion pulls you toward something you cannot resist.  Drive pushes you toward something you feel compelled or obligated to do.  If you know nothing about yourself or God you cannot tell the difference and you fall prey to emotional con games in and out of the church.

Knowing the difference between drive and passion is the difference between success and failure.  It is not about quotas or bonuses or cashing out.  That’s drive!  Passion is doing something you love to do.  True commitment can only come with passion.  That is why serving God can only come with passion and never obligation.

Deferred life dominates the lives of most of the people I know.  The vast majority of them are working so hard they don’t see the trap.  They have accepted must do as status quo never imaging that what they want to do can fund their needs.  The joy of doing what you want can bring with it great success.  But what if it doesn’t?  Would it be so bad living your life doing what you wanted to do instead of what you had to?

Those who get to step two many times find themselves aimless without direction.  Either they never really knew what they wanted or they spent so much time in step one they are completely lost without it.

In the deferred life plan, drive pushes you through the first step.  The second step, the deferred life itself, is the home of passion if we ever get there.  Don’t wait, step into your passion now and start doing what you want to do.  Don’t chase money chase God and your dream will chase you. That is what Jesus said in Matt 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

One of the reasons I have such great passion for what I do and who I am is that I know I help other people enjoy who they are and what they do.  If all I did was work to pay my bills and buy toys I would be the most miserable man on earth.

I know that by giving to missions many people find meaning and greater fulfillment in their life.  They work with more purpose and joy knowing that they are helping others on a scale that would be impossible in America.

Have Fun – Serve God.

Rocky J. Malloy