The Lions Rohrer!

PASSION/PURPOSE 

Growing up I always knew I wanted to do something with art. I loved art. My favorite class in school was art. My favorite teachers were my art teachers. Art gave me a way to use my creativity to create something beautiful and know that there was time and care spent into making it. As I got older and was in high school I decided that Interior Design was the way to go. I loved fabrics, color, furniture etc. and I LOVED creating beautiful spaces. I decided to go to Purdue University and major in ID and I absolutely loved it! It was my life! I would buy design magazines and go to book stores and to find architectural and design books and just sit there and read them. I’d put much time and effort into my work because I loved doing it. I’d pull numerous all nighter’s finishing projects (partly b/c I wanted it to be perfect and another part because I’d sometimes wait til the last minute…I tell myself I work best under pressure ) I even ended up getting sick b/c of my devotion to design! ha!  I’d get so excited about designer furniture, which by the way my favorite piece of furniture is The Barcelona Chair by Mies Van der Rohe and The Eames Lounge Chair by Ray and Charles Eames.

Barcelona Chair

Eames Lounge Chair & Ottoman

  My dream was to be featured in Architectural Digest as a designer. I wanted to work in a large city and live the life I always wanted. I wanted to make myself a successful professional in the design world then get married, then have kids and then go back to work at my super designer job and still be able to manage it all. This was my passion, my purpose…or so I thought.

But you should notice one thing is missing here and that’s God and what God wanted me to do with my life. Not me. Something changed in me, I wasn’t happy at school. I wanted something more. So through much prayer and counsel with some amazing godly people I left my education at Purdue being a junior and having a year and a half left to graduating to going off to a bible college for a year in upstate New York where I knew no one.

As scary as it was at first I grew to love it there. That year at Word of Life was one of the most amazing years ever. I met some of my closest friends, I studied the word of God, lead people to Christ AND met my husband there. So all in all I’d say it was a pretty darn good year! I’m so thankful for the direction change God had urged me to take even if it would take everything I had planned for my life and up root them! After that year I finished my design degree at a community college and got married (to the best guy ever!!!)

From there I entered into the 9-5 daily grind. I started working at an architectural firm after graduation, where I am today. While I’m so super thankful for my job, especially with the economy the way it is, It’s not my dream job and that’s because my passions have changed. I’m at a crossroads in my life. Is there such thing at a quarter life crisis?? (That reminds me of a John Mayer song…ha!) As God became #1 I lost my original passion and so thought purpose. It is no longer interior design. I never would have thought that back in college but I’m ok with that now. I always thought that this is what I wanted what God wanted me to do and was so proud of myself for knowing that so early in life!

For the past year or so I’ve been trying to think about what my passions/purpose is. And surprisingly I have no idea. Well I know my spritual passions and purpose: to show others Christ, to be a loving wife, to put God first. But what about my job and what I’m supposed do on Earth in the mean time to live out my spiritual purpose? I love the Lord, I enjoy design but not to the extent of before, I enjoy food and exercise, children, spending time with my family, I like being creative but I don’t necessarily want that to be my career choice. I’ve considered cosmetology, going to culinary school to learn all about cooking and baking (Aaron and I would love to have a deli/cafe/coffee shop later on in life and it would be great to have some actual knowledge of that stuff), or working with kids or even going in on my husbands cleaning business. Ideally, I want to be a mom that stays home and cares for her children. That’s important to me. However, that’s not for another couple of years and I need to do something til then. Life is too short to not do what you love. The problem is, what is it? ha!

My husband is in a christian rock/blues/funk/…well he’s in a band that plays christian music! haha. He’s always had a passion for music and loves the Lord. He wants to serve God full time and he feels called to do that with music. It’s so encouraging to watch him follow his dream. I want to be there to support him and encourage him while he listens to what God has called him to do.  We both hope that this can be his full time career in the future. If you think about it our futures are unclear to us.

Don’t you hate that? Don’t you wish you had everything mapped out?  I do!!! This has been the hardest thing for me to figure out. What next? Well maybe I’m not supposed to figure it out right now. I’m pretty sure God is using this as a tool for me to trust Him and to draw near to Him. He’s pretty clever like that. I love my God.

The other night the hubs and I went to see a band called Braddigan in concert.

 If you’ve hear of the band Dispatch you’d LOVE these guys. Aaron and I were huge fans of Dispatch in college and found out that, Brad, a former member, now had his own band and he was playing about a hour away and we just HAD to go see them. I’m glad we did. It was such a great concert.

 He sang a song based off of Romans 11:36 (yeah he’s a christian! Who knew!?) “For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things To Him be the glory forever.”

Re-read the verse. What a great verse. Aaron and I were talking about this last night. Everything that we have and that we do is from God. Duh! But everything that we do and have needs to glorify God! Easier said than done right? Even if this isn’t my dream job I still need to glorify God through it. And I’m still working on that. Even though I’m not sure what my passions are I have hope that God will reveal those to me in time. It’s so great to know that God has our best interests at heart. He knows what our life will be like in 5 years we don’t. My God is a great God.

I’m trying to pray and spend more time with God through this. He is guiding me. I’m thankful for that. I’m in the process of finding a new bible study. I’ve noticed bible studies/workbooks work great for me because it guides me in to what to study. Anyone have any ideas?  What are your passions? …if anyone is even out there! ha!

*sorry if my writing style is all over the place…I don’t really have a writing style!