Stay in Your Lane

• Tweet
• Pin It

Photo: emdot

You should know something heinous about me.

I absolutely, 100% love movies where the main characters do a lot of singing and dancing. Not necessarily musicals, but like the recent release Pitch Perfect? lOvEd It! Stomp the Yard? Watched it like 14 times when it first came out (and yet I can’t stand Glee. There’s just something very punchable about each of those kids’ faces…). The strangest thing about my little infatuation with the crooners and the steppers is that I can’t sing or dance. At all. And I don’t mean in the, “He can probably blend in with a choir or do a simple two step if he had to” kind of not being able to sing or dance. I mean the “sounds and moves like a wounded buffalo” kind of not being able to sing or dance. And you know what? That’s okay. The good Lord knew not to bless me with those talents, because if He had, I would’ve been out auditioning for every movie, reality show, and Broadway musical I could find. I would be out trying to be the next Justin Bieber (even if he is a full decade younger than me) instead of the first Cory Copeland.

It’s with that correlation in mind that I’ve learned a lesson about myself. I was given the ability to write…so I should be writing. As much as I would like to be serenading the ladies while spinning on my head (IT JUST LOOKS SO COOL!), that’s not what I was meant to do. I was meant to build stories and show truth through the written word. That’s the path God laid out for me. Do I wish I could bust out in a chorus of “Another One Bites the Dust” just like Freddie and have the whole room give me a standing ovation? You better believe it. But that’s not the lane I’m supposed to be driving in.

In our lives, there are things we want to do and things we’re supposed to do. Me? I’m supposed to be writing even though I’d love to be doing a million other things (including dance/sing/be smooth like Neo). But the purpose I have on this planet is to write—so I write.

When we find ourselves wanting to do and be a thousand other things with our lives, it’s imperative we take a moment to truly ponder and pray about what our purpose in this life is. In what capacity were we meant to be used? It can be anything. But the important thing to remember is that we were assigned a lane to stay in by the mighty Creator who designed each of us from a specific set of blueprints. He has plans for our lives and it’s our responsibility to accept that and the gifts he’s given us and make the absolute most of them. Is it easy to get distracted and want to do and try new things? Absolutely, it is. But that’s why we must commit ourselves to our purpose and “do what we do”.

Dave Chapelle said it best when guiding a fellow comic a few years back. “Stay in your lane. Do what you’re best at and become the best at that thing.” We can each apply this lesson to our own lives. Instead of being distracted by a lot of different professions and dreams, let’s each focus on our own purpose and stay in our lane. Let’s make the best out of what we’ve been given and succeed in that aspect before we go off chasing things we want to be doing instead of what we need to be doing.

We’ve each been given a purpose. It’s up to us to make the most of it.

[box_light]Cory Copeland is a freelance writer living in Little Rock, AR. You can follow him on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/Cory_Copeland and read more of his writing on his blog at www.CoryCopeland.net.[/box_light]

Related Posts

• 

  Christian Shoddy is Still Shoddy
  Christian Shoddy is Still Shoddy
• 

  We Are Not Hoodlums.
  We Are Not Hoodlums.
• 

  Of Hobbits and Angels
  Of Hobbits and Angels
• 

  Rags to Riches and Back to Rags Again
  Rags to Riches and Back to Rags Again