Doing what's expected

I was over on Indieheaven.com tonight reading a post written by a fellow musician and was hit square in the forehead by his straight forward comments that seemed to verbalize thoughts right out of my own head. One paragraph from his post went as follows:

I have discovered that we are all programmed to the American ideal to some extent and automatically do a bunch of things we're "supposed to do". I didn't have some master plan to be married by 25 and buy a house and raise 2 kids. I mean I had a general idea that I should, but it was kind of wired in. I wouldn't trade my family for anything, but many of us our living by rules we didn't sign up for sometimes to the detriment of the plan God has for us.

At age 38 (soon to be 39 in one month from today), that paragraph rang true of me and my life. Just like my fellow indie artist, I would never trade my wife and four kids in a million years. (I might be easily persuaded to trade my "fixer up" house, my run down vehicles, and my bills, but never EVER my family.) However, sometimes I wonder if having a family and working a fulltime, 40 plus hour a week job just to get by was really what God had intended for me to do with my life. I often wonder what more I could be doing for Him if I hadn't followed "the norm"... followed the "expected" path of every American male, especially good Christian boys who are taught that they need to grow up dependable, loyal, faithful, hardworking, responsible... What does a responsible Christian man look like? Is it one who does everything that is "expected" of him? Or is it one who takes bold leaps of faith, based solely on God's call on his heart and the leading of the Holy Spirit, to do that which he was created to do... serve God completely in every facet of his life and not let "life" get in his way. Wouldn't my wife and kids rather have that man as their husband and father than the one who dutifully does what is required by society and expected by the average citizen, and in so doing, wastes the time he has been given to do the tasks for which he was meant? Wouldn't the family God has entrusted me to care for be better served if I was a better servant of my God?

Lord, help me to see and know what it is you want me to be doing. Help me to make wise decisions on how to spend my time, money, talents that I might better serve You and not just meet someone's "expectations" or follow some path that has been presumed as a requirement to be validated as a Christian man.

No, I don't have any plans to quit my job, run away to join the circus, buck the system and be a rebel at church (well, I may change my mind on that "rebel" part)... But I do want to be sure I am busy about God's work in my life, making the right choices at the right times, and taking advantage of every moment I have on earth to further His kingdom in the manner He designed me for.