Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking.
Specifically, I’ve been thinking about what my life’s purpose is. There’s plenty of things tied into this, but the majority of it boils down to this:
If you had to define your existence with one driving statement of purpose, what would it be?
If you don’t know, what are you waiting for?
And this is where I found myself after years of floating, like a leaf in the wind. I realized I had no real, solid purpose. I mean, sure, I had “purpose” but I couldn’t tell you exactly what it was. “Following God” only gets you so far, as that could look like any number of things. “Loving your neighbor” could be me, sitting on my couch, invisibly loving people from afar. What does “helping people” look like? Specifically, for me? What does “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” look like, for me?
Until you can answer these questions, you don’t have an actual purpose. A Purpose can be aimed at, can be worked towards, can be realistically distilled into things that are, and aren’t.
The modern church, and myself, have been fine for years serving God’s “purpose” but not knowing exactly what that looks like. And how can we objectively say we’re accomplishing our Purpose if we can’t even say exactly what it is?
I’m not talking about legalism, or saying “We must only serve God in an approved way.” God is always free to move us and show us where He is working, and we must be willing to adjust our Purpose to align with God’s. As Henry Blackaby says, “Find out where God is working, and meet Him there.”
But we need to put it in concrete form, and focus on it with laser-like intensity. We throw all of our energy into doing when we should be spending time first figuring out what we need to be doing.
In short: find your purpose. Your specific, personal, reason for existing. And if you don’t know, work on narrowing it down, and focusing more each step of the way.
Jesus’ ministry was extremely focused. Everything he did was in preparation for His ultimate sacrifice, and it was always on His mind. He didn’t get distracted or say “well, I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing until the Father tells me otherwise.” Let us walk in His example.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. – 1 Corinthians 9:24
Press on towards the mark of the higher calling of God in Christ Jesus.