Refreshing. Invigorating. Captivating. For a moment in time, you feel transported to another world, far from all the worries, concerns and challenges of stressful, modern-day living in a rapidly-changing culture. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if life could always be so serene and peaceful? Like a long stroll down a quiet beach, as we go through life, changes always occur and it’s especially then that we reflect in retrospect on our lives; what we’ve done, where we have come from, why we are here and most of all where we seem to be going. While we are generally thankful for what we’ve been able to experience, often we wonder if there’s more, and if there’s more, how do we find it, or is this the best we can expect from life until it’s over?
Thinking about your life now, perhaps you are wondering;
“Why am I here? What is God’s call in my life? How do I fit God’s call with my own individuality? How should God’s calling affect my career, my plans for the future, my concepts of success?“
In this era of “life makeovers,” personal coaches, and success-oriented mission statements, many people are working hard to get it together. They’re looking for a good life, which at its core includes wanting their time to count for something, to be meaningful and mindful. But as Christine and Tom Sine point out, “more and more people are missing the best and settling for less.”
Living on purpose means living for a reason far more than just existing–one rooted in God’s greater purposes for our lives, not merely our own desires for success. God desires to give us a laser-focus on His mission and vocation for each of his children, and show us how staying on His course will lead to the very richest and most fulfilling life. Nothing will bring us a greater sense of contentment and life satisfaction than finding out where we belong in His plan.
When we finally make the connection between our everyday pursuits and goals and God’s will for our lives, a whole new world of exciting opportunities will open up for us. The Bible is packed with relevant examples of this, and there are scores of inspiring stories all around us today on the practical, how-to, live life on purpose we all deeply desire in our hearts. A life that leads us to better enjoy what God has given us, to discover and celebrate the unique gifts He has blessed us with, to used for the good of others. This is the kind of living that not only counts the most for today, but for eternity.
You see, the purpose of your life is far greater than just your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It’s far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by His purpose and for His purpose.
The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years. That’s because we typically begin at the wrong starting point–ourselves. We ask self-centered questions like, “What do I want to be? What should I do with my life? What are my goals, my ambitions, my dreams for my future?” But, the problem with this is, focusing on ourselves will really never reveal our life’s purpose. The Bible says, “It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone’s life is in his power.”
Contrary to what many popular books, movies, and seminars tell you, you won’t discover your life’s meaning by looking within yourself. You’ve probably tried that already. You didn’t create yourself, so there is no way you can tell yourself what you were created for! If I handed you an invention you had never seen before, you wouldn’t know its purpose, and the invention itself wouldn’t be able to tell you either. Only the Creator or the Owner’s Manual could reveal its purpose.
I once got lost in woods one day on a camping trip, as a boy. When I stopped to ask for directions to the campsite, I was told, “You can’t get there from here. You must start from the other side of the creek!” In the same way, you cannot arrive at your life’s purpose by starting with a focus on yourself. You must begin with God, your Creator. You exist only because God wills that you exist. You were made by God and for God–and until you understand that, life will never make sense. It is only in God that we discover our origin, our identity, our meaning, our purpose, our significance, and our destiny. Every other path leads to a dead end, no matter what they may promise you.
Many people try to use God for their own self-actualization, but that is a reversal of nature and is doomed to failure. You were made for God, not vice versa, and life is about letting God use you for His purposes, not your using Him for your own purpose. The Bible says, “Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life.”
I have read many books that suggest ways to discover the purpose of my life. All of them could be classified as “self-help” books because they approach the subject from a self-centered viewpoint. Self-help books, even Christian ones, usually offer the same predictable steps to finding your life’s purpose: “Consider your dreams. Clarify your values. Set some goals. Figure out what you are good at. Aim high. Go for it! Be disciplined. Believe you can achieve your goals. Involve others. Never give up!”
Of course, these recommendations often lead to great success. You can usually succeed in reaching a goal if you put your mind to it. But being successful and fulfilling your life’s purpose are not at all the same issue! You could reach all your personal goals, becoming a raving success by the world’s standard, and still miss the purposes for which God created you. You need more than self-help advice. The Bible says, “Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.”
How, then, do you discover the purpose you were created for? You have only two options. Your first option is speculation. This is what most people choose. They conjecture, they guess, they theorize. When people say, “I’ve always thought life is…,” they mean, “This is the best guess I can come up with.”
For thousands of years, brilliant philosophers have discussed and speculated about the meaning of life. Philosophy is an important subject and has its uses, but when it comes to determining the purpose of life, even the wisest philosophers are just guessing.
Fortunately, there is an alternative to speculation about the meaning and purpose of life. It’s revelation. We can turn to what God has revealed about life in his Word. The easiest way to discover the purpose of an invention is to ask the Creator of it. The same is true for discovering your life’s purpose: Ask God. Seek His wisdom in His Word. Listen to gifted, trained Teachers He has put on earth to help you find your way. This is the starting place we all have to begin and continue at. And, that is why I am here to assist you find the place and purpose your loving Creator has for you. I will direct you with the “navigational compass” of the wisdom of His Word. Together, we can explore your journey and help you set your course to His destination for your life, no matter where you may be now.
God has not left us in the dark to wonder and guess. He has clearly revealed his five purposes for our lives through the Bible. It is our Owner’s Manual, explaining why we are alive, how life works, what to avoid, and what to expect in the future. It explains what no self-help or philosophy book could know. The Bible says, “God’s wisdom … goes deep into the interior of his purposes…. It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest—what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us.”
God is not just the starting point of your life; he is the source of it. To discover your purpose in life you must turn to God’s Word, not the world’s wisdom. You must build your life on eternal truths, not pop psychology, success-motivation, or inspirational stories. The Bible says, “It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.” This verse gives us three insights into your purpose.
1. You discover your identity and purpose through a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you don’t have such a relationship, I will later explain how to begin one.
2. God was thinking of you long before you ever thought about Him. His purpose for your life predates your conception. He planned it before you existed, without your input! You may choose your career, your spouse, your hobbies, and many other parts of your life, but you don’t get to choose your purpose.
3. The purpose of your life fits into a much larger, cosmic purpose that God has designed for eternity.
Andrei Bitov, a Russian novelist, grew up under an atheistic Communist regime. But God got his attention one dreary day. He recalls, “In my twenty-seventh year, while riding the metro in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) I was overcome with a despair so great that life seemed to stop at once, preempting the future entirely, let alone any meaning. Suddenly, all by itself, a phrase appeared: Without God life makes no sense. Repeating it in astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving staircase, got out of the metro and walked into God’s light.”
Without God, life makes no sense. If you’re tried to make sense of your life without Christ being the center of it, you know how confusing and even frustrating it can be. Why don’t you step into the Light of Christ today by asking Him to come into your life. Then, you will finally know the meaning and purpose you’ve always hoped to have. May God help you to do that today.
David Crews Ph.D. Publications 