FINDING YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE
Have you ever asked yourself, “What is my purpose in life?” If you are like millions of others you probably have asked that question at some point in your life.
So many of us are curious about our purpose mainly because of one of our three greatest needs in life, the need to have worth. In other words, we want to not only be reassured that we have value in our lives, but we also desire to know how that value should be lived out. We want to know that we mattered and made a difference in our years here on earth. No matter how focused we are in wanted to know our purpose we all desire to know that we matter and have worth.
Often we will search out self-help books, find 4-step programs or attend lectures to find out the formula to our potential, passion and purpose. I am certainly not downing any of those venues. However, I am suggesting an alternative and a different way of thinking about the word purpose in reference to your life.
Most times we define purpose as a goal or something that we will obtain or possess at some point in our lives. We believe that once we know what our purpose is then we can start doing that thing. Many spend a lifetime trying to find their purpose or guess that special “thing” that God is desiring them to do while on earth.
I would like to challenge that. Instead of thinking of your purpose as a thing to find, try thinking of purpose as something you are. Instead of saying, I’m trying to find out what my purpose is, better to say, “My purpose is being lived out through me.” Make sense?
For example let’s take the life of Billy Graham. He had an amazing childhood that formed his passions, personality and purpose. At a young age, while he didn’t understand it, his purpose was to touch people’s lives with the saving message that you can come just as you are to Jesus. That was it. Everything he did in and thru his life fell in line with that purpose. He didn’t have to think about it, try to come up with a sermon about it, etc. Because of the story of his life, the gifts he was given and the passions that were formed, his purpose came out of who he was created to be. Now through his purpose, doors opened up, invitations to speak, bigger audiences came, media attention formed and he became who we now know as “Billy Graham.”
He was simply walking out his purpose in who he was and the other stuff (audiences, media, books, etc.) were opened for him.
Let me explain further.
I am an encourager. For years I have studied and read everything I could get my hands on regarding the area of encouragement. I’ve studied the life of Barnabas from the bible. I know the Hebrew meaning and studied the word in different languages. I have done surveys, written papers, done research, talked with psychologists and others. I can talk for hours about the difference between encouragement versus words like motivation, compliment, influence, self-help, positive thinking, pity, etc. I know pretty much everything about encouragement. That is all well and fine but to me that only means that I am considered an expert in the area of encouragement it really says nothing about my purpose.
However, I know for a fact that my top spiritual gift is that of encouragement. Without any effort or feeling of pressure, I offer encouragement. If I have $20 in my pocket, $10 will be going to somebody by the end of the day to offer encouragement. Encouragement is not something I do in order to get something in return. It just happens by picking up phone, starting a conversation, sending an email, blogging, etc. Most importantly, when I encourage it is totally for the other person regardless if I understand why I am saying the words I am stating or not. Often the person will reply with, “Those were exactly the words I needed to hear today because of the situation I am in” and begin to share about their life (which I love). To me that also confirms that my encouragement is a gift from God because I rarely know anything that is happening in people’s lives. Obviously, he does.
I said all that to get to say this, in seeking out your purpose ask yourself the following questions:
1) What thing is attached to who you are? (Hint: It will always be other’s centered always. Things like dancing, teaching, preaching, etc would be passions, the way in which you live out your purpose. Think in terms of who you are. This will be a very hard question to answer for some. Ask others around you. )
2) What thing for others have you been doing, regardless of the ways, for as long as you can remember?
3) What thing do you continue to hear people attach to you (“You’re a motivator, “You’re a visionary”, “You’re a peace maker”, “You’re an athlete”, etc.)
4) What thing do you do, that when you do a) you feel God’s pleasure, b)lives are changes, c) people are motivated and positively impacted, and/or d)you do without even trying?
Start by asking yourself those questions. That will take you a long way in discovering your purpose.
As you ponder the question think in the following term:
What gift do I believe I have been given to use in my everyday life to impact the life of another person? The key will be #4
You can do this!
Take care
Charlotte
Dream Madly, Pursue Wildly, Trust Completely TM
Copyright © 2019 by Charlotte D. Hunt All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, or otherwise without written permission from the author except for brief quotations in printed reviews.