Purpose

Purpose seems to be on everyone’s mind lately. The Purpose Driven Life has sold millions of copies and is probably still on the bestseller list. I have heard countless sermons preached on finding purpose and how to find purpose and reassurances that yes! you have a purpose. My generation, and the one following me, are leaving the traditional workforce in droves because it doesn’t offer them a purpose, or, rather, it doesn’t offer them a purpose they find acceptable. The middle-aged, finding themselves with an empty nest and close to retirement, are also seeking answers about a purpose.

We are all looking for direction and meaning to our lives. I think this is fundamental to human nature and serves to explain why the age-long question, “why are we here?” exists. Being born, existing, and then dying are not feasible to us any longer. We want to live and experience and dream and live with intention. This is what our generation of today seeks.

It’s easy to see how we came to this current reality. Years of prosperity and a relative scarcity of combat situations that would cost millions of casualties have led us to a relative peaceful life that allows us the time and energy to ask these questions. Poor health, famine, disease, and war usually took these options from the generations that preceded us. It’s not that they didn’t want to find a purpose, but purpose to them was usually staying alive past the age of 40. If you could do that then your life’s purpose was satisfied – you were alive! But today we aren’t concerned with those details. I am grateful that we live such blessed lives that allow us to escape the worry about dying in childbirth (if you’re a woman) or being killed in a war or losing a limb performing dangerous manual labor (if you’re a man). But since there is no such thing as paradise on earth, today’s society must still confront some problems. And this brings us to my subject because I believe that one of society’s current big questions of life is how to avoid living a meaningless existence. Although the question is simple, the answer seems to evade many.  

So, purpose. What is it? Dictionary.com defines purpose as “the reason for which something is done or created or for which something exists”. So essentially, to find your purpose you need to find a reason to stay alive. To further your purpose, you need to find a reason to stay alive and a reason that makes you want to contribute to the world.

But how do you find your purpose? It’s almost a cliché to say that purpose isn’t found in material things – in money, in stuff, in better houses or better cars. We all know that the wealthiest among us are not the happiest. We know this intrinsically – it’s why children are just as happy playing with a cardboard box than with a new toy. But yet we reject this as we get older and we instead focus on more stuff. Stuff, and stuff, and more and more stuff…we literally have entire stores, large stores!, that are dedicated to re-selling all the STUFF we have consumed and no longer want. It’s amazing.

The secret to a life of purpose, I think, and a life of meaning is to spend yourself. To give it all up in the pursuit of something you really believe in. Granted, not all things are worth the endless pursuit. As a Christian, I find that my life is happiest when I’m pursuing a Christ-like life and when I’m spending myself, my time, my energy, my personal resources, on the things of God.

When I think of the word purpose, I think of the young men of WWI and WWII. Millions and millions of them died, sacrificed to the gods of war. Of those who did not die, so many more lost integral parts of themselves while fighting – eyes, legs, arms. But yet although they knew the dangers of war, so many of them still ran to sign up. They lied about their ages. The youngest soldier recorded in WWI was 15 years old. He, and so many others not only lied about their ages but left behind families and jobs and schools and ran to an almost certain death. And for many of us, that seems like a missed purpose. Why would you sacrifice yourself for something so horrible? Ask any 18 year old today to go run off to war and many of them will refuse. They don’t see the point. But young men and women, generations past, were not bothered by this show of common sense because they believed in something greater than themselves. Not only did they believe in it, but they believed in the evils that were soon to come if they didn’t go out and sacrifice for victory accordingly.

So purpose comes when you have a goal in mind. Purpose comes when you are passionate about something. And true, godly purpose comes when you are focused on something else besides yourself – when you are focused on God and His plan.

There are a lot of people who are searching for and finding purpose and meaning in things that are devoid of both. I admire and applaud people who take care of their health and who spend copious amounts of time at the gym. We owe it to ourselves to be healthy and to maintain some level of fitness. But my admiration and applause are limited; they only go so far. Why? Because it seems like a selfish pursuit ultimately. If it’s all spent on making yourself look better, and there’s no other reason behind what you’re doing, then what is the point of it all? Humans are made of clay. We all crumble and fall eventually.

The happiest people I know are those are busy and consumed by something that is greater than themselves. They are the ones you see at church all the time, on workdays, on non-workdays. They are the ones you see who spend hours outside soaking in the beauty that God has given us and they are the ones you see often reading His Word. They aren’t as worried about tomorrow. They aren’t as concerned about what will happen with their 401(k). These are the people who have discovered the secret to the age-old question. I hope that more of us can discover this – humanity owes it to ourselves. We have so many blessings, it seems wrong to waste them all on a purposeless existence.