If You're Looking for Purpose

Dear Purpose-Seeker,

I know what it feels like.  Sometimes there's a million things going on in life, but you sit back, wondering what the point is.  Or something ends - the vacation, the project, the graduation - and everyone asks the same question:

What's next?

They think that graduation or completion means you suddenly have a huge life purpose.  That you totally have this thing called life under control.  *cough*

Do you ever look at life like I do?  Do you wonder what the point is, what's step #2, where you're supposed to be going?

I tried to hide from it.  I fled into school books, grabbing fistfuls of As and throwing them around me.  But when the last college class slipped away, it stared me straight in the face.

What's next?

And I don't know the answer.

Everyone tries to give us those answers.  We could travel here or work there, do this or serve at that.  The pressure builds to make decisions.  To take steps forward.

Somehow doing the same thing we've always done seems suddenly wrong.  It's like they expect us to all of a sudden radically change the world.

The secret?  We are.

There is purpose in life for you, for me.  And it doesn't have to look like what they expect.  You can change the world in college, in cleaning houses, in babysitting, in leading that little Bible study.  It's okay when you're "still just ___" if that's the calling He has for you.

Changing the world sounds a lot more fun if it involves traveling overseas or writing a bestseller.  But maybe right here, right now, you're on the training grounds for something much bigger.

Be faithful.  If you know what to do today - right now - then go ahead and do that.  Step #2 will come later.

And here's a hint:  your ultimate purpose is always going to stay the same.  It's to have a heart like His.  To love Him more than anything else in the world.  And to live like that.

I found this graphic and made it the screensaver to my computer because it hits me hard.  Sometimes I think my ultimate purpose is to love people, share the Gospel, change lives.  But it's not.

We cannot truly love others well unless it overflows from our love for God.

Whatever you're doing, do it to bring a smile to His face.  Maybe we need to stop seeking our mission or purpose and instead seek the Purpose-Giver.

So dear Purpose-Seeker, I'm right with you.  Maybe it's a new stage of life or an old one that never made sense.  Don't listen to the voices that ring all around you.  Listen to His voice.

Seek Him in everything.  Write the book for Him, say the word for Him, paint the picture for Him.  And then it has purpose.

Love,

A Fellow Purpose-Seeker

(ps)  Although our ultimate calling is the same, God gives us different individual stories.  What's yours?  I've love to hear about the purpose you're seeking.  ♥

We love Him because He first loved us.

- 1 John 4:19

He must increase, but I must decrease.

- John 3:30

And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

- Jeremiah 29:13

Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

- Psalm 127:1

~♥~