Purpose - making sense of it all
We all need a purpose. Purpose is not just work, or a career. It goes much deeper than that. We can only make sense of the details of our lives if those details are connected to an underlying raison d’etre. In fact, without that, the details can become meaningless, mundane, tedious. Life becomes a series of activities, a collection of interests, even a network of relationships – all valuable and valid in their own right – but not enough to satisfy the appetite of the human heart for meaning. How do we find it?
We are either here by totally random factors coming together to cause our existence or because someone called us into being. If the latter is true, then we are called to be someone unique and specific – called to be you. This is far more than merely being called to a task. You are called to be you. Let that register for a moment. Meaning will be found by being who you are as a direct response to the one who called you to be just that. Being human, we all want to please someone, to serve someone and as Bob Dylan sang in the classic ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’, ‘it may be the devil or it may be the Lord’. If I live out my life in the context of a relationship with the One who called me and as a response to that calling then, because of the cross, I am set free from the selfishness that dogs the human spirit. It doesn’t mean I won’t ever be selfish but it does mean that I don’t have to be. Inasmuch as I am living out who I am and using who I am as directed by God’s Spirit then my life has meaning.
If you are called to be you, isn’t that potentially effortless? Not if you have spent your life thinking that who you are isn’t good enough. But if we remember that the calling is specifically to be you in this big, challenging world then, as we walk with him, we will become increasingly aware of everything within and around us that gets in the way of being who we are. Our focus then will no longer be on trying to be something that we fear we are not but rather clearing the debris out of the way that prevents the clear and unhindered expression of who we are in the service of the Lord in all the relationships, roles and activities that are included in our calling.
Why did you get out of bed this morning? Because you were hungry and wanted breakfast? Why do you need breakfast? To have energy for work. Why do you work? To earn money. Why do you need money? To buy food. Why eat? To stay alive. Why stay alive? Good question. I hope what you have read helps to answer it.
We are either here by totally random factors coming together to cause our existence or because someone called us into being. If the latter is true, then we are called to be someone unique and specific – called to be you. This is far more than merely being called to a task. You are called to be you. Let that register for a moment. Meaning will be found by being who you are as a direct response to the one who called you to be just that. Being human, we all want to please someone, to serve someone and as Bob Dylan sang in the classic ‘Gotta Serve Somebody’, ‘it may be the devil or it may be the Lord’. If I live out my life in the context of a relationship with the One who called me and as a response to that calling then, because of the cross, I am set free from the selfishness that dogs the human spirit. It doesn’t mean I won’t ever be selfish but it does mean that I don’t have to be. Inasmuch as I am living out who I am and using who I am as directed by God’s Spirit then my life has meaning.
If you are called to be you, isn’t that potentially effortless? Not if you have spent your life thinking that who you are isn’t good enough. But if we remember that the calling is specifically to be you in this big, challenging world then, as we walk with him, we will become increasingly aware of everything within and around us that gets in the way of being who we are. Our focus then will no longer be on trying to be something that we fear we are not but rather clearing the debris out of the way that prevents the clear and unhindered expression of who we are in the service of the Lord in all the relationships, roles and activities that are included in our calling.
Why did you get out of bed this morning? Because you were hungry and wanted breakfast? Why do you need breakfast? To have energy for work. Why do you work? To earn money. Why do you need money? To buy food. Why eat? To stay alive. Why stay alive? Good question. I hope what you have read helps to answer it.
John Sparkes
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