Many people feel they live a life without purpose. They struggle with the job they have, the family they were born into and mostly see the philosophical glass as half empty. When it seems like everyone else gets all of the “good opportunities” and people believe they just get a hard way to go, what truth is the truth? Have you ever heard someone say, “If it weren’t for bad luck I wouldn’t have any”? The vision supplied by purpose is absent for them.

In your neighborhood, at your workplace, in your house, wherever you are at this moment someone has or will wonder…Why? Why am I going through this? Why now? Why this? When will it end? Perhaps they get through most days looking like they have everything all planned. Maybe they have already shared their confusion with you, possibly that person is you!

How can we move forward when we find we are seemingly living a life without purpose?

I am reminded of the television game show “Let’s Make a Deal”. The premise of the show features an audience of would be contestants in anticipation of going home with a prize. Few are selected and offered an opportunity to win cash or other gifts. They may be asked to perform a task or simply choose between a box, a curtain or an envelope. They receive based on the choices they make.

Most of those selected leave the spotlight with a smile because they made the right choice, at times even when they get zonked, which in essence means they got nothing of value. Those zonked frequently reply, “Well, that’s okay, at least I had fun.”

I often check to see if the body language matches the words. Do they really feel that they had fun when they missed taking home the prize, or when they made the wrong choice and missed out on the big deal worth thousands? 

How have you reacted after you think you have been zonked in life?

Perhaps you missed the house you always wanted, the car of your dreams, the promotion at work that would have solved all of your problems. What about the big family you pictured in your mind’s eye, the graduate degree, the latest computer hardware, the fairy tale wedding, or the most up-to-date cell phone? As the clock ticks and the calendar advances to another birthday, have you reached or surpassed the goals you set?

What has been your response when you have experienced zonks? Did you override the emotions of the moment to put on a “game face”? Did you have a season of thinking you were without purpose in life? Are you still in that place where you are questioning and looking back at curtain number two or the big blue box, thinking you should have chosen another path or another person in your life to get that coveted “Big Deal” as an outcome.

Well that certainly is one way to approach life, recounting missteps and looking at past disappointments and comparing them to our vision of where we feel we deserve to be. However, I have found that approach to create more stress, negative thinking and less productive actions, all of which put distance between you and your purpose. The conundrum is the very thing that we want is often in front of our eyes and we fail to see, or is sounding in our ears but we do not hear!

We spend a great deal of time in a state of seeking for purpose when it is carried around inside of us from birth!

Purpose as defined by the Bing online dictionary:

1. reason for existence: the reason for which something exists or for which it

has been done or made

1. desired effect: the goal or intended outcome of something
2. determination: the desire or the resolve necessary to accomplish a goal

Synonyms: intention · intent · aim · object · objective · goal · target · end

Were you created without a reason for existence? Is your life without purpose? Of course NOT!!

Our Heavenly Father made us deliberately with intention. He created us in His own image. The same God that created caterpillars with more than 248 neck muscles and no two zebras with identical stripes, created us. If He would take such care with animals why would He not be deliberate and intentional when making us? (See Genesis 1:27 KJV)

As our maker He knows the reason for my existence and your existence. He has given us many clues and in some cases explicitly indicates what He expects us to do. (See Matthew 22:36-40 KJV) Generally, when we read the Bible we are to read it literally. What does it say we are to do? What are we here to do?

Our loving Father would not create us for a specific purpose and then keep that purpose secret from us.

He has made each of us uniquely with the ability to fulfill that purpose. When we focus on caring for ourselves first we are to identify our God-given gifts by taking inventory.

When we take inventory we are to see how we measure up using the standard that our creator has provided. He clearly shares with us what we are to do so that we can apply those gifts.His guides us to walk in purpose!

We all have experienced some adversity, disappointment or situation that has caused us to question something about our purpose, our reason for being here.

When we are able to discover our purpose then we can move forward with intention to achieve that purpose. Just as we are all unique so are those choices by which we can achieve the purpose He has for us in our lives. The purpose (His) is not designed to be fulfilled by cookie cutter actions that move through a particular profession or job title. It is when we all use our gifts to love our neighbors as ourselves that that purpose or goal is achieved.

Take Inventory and Take Action!

You have a purpose, those around you do too. When each of us takes on His purpose we get the “Big Deal”; although at times it may seem as though we were zonked. As long as we have breath we have choices to make and work to do. Are you living life without purpose? The choice is yours!

Love,

Deborah

“Lighting the path to loving your neighbor as yourself.”