Knowing Your Purpose in Life
I received a letter a while back from a guy I know. From all appearances he’s got his act together. He is a good Christian, attends church regularly and he’s financially successful. He’s a nice guy too; he doesn’t seem to have any hidden agendas or ulterior motives. As far I can tell he really, sincerely wants to do whatever God wants him to do.
That’s why I was surprised by his question. He asked me how he could find his purpose in life. Then it hit me that there are probably a lot of people out there that are otherwise successful and happy, but have no clue about why they are here.
Not so long ago I felt the same way; that my life was meaningless. I had a great family, a successful business and people liked me; but I felt like I wasn’t doing anything of significance. I didn’t see my life as having any sort of eternal purpose.
I put my trust in myself and in what I could see. I was responsible for putting food on my table and making my way in the world. As an employee I knew that if I did my job, the company would give me a paycheck. When I started my own business I relied on my customers to do their part. My company had a contract with Joe’s company. If I came through on my end and Joe came through on his end then we would get paid. I could see where things were coming from.
When things got beyond me, when there were obstacles I thought were impossible to overcome, I would go to God. I would work until I couldn’t think straight, eventually go home and try to forget the day and then go to bed to sleep it off and recharge for the next day. By midnight my worries would wake me. I’d turn over in bed, adjust my pillow, open the window, count sheep, count backwards; anything to push myself back into sleep. When none of this worked I would get out of bed, go into the next room, find my Bible, read and confess to God that I was finally at the end of my own ability and ask Him to get me out of the jam. It usually took till about 3:00 AM to come to this point.
God was always faithful, even though I wasn’t. He would provide a way out of the jam every time. As soon as I was out of the jam I would go back to relying on myself and the support systems I could see. Until the next jam and the next time I couldn’t sleep at 3:00 AM.
In all the years I did that, God remained faithful. I was doing my own thing, serving myself in every way. If there was ever anything He wanted me to do for Him I would have missed it completely; I wasn’t paying attention.
Looking back, I can see how His purpose still worked itself in. I had to learn (and I’m a slow learner) that relying on myself and what I can see is way overrated. I had to learn that the stuff I couldn’t see was more reliable than the stuff I could see. I had to learn that everything I could accomplish in my own strength, relying on my own talent and grit, wasn’t much and it certainly didn’t transfer into the next world.
I also learned something else. I learned that God’s purpose for me kept right on trucking – even though I wasn’t mentally, physically or spiritually involved. That was the part about Him being faithful even though I wasn’t. He knew that I had to get on the other side of all that stuff before I would finally come to the realization that none of it mattered in the long run. He knew that because of my arrogance and obstinacy and selfishness, He would have to be faithful and care for me in spite of myself until I was ready to listen. I didn’t give Him any good reason to be patient with me. He just was. It was His grace that waited for me. Nothing I did deserved any sort of grace period.
Like I said, He worked in my life anyway. He directed where I went and what I did and who I met, even though I wasn’t asking for any sort of direction. A lot of people come to the realization that God loves them and has something He wants to do with their lives, and when they do they get hit with this wave of regret. Regret over all the wasted years before they came to the place where they’re ready to surrender to the purpose God has for them.
I see wasted years in my life; days I’ll never get back, time that could have been spent a lot more productively. I carry some emotional, spiritual, and physical scars that probably wouldn’t be there if I had surrendered to His plan earlier. Way worse – others carry scars of my making, that wouldn’t be there if I had surrendered to His plan earlier.
God’s grace is sufficient even for that. He heals the wounds, self-inflicted and inflicted on others. He takes the tragedies and wasted time and stupid things I’ve done – things that were not in His purpose for me – and by His grace turns them to His purpose. When I’m finally ready to surrender to Him, he begins healing and restoring the mess I’ve made. He leaves some of the scars though; as reminders of what I can accomplish in my own strength.
Looking back, I can see how He has taken the wasted time and stupid stuff and big mistakes and turned them into preparation for what He wants me to be.
A million years ago, in my first semester in college, I signed up as a journalism major. That lasted ten weeks. When the first semester was finished, so was my career as a journalist. That was a long time ago and I’ve had a lot of “careers” since then. Roto-Rooter man, sign maker, carpet cleaner, pig farmer (yup, pig farmer), factory worker, salesman, businessman and now publisher. Funny how things come back around. The point is that, instinctively, I knew what I was supposed to do, what I had been created for, but I wasn’t ready and the time hadn’t come for what God wanted me to do.
*****
Moses was born to deliver the Jews from bondage in Egypt. It was obvious. As a baby his life was miraculously spared at a time when Pharaoh had decreed that all Hebrew baby boys be thrown into the Nile River. Moses’ mother couldn’t do that. She constructed a little boat and set baby Moses afloat on the Nile. Technically, she had complied with Pharaoh’s decree.
Miraculously Moses’ little boat drifted past Pharaoh’s daughter as she was bathing in the river. Pharaoh’s daughter saw the baby and a little warm spot opened in her heart. She adopted Moses as her own son.
It seemed that God’s plan had worked perfectly. Moses life was saved and he was installed in the house of Pharaoh, as his grandson. God couldn’t have orchestrated things more perfectly! With Moses as a part of Pharaoh’s family he would be in the perfect position to answer the plight of his Hebrew brothers.
Chances are Moses knew it too. It was no secret to him that he was a Hebrew and it was no secret that his destiny had been guessed at as the deliverer of his people. Why would God place him in this position of power unless He meant to use it to aid His people?
The Children of Israel had been in Egypt for four hundred years. By this time stories of the land promised to great-great grandfather Jacob had probably faded into myth. At least ten generations of Israel’s children had been born in Egypt. And they thrived. The family of Jacob, a mere seventy souls when they first arrived in Egypt, had become a people of two million strong. The flourishing of the Hebrews didn’t escape the notice of the Egyptians. To keep them in their place the Egyptians made the Hebrews their slaves and to keep their numbers in check they decreed that all Hebrew boys were to be killed at birth.
The Hebrews were ripe for deliverance. But it’s doubtful that they understood deliverance meant being ejected from their adopted country of more than four hundred years, wandering through a desert wilderness for forty years and then getting deposited into a land overrun with tribes of giants that would definitely react with hostility toward a sea of newcomers. The Hebrews weren’t looking for that kind of deliverance.
It’s a pretty good bet that Moses, even though he may have known in his heart that he was to deliver his people, had no idea what deliverance meant. He gave it a go early on and his efforts ended in disaster.
Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. The next day he tried to break up a fight between two of his Hebrew brothers and they both turned on him.
“Who are you to be the judge over us? Will you kill us like you did the Egyptian?” The news was out. Moses was a wanted man. The Hebrews wanted nothing to do him and the Egyptians wanted him dead. In utter confusion and in fear for his life, Moses took off for the back side of the desert.
Can you imagine what was going through Moses’ mind? He had always felt a sense of destiny. Everything in his life up until now had pointed to him as the deliverer of his people. Now he was a fugitive, running for his life into the desert.
For forty years Moses hid out in the desert. I wonder how often he thought about Egypt and his people. About how sure he had been that he was to be their deliverer. How he had been put in a position of power in Egypt, the perfect platform from which to rescue his people. And how he had blown it; killed a man and killed any chance of fulfilling his destiny.
Moses knew his destiny instinctively, but he had no way of knowing how God would fulfill that destiny in him. It took forty years to prepare Moses to fulfill his destiny God’s way and not his own.
*****
Back to my friend who didn’t seem to know his purpose in life. I believe that each of us has an inkling of why we’re here. God’s purpose is ingrained in us like DNA. It’s there, and if you can’t see it now, you’ll be surprised by its familiarity when you finally do see it.
Hindsight is 20/20. It’s easier to see our purpose in retrospect. We look back over our lives and say, “Ahh! I always knew that’s what I was supposed to do, but I never guessed it would have happened that way.”
Now you’re probably saying, “Thanks for all the warm words Steve, but how does that help me now? I want to know what I’m supposed to be doing now. I don’t care about looking back over my life and saying, ‘Ahh!’ I want to look ahead and figure out which way to go.”
Okay, fair enough. Here’s how to know what God wants you to do right now. Here’s how to fulfill your eternal purpose, your personal destiny right now. Ready? Got a pencil and paper? It’s a three step process, so I don’t want you to miss anything.
Ask Him – He knows what He wants you to do. He knows that down deep inside, you know too. You may not know you know, but it’s down there. Ask. That way He knows you’re ready for step number two.
Listen – The primary thing to do after you’ve asked someone a question is to listen for his reply. Weirdly enough, we don’t do this a lot. Weirder still, we hardly do it at all when we’re talking with God. The few minutes we actually spend talking with God is really spent talking to God: “Please God do this for me.” “Please God do that for me.” “Please God take care of Aunt Bessie and make her gout go away.” “Please God watch out for my kid; he just got his driver’s license and I don’t want him running into a tree.” “Please God don’t make my boss such a jerk.” “And if You have time, please, please, please make sure my wife gets that raise; we really need the extra money.” “Thanks so much for all You do and thanks so much for listening. Okay. I gotta go.”
If God ever did want to say anything to you He wouldn’t have the chance. Just stop and listen. He already knows what you need, so if you’re in a rush, cut out some of the asking time and turn it into listening time. Better yet, don’t be in such a rush. Do you really think anything else in your schedule is more important? Give Him a few minutes. Quiet your mind and open your heart. He’ll start talking as soon as he knows you’re ready to listen. And don’t get all spooky about the idea of God talking to you. There won’t be any lightning bolts or trumpets (if there are let me know). That’s why it’s called “a still small voice,” so people won’t freak out when they hear it. It’s the Holy Spirit. He’s supposed to be living inside you when you give your heart to God. You hear His voice with your mind and heart, not with your ears. That brings us to step number three.
Do what He tells you - And He won’t tell you to jump off the roof or leave your wife. If it’s God, whatever He says will agree with His Word. If it goes against what’s written in the Bible, you’d better go back to step number one.
God made a deal with me a few years back, when I was finally ready to do what He said. He let me know the general direction He was taking me and He lets me know every day what He wants me to do. Both of these things I know unequivocally. There’s no doubt, no question in my mind. In the beginning He had to prove it to me with regular and miraculous “coincidences” all piling up in His favor. After a while I got the hang of it and just learned to trust Him for these two things. I have no clue where I’ll wind up or what I’ll be doing six months from now. But I know exactly which direction I’m pointed and what I’m supposed to being doing today. The system works pretty well.
Like I said, it’s a deal God made with me. I don’t know if He does that for everybody. Some people have a lot more faith and probably don’t need the constant reassurance. God knows what I’m capable of and so He does it this way with me. Whatever method He uses to guide you, He’ll tailor it to fit you and you’ll know it’s Him.
So, to the friend who wrote the letter, if you’re still listening, try this. If you’re not the guy who wrote the letter but you’re listening anyway, feel free to try it too. If you want to know your purpose in life:
Ask God
Listen to what He tells you
Do it.
Sounds almost too simple doesn’t it?
Purpose News
The way things look right now, we’ll have our blog site up and running by next week’s letter. This means that you’ll be able to read the weekly letters in a chronological format and respond with you own comments and insights. It will be in a discussion forum format. We’ve already chosen the blog software, now we’ve just got to figure out how to use it.
Another new feature you’ll see on our www.gotpotential.org website will be some free resources, including audio teaching on MP3 and e-booklets for free download. You should see the first of these popping up on the website by next week’s letter.
Until then, God bless you and keep you.
In Him,
Steve Spillman
