What is my purpose?
I don’t know how you feel about it, but that’s one tough
question to answer.
Purpose is defined as the
reason for which something is done, created, or why something exists.
So, to rephrase – why do I exist?
As a Christian, I’ve read my Bible, I’ve watched Facing the Giants, I know the right
answer. My purpose -our purpose - is to honor God. We exist to bring glory to
His Name.
But how do we do that?
Years ago, a dear woman in a Sunday school class I attended
as a new Christian answered the question in this way, “We bring honor to God by trying to remain sinless every day.” Well, that
sounded like a great answer!
…until I got in the car to ride home - with my husband
behind the wheel and four young children in the backseat. Sinlessness went right out the passenger-side
window, along with my patience, kindness and self-control. Did my purpose go
with it too?
No. But I didn’t know that then. I spent years and years
searching for purpose in my life, searching for a way to bring my Father glory,
searching for a good response to the “Why
am I here?!” dilemma.
Now as a slightly more mature, but not quite ripe Christian,
I have a better understanding of purpose and of bringing honor to God through
realizing my purpose.
God is, and always will be, the Creator. He forms our
physical being, molds our character, carves out unique areas of strengths, and
uses dazzling splashes and whorls of vivid color to paint the valleys, peaks,
highlights and shadows of our personalities. Each one of us is a work of art
created by the Master. He saw me, He saw
you, and called us good. He delights in how He made us.
Our unique purpose is found in the artistic details. When He
created me, He created a woman who is passionate about food, who loves the
written word, who likes to laugh and tease, but is most comfortable deep inside
her head playing with sentences and images and solving life’s problems. Woven within my tapestry is creativity, curiosity,
hospitality, responsibility and a pressing need to relate to the people around
me.
These are all very purposefully planned elements God used in
His creation of me. Now my purpose is
to use each of these gifts according to their
purpose - I cook, I plant vegetable gardens, I feed people, I plan parties, I write blogs and stories and poems - giving thanks to God and bringing honor to His name.
I look at it this way – my husband’s grandmother made us an
intricate patchwork quilt for our wedding. She
poured a lot of love, thought
and energy into its creation. I had a choice to make; I could store it, or I
could use it.
If I didn’t use its size to drape a bed, or its warmth to
cover a shivering body, or its beauty to grace a barren wall, what would be its
purpose? It wouldn’t be functioning as a quilt. People couldn’t appreciate its
warmth or admire its beauty. I would never be able to thank someone for
complementing the quilt and then say, “Rob’s
grandma made this for us. Isn’t she an amazing artist? Isn’t she generous with
her time and talents? Isn’t she so loving to have given us this beautiful gift?”
Her attributes would go unnoticed by
the people in my life, buried in the back of my linen closet with the handmade
quilt. Hiding her gift to me wouldn’t honor the woman I loved.
And so it is with all the talents, characteristics,
abilities and personality that God magnificently patched together in each of
us.
It took me too many years, dozens of dog-eared books, and
employment at Shepherds Ministries to figure out my purpose, which is why I’m
so happy for our college students. They each will go through a new class called
On and For Purpose (O4P) in their first year of the college program.
Miss Houk and Mrs. Konopasek, two women passionate about
helping others discover their purpose, teach this important, life-changing class.
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| Miss Houk |
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| Mrs. Konopasek |
Last week, the students started their personal path to
finding Purpose by learning its definition. The teachers led them through a
variety of activities designed to relate to their different learning styles.
The tactile
learners benefitted from writing definitions of key words from Psalm 139:13-16:
“For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s
womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully
and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very
well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully
wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet
unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me,
when as yet there were none of them.”
The visual and
auditory learners absorbed the lesson best by watching DVD clips from Facing the Giants
“If we win, we praise Him. If we lose, we praise Him.”
and reciting Psalm 139:13-16.
And the kinesthetic
learners no doubt thought the Play-Doh® activity was pretty cool. The
students were asked to take the dough and create something in five minutes.
Then they were to share their object and its purpose with the rest of the class.
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| Isaac |
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| Geovanni |
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| Joseph |
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| Willetta |
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| Suzanne |
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| Justin |
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| Mrs. Anderson |
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| Andrew |
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| Olya |
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| Tommy |
This lesson was a success! The students were engaged, and they
understood the meaning of purpose by the end of the class.
Later this semester, Miss Houk and Mrs. Konopasek will guide
the students in discovering their individual personalities and strengths, and then
learn how to communicate what they find out about themselves in a way that
others will understand. By the 2nd semester each student will be
able to write their own personal purpose statement which will become part of
their resumes. I’ll cover these lessons in future blogs.
Please pray for our students as God reveals His purpose for
their lives in the coming months.
Shepherds College - Guiding Your Transition to Appropriate Independence. Please visit us at www.shepherdscollege.edu.
