THE VITALITY OF LIVING A PURPOSEFUL LIFE

                                 The Vitality of Living a Purposeful Life

Almost everything in God’s created order is bound by a fundamental existential feature – called PURPOSE. From the array of constellations in the firmament, to the plethora of plant and animal life across land and sea; there is no gainsaying that purpose is the existential thread that connects all of God’s created order into what has commonly become known as “the Circle of Life.” This implies that all of creation is interconnected in purpose.

Although the word may sound simple in itself, it has become one of the most complex concepts in human history. Almost every living thing on this planet is bound to come face to face with the reality of its purpose. The question is: What exactly is purpose? And, why is it so relevant to human existence? Imagine that you walk into a grocery store, which by definition is supposed to provide various foodstuffs for human consumption; and on getting inside all that you see is nothing but building equipment for construction. Logic would tell us that there is absolutely no link between consumption and construction. Of course, you would undoubtedly be infuriated, disappointed, and frustrated. Why, because the grocery store did not serve its purpose. The owners were supposed to be selling grocery, and not building equipment.

Rick Warren, in his book: The Purpose Driven Life, intimates that, “If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by His purpose and for His purpose.” We can never know the purpose of a product without acknowledging the manufacturer and user manual provided for understanding the product. The manual provides specifics details about the product: tips on how to use it, its functions, capacity, durability, warranty and some addition information on how to best preserve it for safety and durability purposes. In like manner, a person can never realize their purpose without acknowledging the Sovereignty of his or her creator – God. “When the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable.” This means we unconsciously abuse or waste our lives if we live without a sense of purpose.

A curious mind would dare to ask: how can a person know their purpose? The answer, as I have come to understand does not lie in human ingenuity, but can only be revealed to that person by God. Purpose is built into practically everything that exists including human beings. But how ironic it seems that it is humans (the most essential part of God’s creation) who have fallen below the pecking order when it comes to living out their purpose. The purpose of everything that exists is meant to meet a particular need or to solve a specific problem. In order to meet man’s need for food, God created food crops, fruits trees, animal, and fishes of varied species. In fact, man would not survive if the basic amenities of life such: water, air, trees, etc. did not serve their purpose.

In the corporate world, business persons, entrepreneurs and CEOs would surely attest that the products and services that they provide are designed to meet specific purposes in relations to consumer needs (demand), and preferences. In creating these products and services, they take into consideration such details as a person’s gender, age group, height, culture background, financial status etc. They do this painstakingly and intentionally in order to ensure customer satisfaction, otherwise they will definitely go out of business. If purpose is pivotal to the very basic things of life, then it is even more crucial to human beings. And we must understand that purpose and potential are bedfellows. You cannot fulfill purpose without potential. For instance, during the rainy season, people need umbrellas to cover themselves. There is no point in producing umbrellas for sale when they are not built with material that is water proof. They would not serve their purpose. To put it bluntly, they would make for what is commonly termed ‘bad business’.

Every human being was created by God for His pleasure and glory. In Genesis 1, we perceive that man was created in the likeness of God to be fruitful, to multiply and to have dominion over all the earth. Man was created to manage creation – earth’s resources; both tangible and intangible. When God creates men and women, HE designs them to fulfill their function and gives them certain qualities and characteristics that enable them to perform His intended purpose. And, until purpose is discovered, existence has no meaning, for purpose is the source of fulfillment.”

It is not enough to know that there is such a thing as purpose, or even the meaning of it if we are not willing to discover it and seek to live it to the fullest. We must therefore come into cognizance of the fact that our fulfillment in life is largely dependent on our becoming and doing what we were born to be and do. The dawn of each new day gives us another opportunity to impact our world with our unique gifts and potentials.

Jesus Christ lived for only 33 years; yet He achieved His purpose of salvation for all mankind (for those who believe in Him). Martin Luther King Jr. died at the age of 39 in active purpose as a leading civil rights advocate for black liberation. His purpose was not only to champion black emancipation but also break the dividing walls of racial prejudices in order to attain racial equality. Be rest assured that God has placed within you all that it takes to live a purposeful life and the greatest tragedy in life is not death but it is a life without purpose.

What then is purpose and how do you get to discovering your purpose in life?

What is Purpose: There are varied definitions of the word “purpose” which all boil down to meaning the same thing but I will simply define to be the original intent of a person or thing.

Imagining that you have a purpose and not being able to realizing or discovering it is as bad as not knowing it at all. So below are a few guidelines which will help us in discovering our original intent.

The demonstration below is to give us a glow of how inevitable discovering your purpose is.

STEPS TO IMPLOY IN DISCOVERING YOUR PURPOSE

1. Recognise Your Special Gifts: Do you know that you have a unique set of gifts, talents and skills that come very naturally to you? Yes, you do and using these talents creates that purpose driven life which you have to bring it out and explore. GET ON IT!
2. Listen to your Heart: The heart is where your desires, hopes, interest, ambitions, dreams, and affection live and it also represents the source of all your motivations. What do you love to do and what you care about most is revealed to you by your heart.
3. Employ your Experiences: You are shaped by all of your unique experiences; family, educational, spiritual and even painful ones. Think about all of these experiences;

• What struggles made you stronger?
• What has your family taught you?
• What jobs have you had where you thrived and were most effective?
• What have I learnt from failure?
• What have I learned from lack of money?
• What have I learned from pain, sorrow, depression and disappointment?
• What have I learned through waiting?
• What have I learned from illness?

           Most of the times, our life experiences don’t happen to us by chance as we may likely think but whatever happened to us are pointers to who we are and a solution carrier to those challenges.

4. Ask HIM(GOD): above all the afore mentioned steps, this is most vital because it stands out those mentioned above but the afore mentioned steps cannot be realized without you going back to seek the one who created you and knows who you are.

Just ask HIM, HE is more than willing to reveal to you, you.

Life indeed is a waste when purpose is not known. Stay with me while we walk through this journey of self-discovery.