Project Purpose: Find Your Why to Find Your WayVoorbeeld

A Higher Purpose for Our Lives

The recent spate of suicides, even among successful people, at an age where dreams are within reach and among a generation for whom nothing seems impossible tells us that hopelessness pervades even the most accomplished parts of society. It tells us that it is possible for feelings of emptiness to prevail even when you’ve achieved everything you’ve dreamed of so that nothing seems worth pursuing anymore.

In an age of “been there, done that” among a generation for whom everything can easily get boring, life can feel meaningless and seem inconsequential. A person might think he or she is just another statistic and that their life doesn’t matter.

When we think it’s just up to us to determine what we will be all about, when we just look to ourselves, to our surroundings, or even to our culture for meaning, we can come to think that everything is arbitrary. Something can be worth living for now, but tomorrow I may not feel the same way. What is important now could be an empty pursuit tomorrow. I might feel important now, but I can totally feel worthless tomorrow.

But the fact that we were born with unique personalities, behavioral traits, and bents tells us that we have a Designer. We have a Creator who had a plan for our lives when He called us into being. We were His idea.

And because we were God’s idea, He had a purpose in mind when He designed us and gave us life. This tells us that we don’t need to just make up a reason for living; He created us for His purposes. We don’t have to question our worth; we are valuable to Him. Just like we would know the purpose of any created thing from its creator, and not even from the interpretation of the people who see and use that thing. Other people may find other uses for the thing, but its creator can tell you what it was made for and why it was designed a specific way.

Our cluelessness regarding what our life is all about, then, calls us to seek our Creator. That is why, in the journey of knowing our life purpose, our primary calling is first to a relationship with God. Any drive we may have toward any dream or ambition toward fame or fortune or success or even cause will ultimately lose steam in us unless our short and fleeting lives are anchored on something more lasting—something that will outlast our lives on earth—and on Someone eternal. Jesus Christ knew our deepest need, and He made His purpose for coming to earth clear: He said, “I came that they might have life, and might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10) Only in a relationship with Him can we find it ourselves, and so I hope you find it in Christ.

Our secondary calling is to live out God’s purposes for our lives through the unique way He has designed us and through the roles He has given us. Our secondary calling (there could be multiple) is to use our gifts and talents in God’s service, for His purposes, and to His glory, playing the many life roles we are given—child, spouse, parent, worker, leader, etc.—everywhere God has placed us, from Monday to Sunday.

So you see, God calls us first to have a personal relationship with Him: one that is real and personal. In Him, we find our hope and our worth. We find ourselves. He made us first and foremost for a relationship with Him.

When you get to know Him, you get to know His heart and His plans. Then He guides you in discovering your secondary life purpose—the unique purpose for which He endowed you with personality, passion, unique strengths, gifts, and even weaknesses. He also taught us life lessons through our experiences—both good and bad—which, when stewarded well, can become life messages meant to benefit many.

Only in Him can we make sense of all these. And only in Him can we our sense of purpose have lasting value. (For more on our primary and secondary calling, read Os Guinness’s modern classic book, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life.)

Through this book, you actually get a peek into how God might intend to use you based on the way He designed you, equipped you with strengths, and even through the experiences He sovereignly allowed you to have.

We hope that through the exercises you have gone through in this book, not only have you gotten excited over the prospects of living a purposeful and focused life, but you have come to realize that you were created for Someone and for a purpose! May this get you excited to begin to know your Creator and live a life walking with Him.

The destination is not the ultimate aim. Having a relationship with God is. The joy comes from the journey. Purpose is bound up in the process.

Enjoy your life journey!