YOUnique Purpose - Why Purpose?ಮಾದರಿ

Purposeless Life

Have you ever felt like you were moving through life, but not really going anywhere? Like you were working hard but not seeing any meaningful results? A life without purpose often feels like that—an endless cycle of busy routines, where we exert effort but never truly progress. When we lack purpose, life can become a series of repeated actions with no clear direction or fulfillment. Let’s explore what a purposeless life looks like and why it’s essential to break free from this unfulfilling cycle.

Runs in Circles

A purposeless life is like running in circles. Without a clear purpose, you're caught in a constant blur of activity. Every morning the race continues at full speed, but it feels as though you're going nowhere.

Have you ever gotten lost in a new city? As you keep driving, you repeatedly pass the same junction, the same buildings, and the same intersections, over and over again. In much the same way, many people live their lives running in circles. You might ask someone their age and work experience, and they may say, "I'm 60 years old with 40 years of experience." But upon deeper inquiry, you realize they’ve had just one year of valuable experience, repeated 40 times. It’s the same routine, every year, every month, every week, and every day.

They haven’t learned any new skills, made significant progress, achieved meaningful goals, or experienced growth in any area of life. January 1 starts with a new year’s service or celebration, complete with new resolutions. Yet, those resolutions are often broken within days or weeks, and soon they’re back to running in circles. Spring arrives, followed by Good Friday and Easter, Summer Vacation, VBS for the kids, the beginning of a new financial year for some, and before long, it’s Christmas again—just like every other year, punctuated by holidays like Thanksgiving and a few others in-between. And with that, the year is done, the cycle repeating itself.

Ask yourself:

• What are you running for?
• Why are you so busy?
• Is it really worth it?

STOP running in circles!

Makes Noise

A purposeless life often makes a lot of noise without producing meaningful outcomes. Just as running faster in a circle won’t help you reach a destination, adding more activities to your daily routine doesn’t necessarily mean you are moving forward. Noise comes in many forms—more emails, endless meetings, increased social media activity—but these actions, though they may seem productive, often serve only to fill the void left by a lack of real purpose.

As children, we experienced theme park rides where the scarier the ride, the louder the screams. But did those screams change anything about the ride? No. They were just noise, an emotional response that had no real impact. Similarly, we may fill our lives with noise—busy schedules, social media interactions, constant emails—just to feel like we’re doing something. But without purpose, it's simply pseudo-accomplishment. It doesn’t move us closer to our true goals or calling.

STOP Making Noise and start focusing on what truly matters.

Focusses on Externals

A purposeless life often becomes consumed with focusing on external factors—things that provide temporary satisfaction but fail to address deeper, more meaningful fulfillment.

Questions like:

• What do I wear?
• Where do I live?
• What car do I drive?
• What accessories do I adorn?
• What is my job title?
• What is my education?
• Which company do I work for?

Without a clear purpose or vision to guide life, we tend to turn our attention to these externals, giving them more value than they deserve. These superficial markers of success or identity only provide a false sense of meaning.

Alongside running in circles and making noise, focusing on externals is another pitfall of purposeless living. It’s easy to get caught in these traps—subtle and deceptive as they are—without realizing that they are leading us further away from the deeper purpose God has set for us. By the time some recognize the futility of focusing on externals, it may feel too late to make any lasting, impactful changes.

STOP Focusing on the Externals and start seeking what truly matters from within.

Lives to Consume

A purposeless life revolves around consumption:

• What do I eat?
• What do I buy?
• What do I watch? (I am entitled to entertainment)

In such a life, consumption becomes both the means and the end. It fuels the person and becomes the exhaust, with nothing left beyond the momentary satisfaction of having consumed it. It becomes a cycle, one that starts and ends with acquiring more and more—whether it's food, material goods, or entertainment.

Children often ask their mom, "What's for dinner?" while they're still enjoying lunch, and demand a snack in between. Similarly, a purposeless life is constantly asking, "What's next?" We forget that we eat to live and not live to eat. Our eating habits and styles can often indicate how purposeful our lives are.

We need clothes to wear, but a purposeless life feeds into the idea of endless consumption, buying into the marketing myth of "shop till you drop." Advertisements bombard us everywhere, from newspapers, TV, social media, and even on our mobile phones. They create a false sense of necessity. Without a deeper purpose, we easily fall prey to these gimmicks. A purposeless life accumulates more clothes than our wardrobes can handle, yet we wear only a select few often. Amazon’s convenience has only worsened this consumption habit—allowing us to buy, consume, and even return items with no second thought, just to satisfy the hunger for more. In some homes, the number of Amazon deliveries is so high that people expect a package to arrive every day. The boxes piling up in these homes are a clear indication of a life focused solely on consumption.

Entertainment is another aspect of this all-consuming mindset. We live in the most entertained generation in history, yet this generation struggles the most with mental health. This paradox reflects a deeper, underlying issue of purposelessness. The more we consume entertainment, the less we reason, and the more we sink into a cycle of craving more to fill the void.

Gaming, for example, is not a sin. However, if it becomes a person's only focus, then it’s a clear sign of a lack of purpose. In my time in Plano, Texas, I was surprised to see men in their twenties and thirties spending hours on video games. On flights, I’ve sat next to men who spent the entire journey glued to their screens, playing games from takeoff to landing. If this is what fathers are doing, what hope is there for their sons?

I’m not saying that video games are inherently wrong, but if gaming or any form of entertainment becomes your entire life, it reflects a deeper issue. Without a purpose, men remain boys, still playing with their toys—only now, the toys are more expensive. This is the sad reality of a generation of men living without purpose, missing the call to lead in their families, communities, and churches.

STOP Living to Consume

Pleases Itself

A purposeless life seeks to please itself. When there is no overarching purpose guiding your life, the “self” inevitably takes center stage, and personal pleasure becomes the focal point. It dominates every aspect, becoming the floodlight, spotlight, and fancy light on this self-centered stage. The self continually chases after one pleasure, then another, in an endless pursuit. Dr. Ramesh Richard* captures it beautifully in the following statements.

• My pleasure pleases me
• My passions persuade me
• My principles pull me
• My people perform for me
• I exist to please myself

However, when pleasing ourselves becomes the primary driving force, we miss out on the true source of joy. This self-centered focus breeds an attitude of selfishness, where personal desires overshadow the needs of others. True and lasting pleasure comes from surrendering ourselves to God’s YOUnique Purpose for our lives. It is in living out His purpose that we discover the deeper, more fulfilling joy that transcends mere self-pleasure.

STOP Living to Please Yourself