DO YOU NEED PURPOSE?

I think most everyone I’ve met, and everyone that I have asked, feels the need to have purpose in this life.  To feel that they are significant is some way, that they’ll leave their mark on this world. 

When I was young I had the desire is to fit in with my peers.  As I grew older, I had a desire to find out who I am and what I believe.  After that I slowly transitioned into finding what makes me unique, what sets me apart from everyone else.  Now I’m kind of at this place where I don’t want to fit in I want to be special and I don’t want to be like everyone else, I want to be a better me.

I have always felt that I have a greater purpose in this life, that I was placed here to be a part of something bigger than myself.  For the most part I think this came after I accepted Christ around the age of 8 maybe earlier.  I felt like God called me to preach early in my life, soon after I accepted Christ as a matter of fact.  I think I was around 8 or 9 when I felt that.  It was a very real experience to me when I felt that call.  It was maybe 15 years later that I felt that call again.  And if you don’t know me personally, no I am not a preacher.  I don’t think this means that God does or doesn’t still have that plan for me. 

I do feel that he has a purpose for me, and it always feels just beyond me as to what it is.  I kind of liken it to when I’m talking with someone and I might be describing something, I know what word I want to use to describe a thought and it’s right there on the tip of my tongue but I just cant get it out.

Purpose is a big 50 pound thought.  Like many things with God though, it is as infinitely complex as it is simple.  Purpose can be hard to get your head around when placed in the context of God’s purpose for your life. 

The simplicity of it, I think, is that If there were to be only one purpose in our lives God’s purpose for us would be this, to love, to find intimacy with him.  I think that love is at the core of everything God wants for us in this life.  It is in that one purpose that we find evidence of the power of God.  Some of my reasoning, and probably most fully, on this comes from 2 verses, Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:39-40.  God said, “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength”.  Jesus states Duet 6:5 clearly as the most important commandment, then he adds the second most important commandment in Matt 22:39-40 “Love your neighbor as yourself.”. 

Webster’s Dictionary defines purpose as “something set up as an object or end to be attained”.  This would mean that our purpose is to attain a state of intimacy or love with God with our entire being and loving those around us.  Obviously, the intimacy here is not the kind that is synonymous with sex or a lustful, envious or jealous kind of infatuation. No, it’s an overwhelmingly honest, pure, giving, receiving, serving, humble kind of love, pure and holy .

I imagine that when we find intimacy, true, honorable intimacy in our relationship with God we will find fullness in all facets of our lifes with a since of a purpose that is much greater than ourselves.