You can't really know why you're on this Earth. Spiritually speaking, God has a will for you, but you can never really know what that will is. How could you? That’s such a monumental task to ask of yourself. Instead, you have little gifts. But your purpose is greater than the individual gifts you have been given. Your gifts are tools to reveal your purpose.

I would venture to say that most mechanical engineers have not been given the gift of being good at mechanical engineering. They have been given the gift of a mathematical or scientific mind or of problem-solving or of extreme patience. Let’s say a certain individual is an incredible mathematician who struggles with patience but feels called to mechanical engineering. When you feel called to something, let it be inexplicable.

I can’t be a mechanical engineer, they might say. That is too difficult. That doesn’t align perfectly with my gifts. That will be a challenge.

And that is precisely the point.

If you never challenge yourself, your gifts are merely gifts with no meaning. And gifts with no meaning create a person with no meaning. So take your gifts and apply them where you can. Seek out challenges, because they will stretch you, and you will start to see a bigger purpose.

You have gifts that you don’t even know about. And if you don’t challenge yourself, you will never find them. It’s like one big game. But if you don’t play, you cannot win.

I don’t pretend to know all the answers because I don’t. I am still in the middle of things as much as you are. Some days are better than others. I have no idea what my purpose is, but I’m starting to come to terms with that.

Life isn’t some big string of fated philosophical moments. You aren’t going to damn yourself because you chose one school over another or one job over another or one place over another. God will use you wherever you are. You will always have your gifts, and you will always have your purpose.

Wherever you are in your faith, whether you’re hanging by a thread or growing in it or unsure, just believe in yourself and your abilities. Whether you believe your gifts are from God or from somewhere else, I do not doubt for a second that you have gifts and you have a purpose.

Don’t just try to find your purpose. Find your gifts, and use them. It will bring you great things. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but one day a light bulb will go off. It might be a gradual light, or it might be an instant flash. But you’ll find your place. And I pray each day that you do.