Over the last few days, I have asked dozens of random people to give me in their own words what they believe their purpose is in life. Some I knew well, some I just met, some had the same religious beliefs, and some did not. I expected the responses I got to be all over the place, which they were, but it was not because of varying walks of life like I previously thought it would be.
Surprisingly enough, some of the most varying answers I received to this question came from people with very similar walks of life. A few examples I received from people who claimed to be Christian:
“To impact others in a way they can see Christ through me… but I know I’m not living up to that currently”
“To serve my God and country by saving soldiers with medicine”
“I have no idea what my purpose in life is honestly”
“Get online and let’s taco ’bout it”
What really struck me about a majority of these answers is the fact that there is so much vagueness amongst a lot of the Christian demographic. I didn’t bother putting all of my answers above, but believe me when I say that over fifty percent of people who identified as Christian said something along the lines of “to live for Christ” or “glorify God through my words/actions.”
Now don’t get me wrong, these are good things and are ideas that are completely correct, but the problem stems from the follow-up question I gave to these people. If I got a response along these lines, I felt the need to ask how and why to do these things since I was looking for deeper thoughts and ideas. All but one person responded to my follow-up with a long pause and then something like “doing the right thing”, “because God says to”, or even “I don’t know”.
I find it concerning that the Christian community does not have a definitive, firm answer to a rather straightforward question about their religious convictions. Again, this is not to bash simpler answers to the question I presented, but when someone asks you what you believe and you cannot clearly and confidently declare what is truth, how can we ever expect to lead someone to Christ this way?
In a world that is constantly on the go and trying to grab our short attention spans, we can forget to just stop for a minute and reflect on life. I have to take time in the morning before I start classes to remember what is most important to me and refocus in preparation for the day, and I feel it is something everyone should make time to do. If you were like one of the answers above that said they have no idea what their purpose is, I challenge you to take time to think deeply about ideas bigger than just yourself.
We become so focused on ourselves that it becomes tough to take a step back and just reflect on the nature of our existence (#deep). The best place to go for this wisdom in your time of reflection is the Word because God will let you know again and again just what you are here for.
Romans 8:28-29 says that “God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” and that “those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters”. All of this can be stated with one simple truth. God is working for the good of us, and we have been called to his purpose of bringing others to Christ (the many brothers and sisters mentioned) because we were predestined to do so (and also to conform to Christ’s image). This is as straightforward as it gets, but it holds much more power than the same vague answers I have discussed.
To be fair, though, the people saying that “doing the right thing” is a way of achieving our purpose are pretty spot on when you compare it to the Bible. Paul the Apostle wrote in 2 Corinthians 8:21 that “Our purpose is to do what is right, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of others”, so you better believe we should live life like Christ (AKA ‘the right way’) because that is one of the main reasons why we are on this Earth in the first place.
From these texts, we now know that we are here to live like Christ, live for Christ, and to bring people to Christ. I don’t know about you guys, but from now on, this is going to be my new answer when people ask what my purpose in life is.
I encourage those who are reading this to do a few things to become more at peace with the grand scheme of things. First, be confident in what you believe. You can’t convince others if you can’t convince yourself, so to serve your purpose correctly you must be bold in what the truth is. If you can’t find this confidence, maybe you need to look into things on your own before deciding you believe it. I know too many people who identify with the same religion and political party as their parents or friends just because they grew up that way. It is not your faith if you have not had a conviction or discovery of faith on your own. If you don’t think you have had this experience yet, start taking time to think about the tougher questions in life because those are usually the most important ones to answer.
