Post 24: What Is Your Purpose in Life?

What is your purpose in life?

I consider one of the most important things a person needs to have in life to be a purpose. Unless you feel that your existence has some kind of meaning, that there is some ultimate goal you are working for, what are you really doing with yourself?

People inherently want to know that there is some reason behind why they are on this Earth. That’s why we have chased so many things throughout history: power, wealth, love, friendship, knowledge, and so on. When there is that feeling of meaninglessness, discouragement and depression sets in. The lack of a purpose is why people have committed suicide – after all, they were just taking up space and breathing air that could be put to “better” use.

I know my purpose in life. My #1 reason for living is to have a relationship with God, the Creator of the universe. This also means obeying his commands out of faith and his will for my life. One part of his will is for me to engage in ministry. This will most likely result in me working as some sort of youth pastor working with teenagers and young adults, although I could end up doing other forms of ministry such as evangelization and apologetics (defense of the faith).

In addition to this, I’m also working to complete my college education and get at least a Bachelor’s Degree in computer science, then land a job as a programmer of some sort. Plus I’m a writer who desires to complete a very long story, and I’m working on chapter four right now. I also want to learn how to play bass guitar which could then be used for worship services. Meaning, for me, is found in what I want to do in life (or more accurately, what God wants for my life). I want to serve God through these various facets of life.

One of the most unfortunate things I see in this world is people who are devoid of ambition. Perhaps disappointment and past failure has caused them to give up on trying to do something big in life. Perhaps they believe they are too old, of the wrong gender, of the wrong race, of the wrong social class, ad nauseum, and they just can’t do it. So they just exist and contribute their bare minimum to society. They may do things like attend high school, go to work, hang out with friends, attend Sunday morning church services, but they make no real progress. They don’t advance themselves in any meaningful way. They lack ambition, the drive to do great things.

This kind of apathy is all too common. Despite the amazing technology all around us we have stagnated. I want to see this changed. No more of people sitting around doing nothing because they believe they have no meaning in life. I think it’s important to use our lives efficiently.

Do you feel purposeless? Well then, here is some advice. Find out what you really love in life and go headlong into it. Make for yourself a big goal that you wouldn’t think would normally be accomplishable by you. Then go for it! If you complete it, then make another big goal and attack it! These goals could be concrete ones which have a definite point of completion, or they could be perpetual goals which are repeated throughout life. They will often be used to advance one another. Bonus points if you can make the goals intricately woven together, but that’s not required.

One of my perpetual goals is to be a good Christian (although in a sense it’s a concrete goal since I would complete this goal when I go to Heaven; of course, this thinking makes all goals concrete ones!) and one of the assisting perpetual goals is to have a consistent habit of reading my Bible daily. I can use a concrete goal to accomplish this by setting a daily time for reading. Or bass guitar: I’m going to start by learning acoustic guitar first and I’ve achieved a concrete goal by acquiring one, but now I need new strings for it – another concrete one. Then once I’ve sufficiently learned that I can shift to bass.

If you need a purpose in life, may I suggest becoming a follower of Christ? That must sound terribly uninteresting, but stop to think about it. Where else (if you find the right group of people) can you find such a sense of ultimate meaning, love, and community? Indeed, if it weren’t for my fellowship with other believers, I would have very likely never made the amount of friends I have here, because I’m definitely a homebody. I’m sure that adopting faith and really going for it would be a very satisfying thing.