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WHAT IS YOUR PURPOSE IN LIFE?
By Julie A. Dawes
I grew up thinking that everyone's purpose in life was to be happy. To be happy, one must be successful.
To be successful, one must set goals and strive to meet them. One should begin with small goals and work up to larger ones, but always make the goals achievable.
It sounded reasonable enough. It would take a lot of hard work and a steadfast commitment, but anything worthwhile requires patience, endurance, and time.
Unfortunately, I misunderstood 'successful' to mean 'contented'.
Over the years, I had watched some people obtain their goals. They are proud of themselves, of course, and they also feel satisfied and 'successful'.
After a period of time, however, they discover they are still not content! The logical thing to do then, is to make new goals. Hence, the cycle begins!
As a young teenager, I had often felt like I 'didn't belong'. Even though I was an easy person to please and didn't expect a lot out of life, I still wasn't content!
I decided I needed to set some goals for myself. I needed to feel that I had a purpose in life.
During high school I said to myself, "If I could get a decent paying job, I'd be happy." I got one.
Next came, "If only I had a decent car." That happened, too.
Then it was, "I'd be happy if I had a family of my own." I did.
Guess what came next! "If only I had my own house."
It was at this point that I realized goals and success had nothing to do with my happiness. There was still something lacking. I resigned myself to thinking I would never feel content.
With this in mind, I set a new goal. If I can't make myself happy, I will devote my life to making others happy.
I began to live my life for my family and friends. It was a relief to stop thinking of myself and to concentrate on someone else. It even seemed fulfilling.
I then believed my purpose in life was to do what I could for others' search for happiness.
This went on for quite some time until I felt I had to fix everyone's problems. Naturally I couldn't, which resulted in my feeling inadequate and unfulfilled once again.
I began to ponder about the purpose of life in general. There just didn't seem to be any purpose to the routine of going to work, coming home, fixing supper, and going to bed just to have it repeated day in and day out. In our golden years, we can look forward to loneliness, arthritis, and late social security checks.
During moments of weary silence, life seemed to be a depressing state of existence with no purpose at all.
Praise God for lifting me out of my bondage! With the rebirth of my spirit in Christ, life took on a whole different meaning.
I came to realize that I had placed my success for happiness at the mercy of meeting goals. What a shame to have wasted so much time!
Jesus had already taken care of my future. Everything I had ever strived for ... peace, security, happiness
... was being offered to me every moment. I just had to accept God's gift of salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ.
Where I once felt something was lacking in my life, Jesus made me whole. It was as though He had healed me of a terminal disease.
By turning my life over to Him, I no longer have cares and concerns for this world. I now lay my treasures in Heaven.
Today, I am successful at being happy. I still have a goal, though. My goal is to be everything I can possibly be in Christ Jesus.
As mentioned earlier, anything worthwhile takes a lot of hard work, a steadfast commitment, patience, endurance, and time.
For those who are still lacking or searching for something, I'm here to tell you that no matter what you think it is, the answer is in Jesus Christ.
Try as hard as you may, you will never find it on your own. You will never feel real happiness without Him.
Please! Stop wasting time and save yourself a lot of turmoil and loneliness. Accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. Through Him, you will find your purpose in life.
I'm glad I accepted Him when I did, because my next goal would have been, "If only I had a million dollars....!!!!!!!!"