3 things you need to know about finding your purpose

I am one of the leaders of the Young Adults Ministry at my church and my favorite part of being involved in this group are the thought provoking conversations we have. Last night, we discussed purpose and answered questions like: How do you know your life’s purpose? Does everybody only have one purpose throughout a lifetime? Is your purpose synonymous to your job title? I loved the variety of answers from our members and wanted to share the main points I took away.

1. Purpose is innate

   Many of us spend months, and unfortunately sometimes even years trying to “find our purpose” as if it’s something that is miraculously revealed to us in a grandiose manner. More often than not, we discover our life’s purpose by pursuing the things we naturally enjoy and along the way, we discover that those things we are most passionate about also bring us fulfillment and give us a sense of purpose.

2. Peers sometimes reveal purpose

   Our Youth pastor shared this true story: Someone who was on the verge of committing suicide because she felt her life had no purpose came to his office one day and by talking to her, he realized that she had the gift of counsel. Although friends and family had previously told her how great she was at giving advice and solving problems, it took hearing it from a spiritual authority for her to grasp it and start working towards living in that purpose. As mentioned in my first point, that skill was in her all along but she missed the fact that this natural talent aligned her with her God given purpose. I believe this may partly be due to the fact that this wasn’t what she did for a living so she didn’t associate it with what she is called to do. Which leads to my next point.

3. Purpose does not equal job title

   On one hand, the person in the above scenario could become a counselor or therapist in order to fulfill her newly discovered purpose. But what if this person simply continued living with the fresh perspective that she helps people when she gives life changing advice and helps others solve their problems, would she not have fulfilled her life’s purpose by going that route as well? Of course. Because we look at celebrities or philanthropists as people who are obviously living in their purpose, we tend to feel that if our job title doesn’t align with a greater cause, we aren’t living in our purpose and that couldn’t be further from the truth.

OUTFIT DETAILS:

H&M Dress – H&M tends to have great work wear options at an affordable price. A lot of my office attire comes from there.
JCREW tissue turtleneck – I purchased this item in multiple colors as seen here and here. They are the perfect layering piece and certainly a wardrobe staple.
H&M jacket
PRIMARK faux fur vest
H&M purse – shop current available options here.
ZARA heels (old) – I recently got this pair of pumps in nude pink and they are my new favorite shoes. Single sole heels are a classic that I’ll keep getting in every color.

The biggest takeaway here is simply to be present in everything that you do and you eventually decide to do more of what fulfills you. How awful would it be to sit around doing nothing because we haven’t received a miraculous revelation that this thing or that thing is our God given purpose?! I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying that God is like a GPS: He only gives you direction for the next turn after you have finished the first step. At least if you’re lost, you can be rerouted. But if you’re not moving at all, how will you ever reach your destination?