I recently came across an interesting blog. The author was helping his readers find meaning and purpose in life. Here is his process for discovering their individual purposes:

1. Take out a blank sheet of paper.

2. Write at the top, “What is my true purpose in life?”

3. Write an answer (any answer) that pops into your head. It doesn’t have to be a complete sentence.

4. Repeat step 3 until you write the answer that makes you cry. This is your purpose.

What is both fascinating and disturbing about this process is that it makes purpose nothing more than an arbitrary experience that satisfies me emotionally. I imagine it being like the following discussion over a map and directions:

Person 1: So where do you need to go?

Person 2: I don’t know yet?

1: How will you decide where to go?

2: I’m not going to decide.

1: Then how will you know where you’re going?

2: The map is going to tell me.

1: The map? The map can’t tell you where you need to go, only how to get there!

2: No, it can tell me where to go.

1: How?

2: It might be the best name, or the prettiest colored spot, or something else, but somehow that location will tell me I need to go there.

No one in his right mind would ever use a map that way, and yet if I’m honest, I often live that way. Far too often I find myself doing the things I’ve always done simply because I’ve always done them or because that was how someone else did them, not because they are purposeful. And instead of evaluating myself with the question, “Am I accomplishing God’s purpose for life?”, I compare myself to the people around me. I must be doing alright if I have more education or make more money or am generally more successful than the average person. And certainly if people are impressed with my results, I must be fulfilling my reason for existence. By that measure, Joey “Jaws” Chesnut is living an extraordinarily purposeful life. One and a half million people watching ESPN were in awe of his eating a world record 66 hotdogs in 12 minutes. That definitely defines a meaningful life!

I may be ahead of other people, but it still begs the question, “Where am I going?” Years ago, my cousin was driving back to college when after more than an hour she realized she was driving the wrong way. She arrived back at home about two hours after she left, to the surprise of her family, only to begin the journey all over again. Apparently the direction matters. Hebrews 1:1 says that “the race [is] marked out for us.” Who laid it out for us? How is it marked? How do I recognize it?

Are you in the race? If so, how do you know which way to go?

David (pinch-hitting for Pastor Tim)