Have You Ever Wondered If You Were Made For A Purpose?

Where do you find purpose or meaning in your life? A secular outlook gives you the freedom to define your own purpose, and create your own meaning in life. But ultimately, that same outlook restricts your choices to the things that can fail you – health, money, relationships – or which you leave behind when you die. The ability to define our own purpose also means that choosing cruelty is just as valid a purpose as generosity. Is there anywhere we can find purpose that is permanent, fulfilling and good?

Solas Associate David Nixon invites you to explore your purpose in this episode of Short Answers.

Episode Transcript

Have you ever wondered if you were made for a purpose? There’s an old story told about a group of people working in a quarry. Some were just getting on with their individual tasks: chiselling stone, cutting wood, sharpening tools. Others saw the bigger picture. If you asked them what they were doing, they would tell you, “We’re building a cathedral.” In other words, they understood their purpose.

Like them, all of us long for the story of our lives to be part of some bigger story. The problem is that we live in a society that tells us there isn’t one. It tells us that humans exist purely because of time, chance, and natural selection. According to this secular story, there is no ultimate purpose for our lives.

Now, maybe initially that sounds exciting because you’re free to live life as you please. However, on second thought, it’s depressing because it renders life completely devoid of meaning and purpose. In the end, it won’t matter whether you dedicate yourself to a life of goodness, helping people, or a life of wickedness, hurting people. In the end, it’s all going to end in death.

The thing is, none of us can live that way. We all need a reason to motivate us to get out of bed in the morning, to hold back the darkest thoughts on our hard days. That’s why, if there’s no ultimate purpose for our lives, we feel compelled to invent our own personal purposes.

Some people make their purpose in life loving people: their friends, their families, the poor, the needy. Some people live to get rich or have fun. Others dream of making the world a better place. But there is a risk in investing your reason for life in anyone or anything in this world, and it’s simply that it could be taken away from you. Families can break up. Loved ones can die. Businesses can fail. Cancer can strike.

So we need to find a better source of purpose. And as a Christian, I believe that there is one.

The reason we don’t want to live a pointless life is because we’ve been made by a purposeful God. And He has a part for each one of us to play in His great story. In fact, Jesus once told a story that clarifies the ultimate purpose.

Maybe you’ve heard of the parable of the prodigal son. It’s actually about two sons who are both lost in life, just in different ways.

The first son runs away from home. He has a great time partying in the big city until his money runs out and his new friends walk out on him. At rock bottom, he realises he’d be better off as a servant back in his father’s house.

However, much to his surprise, when he returns home, his father runs to him, welcomes him back with open arms, and throws a party to celebrate. Jesus wants us to see that the ultimate purpose of life is not having a good time but knowing the love of God, this good Father.

But the story doesn’t end there, because all this time the second son has stayed at home, obediently following the family rules, dutifully working in the family business. When he hears his brother has returned home, he’s angry. He refuses to come and join the party.

You see, he may have been doing all the right things all this time, but he’s been missing out on the best thing: the love of his good Father.

The story finishes with the father inviting his son into the party, and it doesn’t tell us how he responded because Jesus is leaving the invitation open to us. How will we respond to God and to His love?

You see, the ultimate purpose of life is not having a good time or doing lots of good things. It’s knowing the love of God, the good Father.

So, if you’re looking for a life filled with purpose, then Jesus invites you to find your place in His story.