Created for Purpose

My wife once received a package containing a strange item. It was metal, measured about eight inches long, was wavy and curvy, and had a hole at one end. When she showed it to me, I asked what is was. She said she didn’t know. My wife was hoping I knew.

We asked a few other people if they knew what the item was, but no one had ever seen anything like it before. We then started taking guesses from our family and friends. We made a list with people’s names and their guesses as to what this mystery item was. One person believed it was a shoe horn. Another thought it was a bottle cap opener, even though the hole was too large to fit most bottle caps. We made the guessing fun and sweetened the pot by offering five dollars for the correct answer.

We had an item, and no one knew its purpose. It sat on our kitchen counter for weeks, not being used for anything. One member of my family suggested we give it to Goodwill, since we surely could not use it. But would the Goodwill staff know the purpose of the item? After a while, my wife finally relented and asked her sister, who had sent the item to us. My sister-in-law revealed to us what the object was and expressed surprise that no one had seen such a thing before. Once we all knew and had chuckled about the uniqueness of the item, most of us said, “Of course. That makes perfect sense.” Its purpose was to slip over the top of a wine bottle, holding the bottle in place while the cork was removed.

Consider the progressive thinking in our little dilemma. We had an item that none of us had seen before, and we didn’t know its purpose. We then asked others to help us identify the item and its purpose. No one else knew either. We made many guesses about the object’s purpose. We even thought about giving it away or throwing it out, because we believed it had no purpose. Even though the item had a purpose, when we didn’t think it did, we wanted to get rid of it. Eventually, we went to the source—the giver of the item, my sister-in-law. Once we heard from the source, not only did we learn the item’s purpose, but its use made perfect sense to us. We pictured the purpose and then used the item accordingly, and sure enough, it worked as it was designed.

We all have been created for a purpose. “Deep within our souls there’s a sincere desire for God to use us, a desire imparted to us from God Himself. Woven into our spiritual DNA is a beautiful calling and divine purpose for us to fulfill” (Larson 2013, 120). Knowing our purpose helps bring meaning to our lives. 

Unfortunately, when we don’t know our purpose, we may feel frustrated, directionless, and as if others want to throw us out or give us away. We feel lost and we often despair when we believe we lack direction. We may feel put aside and useless. 

Ultimately, we need to go to the source, God our Creator, to discover what we were designed for. Once we learn our purpose, we may say to ourselves, Of course. That makes perfect sense. The Lord has a plan for our lives, and He knows how to help us find fulfillment.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines purpose as “the reason for which something exists or happens” or “by design or intentionally” or “an intended or desired result.” Other attributes of purpose include aspiration, planning, direction, conviction, motivation, resolve, and intentions. “Human beings have a need to be generative, instrumental, and to achieve great things” (Berger 2011, 625). 

Generativity is directly linked to the intrinsic rewards of working. Intangible benefits such as a sense of accomplishment, the impact on others, appreciation, and gratitude are some of the rewards we experience when we work with integrity. Extrinsic rewards for work such as money and health benefits are not the only benefits of being productive.

Our purpose is found in our passion and our calling. We all have something we care a great deal about. That’s our passion. Bugbee suggests three categories of life passions: passions about people (e.g., children, the elderly, the handicapped), passions about roles and functions (e.g., entrepreneur, consultant, designer), and passions for a cause such as human rights, fighting world hunger, or reaching the spiritually lost (Bugbee 1995, 35–36). Our passion can develop into a calling, then into a specific way in which our calling can be expressed. Once we operate within our calling, we fulfill our purpose.

None of us cares about everything equally. One thing usually seems to rise to the top. Our passions come from our inner being, and ultimately God places them there. Bugbee says:

Sometimes we think of our passion in terms of a burden we carry, a call we’ve received, a dream we have, or a vision we’ve glimpsed. Whatever you call it, passion is the God-given desire of the heart to make a difference somewhere” (original emphasis)(Bugbee 995, 30).

Purpose has a dream behind it and a desired result. We may aspire to become a business owner, a nurse, a missionary, or a police officer. When we wish to be something, we find ourselves motivated to do whatever it takes to get there. We become convinced of our calling, and we then develop a plan. We resolve to see the plan through, convinced what we envision will eventually come to pass.

God created us for a purpose. He has a plan for each of us, and He desires to help us achieve the intended result. He is motivated by love to help us fulfill our purposes, but He waits for us to get with the program. His program begins with us surrendering to Him so He can lead and equip us for His purpose. To live with no purpose will still result in an outcome, but it will most likely be less than what we would desire.