It worried me for years. What did God really create me for? What was my life’s purpose? It had become a cliché topic by many Christian motivational speakers, aka pastors, just because their motivational spill was based on the bible. “Everyone is created for a purpose and you must find that purpose to live your life to the fullest”. But, what did that really mean?
The pressure kept building up. I wanted to hear from God. I wanted to know what that specific purpose was for which I was created. I had a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering which, shortly after graduation, I figured was the wrong career for me. Soon after I started working as an engineer, I stumbled into business development and marketing and got an MBA, which I enjoyed a whole lot better; however, I was not convinced that was my life’s purpose either. God has blessed me with a loving husband and two gorgeous and intelligent daughters who I enjoy life with. Was this my core life purpose? I did not think so. Alongside all these, I had graphic design talents and passions which I pursued as hobbies and sometimes made some income from. But, they all seemed empty.
I was quite disoriented. I felt stuck. Eventually, I just let life happen to me. I was still in this conundrum when destiny abruptly interrupted me and forced me into a two-year disability leave of treatment and recovery from cancer. This gave me time and space to re-calibrate.
Havard Health reports that many adults for most of their lives are defined by their careers, families, and personal goals so much so that when they retire, they feel lost and disillusioned. When this sense of purpose is lost, they find it hard to remain active and engaged, as they get older, which begins to affect their mental health and subsequently their physical health1. It sounds to me that what they considered their life’s purpose were merely activities that aligned with their personalities and talents and was not anchored on the primary purpose for which they were created.
Let us look at an example from created things. Everything man creates has a primary purpose that is fixed for as long as the object exists. For instance, the primary purpose of a vehicle is to transport people from point A to B. However, all vehicles have a secondary purpose that can change based on external conditions. The secondary purpose for vehicles could include: school buses to transport students to school, taxis to transport people commercially, mum vans for ‘hockey mums’ to ferry their kids across the city from one sporting event to another, and tractors to transport farmers as they work on the farm. Secondary purposes for vehicles can change in the sense that if the taxi market crashes, a taxi will still fulfill its primary purpose of being a vehicle, but can be re-purposed to be a private owner vehicle.
Similarly, all humans are created for a fixed primary purpose and have secondary purposes that change seasonally. The adults described by Havard Health seem to have lived all their lives based on their secondary purposes, which when it had run its’ course, left them feeling purposeless, and leading them down the path of sickness, disease and early death. Their secondary purpose had no anchor.
It was not until about a year ago that I started to piece it all together. I realized that my primary purpose is to bring pleasure to God and glorify his name. This means loving God with ALL my heart, ALL my soul, ALL my mind and ALL my strength, and loving others as Christ loves me. This primary purpose is fixed and never changes. I realized that my primary purpose is HOW I do whatever my hands find to do, while my secondary purpose include the specific activities I engage in, which might change from season to season depending on my life stage, my talents, my experiences, and my opportunities.
- Colossians 3:23 drives home the point of my primary purpose when it states: “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people”.
- Romans 8:28 drives home the point of my secondary purpose when it states: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
If you are walking in your primary purpose of loving God and loving others, just like any vehicle can be re-purposed, God can easily re-purpose you for any secondary purpose he determines whenever he wants to.
So, if like me, you have been stressed out wondering what your life purpose is, wonder no more! If you are loving God with ALL your heart, ALL your soul, ALL your mind and ALL your strength and loving others as yourself, you are already in that primary purpose. So, start where you are and stay focused on that primary purpose of loving God and others in WHATEVER your hands find to do. As you continue to do this, God himself will naturally lead you, using your talents, life experiences and opportunities and will turn them around for your good, as he leads you to the next secondary purpose he has planned for you at each stage of life- without you having to stress about it.
And this, my friends, is how you age gracefully with no anxiety about your life’s purpose, irrespective of how old you are and therefore avoiding the path of sickness, disease and early death.
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Eureka! Thanks for sharing this liberating truth. It’s so obvious, but yet it eludes so many.
I know right? It is such a paradox as with many other truths related to God’s kingdom.
This is an excellent piece and one particularly in personal experience . As I read this piece I was in suspense to know what the end would be :and gladly it was what I expected hear :Thought it would be what you are at now , which won’t be untrue . But more glad to know you have categorized it’primary and secondary purpose. Truly , whatever purpose that does not have there two dimensions cannot fulfill life. And unless this primary purpose is in place the secondary is false. Indeed, God gave us this in Rom. 8:29,as put down by Apostle Paul. He said our purpose is to be conformed to image of His son, which Invariably untangles into loving God with all our strength , mind, heart, etc. as Jesus Christ put it, which invariably defined Him practically. Thus until we realize this we cannot fulfill God’s secondary purpose for which we all must do . Indeed it must come into it’s fullness as Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 4:13.. the measure of the statute of the fullness of Christ . This is our predetermined estate by God . Recall Adam and Eve walked in God’s image before they fell and so we must be in His image for us to really fulfill His purpose of loving Him with all our heart, etc.
Absolutely! The secondary purpose is like a puff of smoke without the primary purpose.