PURPOSE: Are We Only Dust In The Wind?

PurposeLESS Or PurposeFULL

All of us want to know our purpose. Old and young, rich and poor, persuaded and unpersuaded. We all want to know why we're placed on this earth. 

Since early times, purpose has been a central quest for mankind, but apart from God, the quest can yield dismal results.

Shakespeare once wrote:
"Life's but a walking shadow,
a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
and then is heard no more;
It is a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury,
signifying nothing."

In 1977, the American rock band Kansas released a song in which they reduced a person's purpose to "dust in the wind."

Purposelessness can also be found in children's books. In Lewis Carroll's classic children's tale <em>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland,</em> Alice comes to a fork in the road. She asks the Cheshire Cat which direction she should take.
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where," said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you walk," said the Cat.

What about you? Are you faring any better? Does your quest for purpose differ from the hopelessness of the world? How do you determine which road you should take? How do you distinguish your life and make it more than just an hour upon a stage? Which mode in your purpose quest do you find yourself in today?

Survival mode?
    Success mode?
        Significance mode?

If you're living in a <strong>survival mode</strong>, you're just maintaining, merely surviving, even though you know Christ. You're just robotically living the life you've been given--working, sleeping, working sleeping. Life consists of just another day. Your efforts are devoted to only getting by. You find yourself living for that two weeks of vacation or that perfect man who will sweep you off your feet or that ideal job that will fulfill you and pay you what you're worth. What you find, however, is that none of these things ever measures up to what you needed or expected.

In the <strong>success mode</strong>, you put all your eggs in one basket with a label marked SUCCESS. You are defined by what the late Francis Schaeffer described as "personal pleasure and personal prosperity." You stay busy trying to make something of yourself--trying to earn, achieve, and qualify. You equate success with fulfillment, achievement with peace, and accomplishment with joy. You measure your success by what others say and expect of you. You boast of your success with the things you accumulate and the commendations, accolades, and recognition you receive. Yet, inside you feel hollow, empty, unfilled, and purposeless.

The <strong>significance--or purposeFULL--mode </strong>is different, however. Life can be more than survival or merely living for temporal success. God made you to fulfill your unique potential. He also made you to desire and to strive after that potential. Your quest for significance could be measured by recent huge success of Rick Warren's <em>The Purpose-Driven Life,</em> (Zondervan, 2002). In that book, Warren describes the purposes the Bible describes for every Christian. He says:

You were planned for God's pleasure.
You were formed for God's family.
You were created to become like Christ.
You were shaped for serving God.

But Warren adds another dimension, and that is the personal or individual purpose for which each of us was uniquely designed:

You were made for a mission.

I am part of the Hunter clan. It is my family name. The purpose of that role includes things like living a godly life, treating people as Christ would, loving each other, and sharing our faith. But besides my identity as part of the Hunter family, I am also Lynda. Uniquely designed and fearfully made. I am different from all my seven siblings, and I was created for a completely different purpose. 

In the same way, God desires that ALL His family:
Know Him in a personal and intimate way. (Jer. 29:12-13).
Submit to His authority and conform to His image. It began in Gen. 1:27 when He made us in His image: "In the image of God he created Him; male and female he created them." It continues and ends with God's desire that we conform ourselves to in His image (Rom 8:29).

But God also desires that we individually find and live out our unique purpose. He wants us to be involved in His work. "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground" (Gen. 1:28).

The message is clear: to be human means that you have a purpose in life. You're here on a mission--both corporately and individually. You're here to recognize and be part of not only what God is doing in the whole world, but also what He wants to do individually through you and me.  He wants us to find and fulfill our purpose.

And God is not hiding His purpose from you.  In fact, God has the most to gain from you and me <em>discovering</em> our purpose and <em>doing</em> His will. Don't just be satisfied with the survival or success modes. If you are in Christ, He is calling out His instructions and plans for you. He wants to show you how to live significantly, purposeFULLY. 

Just keep your eyes and ears open for those instructions.