What is Your Life Purpose?
A rather thought-provoking question, wouldn’t you say? Why? Maybe because so few people have a concrete answer to this question and not having a specific life-purpose can be somewhat troubling for us.
What is your life-purpose? Are you on this earth simply due to some biological function of life that brought you into existence? Are you just waiting for some future failure of other biological functions to take you out? Is your purpose for being here merely the result of some multibillion-year
“crap game” that you coincidentally find yourself on this celestial speck at this very moment in eternity? Or is there more? Is there a planned purpose for why you are here?
The contemporary theory that has been evolving over the past several decades would have you believe that you are nothing more than a massive compilation of protoplasm that is, at most, evidence that no matter how impossible the odds, accidents can happen. And you just happen to be one of several billion accidents now living on this planet.
If this is true, then the modern mindset of, “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die,” becomes, of necessity, the ultimate expression of a happy and fulfilling life. But is this all there is? Is this our purpose? Modern humanists and secularists would have us believe the answer to this questions is, “Yes.” This is our only purpose and that is why we should make all we can, take all we can, consume all we can and enjoy all we can, because after this, there is no more. When it’s over, it’s over. How sad. How tragic.
Fortunately, there is good news. The humanists and secularists are wrong! There is more to man than simply his physical being and there is a far grander purpose for our lives than to simply “eat, drink and be merry.”
Have you ever wondered why you, an individual of stature in your community, an individual of substantial means, of education, of value – as our society counts value – have never been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize? However, a poor, elderly woman living in the slums of one of the most destitute inner-cities of the world, serving a small handful of starving, dying, orphan children, having little education, no material wealth, and no station in life, has received one of the world’s most prestigious awards.
I’ll tell you why. Even though we have intellectually embraced the notion that mankind is nothing more than some freak coincidence in the millennia of time – that there is no spiritual side to our humanity – in our soul we stillinnately know that there is a purpose and a dignity that elevates the value of human life above the “slime-pits” of bygone eras. The late Mother Teresa reminded the
world of this fact by the way she lived and the work she did. Even a nonreligious, secular world has appropriately acknowledged her noble life-purpose.
So, we come back to my original question. What is your life-purpose? If we only allow ourselves to accept this physical world and our physical bodies as all there is, we will never be able to come to a complete and satisfactory answer to this question. If you only acknowledge half of who you are, you will only be able to come up with half the right answer. And, at least when I was in school, I never got the whole question answered by giving only half the right answer.
What is the other half of the answer? It is that man has been created by a good and loving God who made us with a very specific life-purpose. We are both physical as well as spiritual beings.
Therefore, our goal in life is to discover what His purpose is for the entirety of who we are – both physically and spiritually. Now, before someone brands me as a religious fanatic of some kind, keep in mind that 94% of all Americans still believe in God. So, I’m in the overwhelming majority. The
problem is that we have been letting the other 6% do most of our thinking, talking, teaching and policy-making for us for far too long.
We do not need to be embarrassed that we believe in God and that we believe He made us and has a purpose for us. It’s the truth. Just because some would deny this truth, doesn’t make it any less true, any more than by insisting that there is no sun will make it cease to exist.
What is your life-purpose? Why are you living in the most prosperous country in the history of the world? Why were you born here in America and not in a ghetto in Rwanda? Why do you have a healthy body instead having one that is plagued with malnutrition, Tuberculosis and/or AIDS? Why do you have such abundant wealth and a good mind?
Is it just “good luck”? Hardly. Someone has a purpose for your life. And when you find it and put it down in writing, your whole life will finally come
into clear focus – maybe for the very first time.
A study that was reportedly conducted on Yale alumni revealed that only 3% of the graduates surveyed had written plans for their lives. However, those with written plans accumulated more wealth than the other 97% combined. In
addition, those with formal, written plans enjoyed better marriages, more contented family life and greater career success.
Helping you answer the question, “What is my life-purpose?” and then reducing it to writing is part of developing your Family Wealth Letter of Intent and the first step in the overall Family Wealth
Counseling process. Once we have helped you answer this most fundamental question, all the other questions regarding your lifestyle, your values, your wealth, your business, your children and grandchildren, your legacy, capital gains and estate taxes and philanthropy will be answered quickly and easily.
It’s the right way to plan. It’s the right way to live.
© 2010 Stewardship Ministries, Inc.
The author, E. G. “Jay” Link, is the President of Stewardship Ministries, a teaching, training, and mentoring ministry for professional advisors and ministry leaders to equip them to effectively serve believers who have accumulated surplus, material possessions. He is the author of three books, “Spiritual Thoughts on Material Things: Thirty Days of Food for Thought,” “To Whom Much is Given: Navigating the Ten Life Dilemmas Affluent Christians Face” and “Family Wealth Counseling: Getting to the Heart of the Matter.” Mr. Link may be reached via email at jlink@StewardshipMinistries.org.
